This summer, Jason Newland and I will continue our series looking at potential free agent targets who could be available on July 1.
Target: Justin Brazeau – F – 2 Years Experience
Brazeau, 27, has spent the bulk of his hockey career in the AHL, until last season when he made the Boston Bruins and now appears to be an everyday NHL player. This past season, he split time between the Bruins and Minnesota Wild.
Brazeau is a perfect bottom-six player. At 6-foot-6, 227 pounds, he often uses his size to get in hard on the forecheck and make life difficult on the opposing blue line. Despite not having a ton of NHL experience, his size and style of play should earn him another contract at the NHL level. It would be surprising if GM Don Waddell doesn’t at least make a call and try to sign him for their bottom-six.
Stats
In 76 games this season, Brazeau scored 11 goals and 11 assists for 22 points. In his career, he’s played in 95 NHL games and scored 16 goals and 13 assists for 29 points.
Previous Salary
Brazeau is in the second year of his two-year deal which carries an AAV of $775,000, signed back on Feb. 18, 2024. Contract experts predict he’ll sign somewhere in the neighbourhood of two years with an AAV of $1.5 million.
Realistic Chances of a Signing: Warm
Personally, I think this would be an ideal pickup for the Columbus Blue Jackets. He’d fit in really well on the last line as a heavy forechecker who uses his size to create space. The Blue Jackets have six UFA forwards, and it isn’t realistic to bring them all back. Replacing someone like Justin Danforth with Brazeau would make the team harder to play against.
If Waddell could bring in Brazeau and also manage to re-sign Luke Kunin, that would be two-thirds of a very solid energy line. We’ve seen a ton of Stanley Cup contending teams — like the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning — build an energy line that keeps them in games with just one hard-fought shift. It would be shocking if Brazeau wasn’t already on Waddell’s watch list going into the summer.
