Newly Acquired Oiler Could Be the Final Piece Needed For a Stanley Cup

Caleb Kerney

Sep 11, 2023, 13:30

Caleb Kerney

Sep 11, 2023, 13:30

The Edmonton Oilers didn't need to acquire a big time sniper this past off-season, so they focused on this role winger.

One of the biggest questions heading into the 2023-24 regular season is, what will Connor Brown's impact be on the Edmonton Oilers? He was the biggest addition to the team this past off-season. While he doesn't have a tremendous salary that demands he perform at a point per game pace - he was brought on board to help out in two key areas for the team.

The two things that Brown is going to help the Oilers with are penalty kill and secondary scoring. Because of this, I don't believe that he will be a top line player, despite him starting the captain skates on the first line with Connor McDavid.

Brown is used to playing two minutes a game on the penalty kill. There is no Oilers player in the past two seasons that has played two minutes a game on the penalty kill. This is one of the biggest reasons I personally believe they acquired Brown. He fills a role that is very specific and will help the team win more games. The Oilers don't need to fix the power play. However, the penalty kill is below average in the league across several different metrics.

Brown has scored at least 10 goals in five of his seven seasons. And part of those seven seasons also includes last year - where he only dressed for four games. He has only scored 20 goals in a season twice in his career, and his career high is only 21 goals. If we take his last three full seasons and get an average of the goals scored across those seasons, we get 16 goals per season. If he played for the Oilers last year and scored 16 goals, he would have scored as many goals as a Evander Kane. It would have been three more goals than Warren Foegele and Derek Ryan.

Where Will Connor Brown Play?

There are people who believe Brown will play with McDavid. They were teammates back on the Erie Otters in the Ontario hockey league. It would be a nice feel good story for Brown to play the whole season on the top line with McDavid. This team wants to win a Stanley Cup, and everyone needs to play in the best role for their skill set. Either way, expectations need to be tempered because Brown only played four games last season.

I think it is more likely he plays a middle six role, with a lot of time on the penalty kill and five on five. He'll either play on the third line with Ryan McLeod and Foegele or on the second line with Leon Draisaitl. The top six presently consists of McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Zach Hyman and Kane. There is only room for one more forward in the top six. It could be Dylan Holloway, Brown or Foegele. I took to Twitter to get a sense of what the fans think should happen.

Over 50% of the 582 votes selected Brown to be the player who would spend the most time playing with McDavid this year. While it's still too early to determine how things will shake out - things are looking good for Brown on his new team.