October 4, 2024 by Ryan Lotsberg

A lot of Edmonton Oilers fans have said that it wasn’t necessary to sign 39-year old Corey Perry to his one-year, $1.15 million contract that has potential performance bonuses attached to it. The argument is that’s the contract that put the Oilers in a cap related predicament for the coming season. I would argue that a different contract is causing bigger issues though. 

Vincent Desharnais left in free agency, and Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson felt it was necessary to replace Desharnais’ size and physicality. His solution was to sign Josh Brown to a three-year contract with an AAV of $1 million. That decision was made after re-signing last season’s trade deadline acquisition, Troy Stecher, who also plays the right side. Ty Emberson was acquired in August, but Cody Ceci was still in the equation when Brown was signed. Travis Dermott has since been invited to camp on a PTO, and he’s performed well.

Related: Dermott agrees to PTO with the Oilers

The problem is that Brown is the most expensive of the four bottom of the roster defence options available to the Oilers, and he’s the worst one of the bunch.

Brown’s underlying numbers have never been good for any length of time. He might get the benefit of the doubt because he’s never played on a good team for more than a handful of games (six games for the Boston Bruins in 2021-22), but his play in this preseason has been telling. He’s been on for four five-on-five goals against and a whopping zero goals for in four preseason games this fall. His expected goal share is only 40.48%.

My observation of Brown is that he consistently makes panic plays with the puck, like rimming it around the boards. He rarely attempts to make a tape to tape pass, let alone completing one. The Oilers play a fast style, and they need defencemen that can move the puck and make accurate passes to the forwards. That isn’t Brown.

I also noticed that Brown had a chance to be physical on Seattle Kraken forward Oliver Bjrokstand on a play that might’ve saved a goal in Wednesday’s game in Seattle, but Brown didn’t take Bjorkstrand out and the puck made its way to Shane Wright for a goal. Brown is supposed to be physical, but I didn’t see it on that play! He had zero hits in his first preseason game against the Winnipeg Jets, one hit in his third preseason game against the Vancouver Canucks, and three hits in Wednesday’s game in Seattle. Brown played in the split squad game in Calgary for which stats seem to be unavailable. Regardless, he’s had one game with more than one hit. That’s not enough for a player that can’t do much else.

Brown has been skating with Brett Kulak on the third pairing in practice and in the last two games that he has played. That’s a sign that he is in a good position to make the team. He has a three-year contract, and he apparently just bought a house in Edmonton.

However, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch provided a plot twist by placing Stecher beside Kulak for Friday’s preseason finale against the Canucks. That could either mean that Brown is safe and they want to get another look at Stecher, or that they want to see how Stecher looks beside Kulak because it hasn’t been working with Brown.

EDM lines at Morning Skate:

RNH – McDavid – Hyman
Skinner – Draisaitl – Arvidsson
Janmark – Henrique – Brown
Podkolzin – Philp – Perry
Caggiula – Lavoie

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Emberson
Kulak – Stecher
Dermott – Brown#Oilers

— Tony Brar 🚀 (@TonyBrarOTV) October 4, 2024

The Oilers aren’t going to have much cap space to start the season. They can keep 22 players and be snuggled up tightly to the cap, or they can go with 21 players to accrue a bit more cap space throughout the season. It could go a number of different ways, but sending Brown down is the move that would allow the Oilers to accrue the most cap space. That would allow the Oilers to sign Dermott, which is something that Tom Gazzola suggested is a strong possibility during Friday’s episode of The Oil Stream on Edmonton Sports Talk.

Not only has Dermott had a better camp than Brown, Dermott is more versatile than Brown because Dermott can play either side. He played on Darnell Nurse’s right side against the Canucks on Wednesday, and he scored a goal. Oh yeah, and Dermott’s contract would be cheaper than Brown’s if he was to sign one.

NHL teams have until 3 pm MT on Monday to submit their season opening rosters. The results of Friday night’s preseason finale will certainly play a role in the team’s decision making process. So will the status of Raphael Lavoie, who is banged up and has not been practicing this week. I’ll have my prediction for the season opening roster before Monday’s 3 pm MT deadline and reaction once the roster is set.