A look back to when Oilers’ new addition Josh Brown neutralized McDavid in OHL Finals

The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Josh Brown on the first day of free agency to a three-year contract worth $1 million annually.

In Brown’s 290 NHL games, he’s mostly been a third-pairing defender, which isn’t hard to come by, so the signed three-year deal undoubtedly raised some eyebrows. Yet, it’s likely that Edmonton aimed to fill the void left by former Oiler Vincent Desharnais, who signed a two-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks, particularly in terms of physicality, shot-blocking and size on the blue line, as Brown stands at 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds.

With no GM currently in place for the Oilers, the CEO of Hockey Operations Jeff Jackson handled the first-day free agency signings. That said, in trying to make sense of signing Brown to a contract with term, perhaps it might be linked to Jackson’s familiarity with him — Jackson was Connor McDavid’s agent during his time in the OHL and beyond, and the two players competed against each other heavily in junior, where they were both captains of their respected teams.

Maybe Jackson believes Brown has more to offer than we first assumed, considering his key role in shutting down McDavid during the 2015 OHL Championship Final.

In May 2015, McDavid won the OHL’s Most Outstanding Player Award after recording 120 points in just 45 regular-season games. In the playoffs, McDavid led the Otters through three successful rounds, eliminating the Sarnia Sting and defeating the London Knights in four games in the second round. They then overcame the first-place Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in round three, where his future Oiler teammate, Darnell Nurse, anchored the blue line, to advance to the OHL Finals.

Erie was set to play the Oshawa Generals in the Finals, led by their captain, Brown. The blueliner was in his fourth year with Oshawa at the time, having been selected by the Florida Panthers in the sixth round of the 2013 NHL Draft. Moreover, he had taken on the captaincy a year prior with the Generals and was known for his quiet leadership style, providing size and physicality to the team’s D-corps.

As the OHL Finals approached, McDavid was already playing lights out, leading the entire CHL with 19 goals and 23 assists in just 15 playoff games and he stood just nine points shy of breaking the OHL record for most playoff points in a single postseason, set at 51. At the time, Brown talked about preparing to shut down the Otters’ captain, saying:

That said, whatever Brown sketched out on the drawing board paid off. In Game 1 and Game 2, the Generals limited McDavid to just a single point, with Brown and his defensive partner Dakota Mermis — recently signed to a one-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs — assigned to stop the offensive dynamo. In addition, Ken Campbell of the Hockey News described that the Brown-Mermis defensive tandem was instrumental in limiting McDavid’s time and space in the offensive zone.

Additionally, Brown explained how he was stopping McDavid, saying, “It’s just paying special attention to him when he’s on the ice.” Brown added, “We’ve watched the video, we know how fancy and unreal he can play, so we’ve been paying special attention to our systems and it’s been working so far.”

Yet, despite Brown and his Generals’ efforts, they could only hold McDavid at bay for so long. The Otters’ captain tallied a goal and an assist in Game 3, guiding Erie to a 4-3 victory.

However, Game 4 saw the Generals prevail in a dramatic 6-5 overtime win, and they eliminated McDavid and his Otters in Game 5, with Brown keeping him off the scoresheet again in a 6-2 win, with Oshawa capturing their first OHL championship in 18 years.

Brown, a big part of the tandem that limited McDavid, was the first to hoist the Robertson Cup. While he did not register any points in the final game, he was named the game’s first star for the way he shut down Erie’s star forward. Additionally, despite the loss — and perhaps foreshadowing at its finest — McDavid won the Wayne Gretzky ’99’ Award as the most valuable player of the OHL playoffs despite his team’s defeat.

After defeating McDavid and his Otters, Brown’s Generals advanced to compete for the Memorial Cup, made it to the Finals and squared off against the heavily favoured Kelowna Rockets, notably led by McDavid’s future Oilers teammate, Leon Draisaitl.

The Generals won in overtime, with Anthony Cirelli scoring just 1:28 into the extra period. Coincidentally, reminiscent of McDavid’s performance in the OHL playoffs, Draisaitl led the tournament in scoring with seven points over five games and earned the Memorial Cup MVP title, despite his team falling to the Generals. Once again, the captain, Brown, was the first to lift the championship trophy.

It’s a unique story that Brown’s Generals defeated the teams of both McDavid and Draisaitl, who were recognized as playoff or tournament MVPs. Yet, Brown went on to raise the championship trophies, and now, nine years later, he finds himself as an Oilers teammate of theirs. Of course, junior hockey and the NHL are completely different beasts, and while Brown hasn’t replicated his junior success at the NHL level, he’s still carved out a respectable 290-game career.

Moreover, the 30-year-old is a defensive blueliner who posted a career-high, ten points, last season with the Arizona Coyotes. Yet, as Zach Laing pointed out, his underlying metrics weren’t overly impressive. He notes that Brown provided offence at a rate four percent below the league average and defence at a rate 22 percent below the league average.

Moreover, Natural Stat Trick shows that the Coyotes controlled 41.26 percent of the shot attempt share with him on the ice at 5v5, while posting a 26.81 xGF%. Notably, the two forwards he faced the most last season at even strength are now his Oilers teammates, Dylan Holloway (15:09) and Ryan McLeod (13:57).

That said, he averaged 14:45 minutes last season and was fourth on the Coyotes in blocks (86) and second among blueliners in hits (112). Additionally, he has ten career NHL fights against tough opponents like Kurtis MacDermid and Erik Gudbranson, indicating he won’t hesitate to come to the aid of his Oilers teammates if the situation calls for it.

Overall, his three-year contract may not be ideal, but his $1 million annual salary could be buried in the AHL if things don’t pan out for the 30-year-old. Nevertheless, perhaps Jackson sees potential that’s yet to be fully realized. He was familiar with Kris Knoblauch, and his hiring proved to be successful and maybe lightning will strike again with the signing of Brown.

With that in mind, where do you predict Josh Brown will fit into the Oilers’ plans next season?