Connor Brown leaves the Oilers, signs four year deal in free agency

The Oilers lose another key contributor.

This just in, just moments after losing veteran forward Corey Perry to the Los Angeles Kings, the team has now reportedly lost forward Connor Brown to the New Jersey Devils.

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Brown has signed a four year deal worth $12 million total.

Read below for our earlier report on Perry.

This just in, free agent forward Corey Perry has signed a one year contract with the Los Angeles Kings.

Perry, of course, spent the past two seasons with the Edmonton Oilers and spoke openly about the fact that he’d like to remain with the team. Evidently though, the two sides couldn’t come to terms on a new contract.

Perry now joins his 7th NHL team and re-joins GM Ken Holland, the man who brought him to Edmonton.

Brown is a two-way speedster who initially joined his old junior teammate Connor McDavid on the Oilers during the 2023 offseason after his lone campaign in Washington ended in a major knee surgery.

It took the now 31-year-old plenty of time to adjust to life in Edmonton (12 points in 71 GP was by far the lowest-scoring rate of  his career), but after emerging as a key postseason cog on a line with Adam Henrique, Brown earned a second “prove-it” deal with the Oil.

This time, Brown didn’t need eight months to find his legs, clearing the 30-point plateau for the fifth time in his career and playing all 82 games as a key energy guy and penalty killer. After another strong postseason (9 P in 20 GP), Brown established himself as a low-maintenance, winning player who can hound opposing blue liners and chip in with the odd goal.

That profile had obvious appeal for the Devils, who struggled to find depth scoring last season: Stefan Noesen was parachuted into the top-six to cover for the aging Ondrej Palat’s offensive woes, Paul Cotter cooled off quickly after a fast start, and veterans Erik Haula and Tomas Tatar played themselves out of town.

Brown won’t be expected to carry water as a play driver in New Jersey, but he’s almost certainly an improvement on anyone else they expected to ice in the bottom-six and can slide up the lineup in a pinch. He still moves well (85th percentile in 20 mph+ bursts), and his defensive instincts should keep him effective over the term of the contract.

Devils’ GM Tom Fitzgerald got good value for Brown but will likely continue to explore depth forwards in the coming weeks to balance a top-heavy lineup.