Edmonton Oilers right wing Connor Brown (28) controls the puck as Florida Panthers centre Anton Lundell (15) defends during the first period of Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals, Tuesday, June 18, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. The Oilers have re-signed forward Brown to a one-year contract worth US$1 million.THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Wilfredo Lee
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers have signed forward Viktor Arvidsson to a two-year, US$4-million contract and also extended Connor Brown’s contract one year.
Arvidsson spent the last three seasons with the Los Angeles Kings and had 52 goals and 71 assists in 161 games during that span.
The five-foot-10, 185-pound Swede had a goal and nine assists in a combined 11 playoff games against the Oilers this season and in 2023.
Arvidsson compiled 179 goals and 183 assists in 546 career NHL games, and 13 goals and 24 assists in 72 career playoff games.
The Oilers re-signed forward Brown for $1 million among the club’s transactions announced Monday to kick off free agency.
The 30-year-old from Toronto had four goals and eight assists in 71 regular-season games for the Oilers, but shone in the post-season.
Brown had two goals and four assists in 19 playoff games and led the team in short-handed points with three.
He scored short-handed in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final against the Florida Panthers, and became the third player in NHL history to record short-handed points in back-to-back Stanley Cup games.
The six-foot, 185-pound forward was a key cog in Edmonton’s stingy penalty-killing unit that allowed just four power-play goals for a 94.3 per cent success rate.
Brown signed as a free agent with Edmonton in July 2023. He’d missed most of the 2022-23 season with a knee injury.
He has a career 94 goals and 134 assists in 519 games with Toronto, Ottawa, Washington and Edmonton.
Later Monday, Edmonton signed defenceman Josh Brown to a three-year deal with an annual average value of $1 million.
The six-foot-five, 220-pound right-shot defender had three goals and seven assists in 51 games for Arizona last season.
The 30-year-old from London, Ont., has 11 goals, 23 assists and 296 penalty minutes over 290 career NHL games with Florida, Ottawa, Boston and Arizona.
The Oilers also re-signed forward James Hamblin to a two-year, two-way contract and forward Noah Philp and defenceman Noel Hoefenmayer to one-year, two-way deals.
Each of the three contracts carry an annual average value of $775,000.
The five-foot-10, 185-pound Hamblin from Edmonton split this past season between the Oilers and their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield, Calif.
Hamblin, 25, had two goals and an assist averaging eight minutes 51 minutes per game in 31 games for the Oilers between November and January.
The centre scored four goals and had four assists in 13 games upon his return to Bakersfield in January. Hamblin was sidelined with an injury in March.
The six-foot-three, 198-pound Philp returns to the Oilers after taking the 2023-24 season off from hockey. The 25-year-old from Canmore, Alta., originally signed with Edmonton in 2022 after scoring 20 goals and assisting on 18 others in 36 games at the University of Alberta. Philp had 19 goals and 18 assists in 70 games for Bakersfield in 2022-23.
Hoefenmayer, six foot one and 204 pounds, had seven goals and 11 assists and went plus-6 in 47 games for Bakersfield this past season.
Before signing a one-year, entry-level contract with the Oilers last year, the 25-year-old spent parts of three seasons in the AHL with his hometown Toronto Marlies. Hoefenmayer was drafted in the fourth round, 108th overall, by the Arizona Coyotes in 2017.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 1, 2024.
