Toronto Maple Leafs: Never Count Out Connor Brown

Though Connor Brown is often forgotten about thanks to the Toronto Maple Leafs stellar young players, he’s an extremely important piece of their future.

It’s easy to forget about Toronto Maple Leafs forward Connor Brown. After all, he’s at best the team’s third-best right-wing option. Factor in Leo Komarov‘s importance to the Nazem Kadri shutdown line and Brown’s the fourth-line right wing. He finished tied for fourth with Nikita Zaitsev among Leafs rookies in points last season with 36.

However, Brown is proving he should never be counted out for the Toronto Maple Leafs as he continues to find ways to contribute. He ignited his team with a goal and an assist in Toronto’s recent 4-3 comeback victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. When the Maple Leafs were struggling to score against the Hawks, the performance of Brown, currently a fourth-line player (but only in name) became most responsible for helping his team win the game.

What makes him so unique is he has no business playing on the fourth line. After scoring 20 goals and 36 points as a rookie, mostly playing third-line minutes, Brown was a victim of the numbers game. Toronto’s top two lines are set in stone. The debate of whether or not Zach Hyman is a top line caliber forward is irrelevant because head coach Mike Babcock clearly likes him there.

Once the team signed Patrick Marleau, somebody had to be demoted to the fourth line. To add some salt to the wound, on top of Marleau taking his spot on the third line, the veteran forward also took Brown’s jersey number from last season.

If it were any other year, a rookie scoring 20 goals would have been the talk of the town. Unfortunately, Brown got lost in the shuffle last season behind fellow rookies Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Hyman and Zaitsev. To start this season, he was thought to be lost to the fourth line due to Marleau’s arrival.

However, through three games, Brown refuses to go unnoticed. His relentless energy as a two-way forward has made him somewhat of a favorite of Babcock. He doesn’t hesitate to put Brown on the penalty-kill unit, where he’s been successful to start the season. It’s early, but he’s seeing an increase in power play time too, averaging over two minutes per game.

More from Puck Prose

• Detroit Red Wings 2023 Rookie Camp Has Plenty of Ups and Downs
• This Columbus Blue Jackets rookie doesn’t want to be forgotten
• 2 trades the Boston Bruins must make to secure the Stanley Cup
• 3 reasons the Avalanche won’t win the Stanley Cup in 2024
• This is a big year for Alex Turcotte and the Los Angeles Kings

The coach also bumps Brown up for the occasional third-line shift with last year’s linemates Leo Komarov and Nazem Kadri. It may only happen immediately after Marleau has just finished playing on the top powerplay unit, but it still shows the confidence Babcock has in him.

When other players would have been upset over the demotion to the fourth line and loss of their jersey number, Brown hasn’t shown any bitterness at all. He seemed to take the news in stride like he has his whole hockey career.

After Brown was drafted in 2012, some considered him to be too small to make the NHL. He tried to prove doubters wrong by scoring 45 goals and 128 points in 68 games during his final year of junior hockey. The only problem was the offensive success was considered a benefit of playing on a line with Connor McDavid.

In Brown’s rookie season with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, he once again proved he could score by delivering 61 points in 76 games. The following season, he split games between the Marlies and Maple Leafs. Brown made his time in the NHL count by recording six points in seven games.

He continued to find ways to produce points even without McDavid and despite his lack of size. Entering 2016-17 training camp, Brown was on the outside looking in of a roster spot with the Maple Leafs, given his fellow rookie teammates and the veterans under contract. There were concerns over having too much youth on the squad with not enough veteran experience.

Brown refused to allow his lack of NHL experience to get in the way as he earned a permanent roster spot by outplaying veterans such as Milan Michalek, Colin Greening, Peter Holland, and Brooks Laich.

Next: Maple Leafs All-Time Dream Team

Now as the 2017-18 season has begun it took three games for him to go from an afterthought on the fourth line to producing two massive points in a comeback victory. For a player who overcame his size, lack of experience, and the idea he could only score because he played with McDavid, Brown has shown he can still make an impact, even on the fourth line.