Season Preview: Connor Brown, Andrew Nielsen, and a 2nd

Everyone seems to love Connor Brown. Most importantly, Mike Babcock loves Connor Brown.

It’s easy to see why: He’s considered a bit of a swiss army knife type of player. A coach’s dream, you can put him out in any situation and he’ll do fine. And by all accounts, he’s low maintenance off the ice.

From a higher-level, Dubas point-of-view – Brown has two years left on his $2.1 million cap hit, and mainstream thought suggests he contributes what you’d like from someone on that contract.

But what is he actually good at? Not much!

Let’s quickly sum up all of the above data: at 5v5, Brown gets favourable zone starts, doesn’t contribute much offensively, is not great at zone entries or exits, and doesn’t move the needle possession-wise. Not the prettiest of pictures, and my eye-test has always been underwhelmed by him. But don’t just take it from me, take it from Justin Bourne:

To be honest, if Connor Brown wasn’t a Local Boy®, I don’t think he’d get as much love.

As far as I’m concerned, Brown has to step up a bit this season to be a part of this team’s long-term plans. You can get similar or better contributions from the Leivos, Johnssons, Kapanens, and Trevor Moores of the world – and you’d get them for cheaper.

Brown’s perceived value is likely much higher than his actual on-ice value. It’s been speculated for awhile, but I do wonder if Anaheim is a fit here – the Nonis connection and now especially that they’re dealing with some major injuries.

Once the Big Boys are all signed, Dubas and co. will have to get creative with how they trim some fat. I think Brown Cow should be first on the chopping block.

Few Leafs prospects have fallen from grace more in recent memory than Andrew Nielsen. After being drafted in the 3rd round (65th overall, 7 picks before Anthony Cirelli), he looked like an exciting prospect, putting up a point-per-game (70 points in 71 games) for Lethbridge in the WHL. His time in the Marlies has been a bit more erratic.

The soon-to-be 22 year old is 6’4, physical, and put up decent point totals in the AHL in his first season. But his points-per-game have dropped and penalty minutes have gone way up, leading to a big descent down the organizational depth chart at LHD.

To be quite frank: he will never make the NHL with the Leafs. In front of him at LD: Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner, Travis Dermott, Rasmus Sandin, Martin Marincin, Calle Rosen, Andreas Borgman. And I’m probably forgetting some others.

At the end of the day, Nielsen is big and has a big shot. There are still plenty of GMs that value that more than actual facts and data, so I think there would be a market for him. Package him with a Connor Brown and you now have 2/3rds of a pretty good package to get a big piece.

The Leafs’ 2nd Round Pick this year is likely going to be in the 55th-60th overall range.

Some notable picks in that range from the last couple years: Jonah Gadjovich, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Filip Gustavsson, Taylor Raddysh, Oliver Kylington.

Some Leafs picks in that range from the last couple years: Eemeli Rasanen, Carl Grundstrom, Jeremy Bracco.

In short, it’s a crapshoot, even moreso if you’re the Leafs. That said, this draft will be the first that’s entirely led by Dubas, so who knows.

Or maybe the Leafs will continue the cycle and trade their 2nd for a pending UFA centre, like Tomas Plekanec or Brian Boyle. No, seriously – those two are UFAs at the end of the season.

The last, and best, option is to package the 2nd round pick with two other assets – let’s say Connor Brown and Andrew Nielsen – for a top pairing RHD or another gamebreaking offensive talent (hello Artemi Panarin).

As you can see, while the Leafs don’t really need these three assets, any other team in the league would be thrilled to get them. In fact, they’d probably be stunned at the Leafs offering such a valuable combination for their player and yell “jackpot!” (I fit this in here just to pay off my wonderfully-designed article image).

Don’t be surprised if Dubas acquires an elite talent with this exact package at some point this season.