The Edmonton Oilers finally got what they were looking for from Connor Brown when they signed him ahead of the 2023-24 season. While it took nearly the entirety of that season for him to find his game, scoring his first goal of the season in his 55th game, turning it up in the playoffs, Brown brought it from the start of his season.

He chipped in solid offence from the bottom-six at five-on-five, and did a great job of staying out of the penalty box. Excellent on the penalty kill, his strengths lay in his ability to suppress opposing teams’ offence.

His rates of scoring chances against, expected goals against and actual goals against were among the best on the team, and it’s what made him a valuable part of this year’s roster.

For Brown, however, the playoffs didn’t do so well on that front. While he still chipped in offence, getting in on all the action when an Oilers goal was scored and he was on the ice, his suppression rates suffered in a big way — nearly to the point where he was a liability on the ice for the Oilers.

That’s likely part of the reason the Oilers were comfortable letting Brown walk as an unrestricted free agent this July, watching him sign a four-year deal with the New Jersey Devils, paying him $3-million annually — a big raise from the one-year, $1-million deal he played on for the Oilers this past season.

Brown was a well-liked player in the room, as highlighted by him popping out of a cupboard to do a lineup read while dealing with an injury in the Western Conference Final. There was, of course, the connection between Brown, Connor McDavid and Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch from their Erie Otters days, but the Oilers simply weren’t able to give Brown the contract he got from the Devils.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.