Reports: New Jersey Devils Sign Connor Brown to Four-Year, $3M AAV Contract

The New Jersey Devils are now making moves up front, adding Connor Brown to an increasingly tight cap situation.

The New Jersey Devils upset the goaltender market when they re-signed Jake Allen to a five-year, team-friendly contract, and they did not end the day there. Given the state of NHL free agency with so many players returning to their clubs, I was prepared for a quiet day for the Devils, who still need to move salary to fill out the roster effectively. Instead, they made one of the earliest notable signings of the day, bringing Connor Brown out of Edmonton on a four-year contract.

A Welcome Addition to the New Jersey Devils

In the 2024-25 NHL season, the New Jersey Devils squeezed a total of 15 goals from Tomas Tatar (7 in 74 games), Nathan Bastian (4 in 59 games), Justin Dowling (2 in 52 games), and Curtis Lazar (2 in 48 games). For Tom Fitzgerald, who wanted to build a tougher team to play against in 2024, this was an untenable situation. He knows as well as anyone that, if the Devils want to compete for the Stanley Cup, they will need to fix their secondary scoring issues. Connor Brown is a good first step for this offseason.

HockeyViz

In HockeyViz’s player evaluation model, Brown lost a lot points by being a poor finisher* and a below-average passer, while also drawing close to no penalties. However, he is still a solid player who will not hurt the team on the ice, and he graded out as a low-end third-line winger in Edmonton. Of course, Brown had the severe knee injury after joining the Washington Capitals, and he had a much more productive 2024-25 season (13 goals, 17 assists) than how he played his first year in Edmonton (four goals, eight assists). So, there may be some hope that he is still returning to the form he showed in Ottawa, where he averaged 50 points per 82 games between 2019 and 2022. If he does keep the productivity on the incline, this will turn out to be a great value add for the Devils.

* 2:30 edit: A deeper look at HockeyViz’s data shows that Brown actually did well on his wrist shots, with 10 goals on 8.2 xG, in addition to 2 backhand goals on 1.6 backhand xG in the 2024-25 season. So, on those shots, he had 12 goals on 9.8 xG. But he had 0 goals on 2.2 deflection xG (26 recorded tips) and 0 goals on 0.8 slapshot xG (15 slap shots), which drags down his numbers a bit. Additionally, he is still dinged in their model for his poor 2023-24 season (4 goals on 10.2 xG). So, I may have been a little unfair to Brown with that comment.

Evolving-Hockey

In Evolving-Hockey’s data, Brown grades as a better defensive player than he does in HockeyViz’s model, but they largely agree on offensive impact. Brown will chip in goals, and will not hold the team back in the offensive end. I compare him above to Erik Haula, as Haula’s contract, which was moved to Nashville, was a tiny bit more expensive. So, if you are looking at this as a swap of Brown for Haula’s roster spot, this represents negligible savings while getting a few years younger and, at this point, a little more productive and a little better on defense.

Brown, most of all, is known as a great skater. This has remained despite his prior knee injury, and I am excited to see it on the Prudential Center ice. Per NHL EDGE’s tracking data, Brown hit a top speed of 22.59 MPH (66th percentile), while recording 145 speed bursts over 20 MPH (85th percentile vs. league average of 76.5 per qualified forward) and a total of 198.77 miles skated (74th percentile vs. league average of 127.08 per qualified forward). So, if you are looking for a well-conditioned player who can keep up with good skaters, Connor Brown is your man. I know I have been writing in the Draft profiles about the need to seek out players who can withstand the full season, and Connor Brown just held strong through 82 + 20.

He had five goals and four assists in the playoffs, so the Devils are hoping to add something there, too. With two years of big-time playoff experience and three Toronto first rounds from 2016 to 2019, Brown has been there and has seen what it takes to win. Hopefully, he can bring that to the New Jersey Devils.

There are some concerns I have about the contract, such as whether it includes trade protection. A partial protection would be fine — these players deserve it. But I would not want to see anything more than a one-year full NTC on this deal, and we will be waiting to see more details about the contract and if he has any such protections.* The Devils will already have to figure out a way to navigate the protections they have on the books now to make this deal and their future deals work this offseason, and I do not want to see them run into the same problem in a few years.

* 4:20 edit: Per PuckPedia, Brown has a full NTC for the first two seasons and a 10-team no trade list for the final two years. I get it, but I think it is a little too much. I just hope that he plays so well that I never think about whether he needs to be traded.

All that said, welcome to the New Jersey Devils, Connor Brown! I think Dawson Mercer or Cody Glass will benefit greatly from having a fast winger on their right on the third line, and Sheldon Keefe will love having a defensively responsible player who can kill penalties and chip in somewhere between 10 and 20 goals.

Your Thoughts

What do you think of this deal? Are you happy to see Brown in New Jersey? Who do you think he will pair best with? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.