Less than an hour after swinging the Brown swap, the Caps announced they've also re-signed veteran forward Marcus Johansson to a one-year contract for $1.1 million.
After spending the first six seasons of his NHL career north of the border, Brown now moves from one nation's capital city to another. Originally a sixth-round choice (156th overall) of his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2012 NHL Draft, Brown scored 20 goals for Toronto in 2016-17, his first full season in the NHL and played in all 82 games in each of his three full seasons with the Leafs.
Just over three years ago, Brown moved to Ottawa in a rare multi-player deal between the League's two Ontario teams. He led the Sens with 21 goals in just 56 games during the pandemic-shortened season of 2020-21 before dipping down to 10 goals this past season. Brown did notch a career best 29 assists last season, and his 39 points were just four fewer than his career high of 43, established with Ottawa in 2019-20.
When the Caps are at peak health, Brown would likely slot as the team's third-line right wing, but he is capable of playing higher in the lineup when needed. A two-way winger with a strong work ethic, Brown has experience on both special teams and is particularly useful on the penalty killing unit. Over the last two seasons, his average of 2:46 per game in shorthanded ice time is tops among all forwards in the League. In 2020-21, Brown led the NHL with five shorthanded goals.
Over the course of his six full NHL campaigns, Brown has averaged 15 goals per season. He has played in every game four of those six seasons.
Johansson was originally a Caps' first-round choice (24th overall) in the 2009 NHL Draft. After seven seasons in Washington's top six, Johansson was dealt to New Jersey five years ago this month. The Caps reacquired him from Seattle in a trade deadline deal this past March, a trade that sent Daniel Sprong and a pair of draft picks (a fourth-rounder in 2022 and a sixth-rounder in 2023) to the Kraken in return.
In the five seasons since he left D.C., Johansson's offensive production has dipped somewhat but his ice time has held steady, indicating the value in the other areas of his game. Throughout his 12-year NHL career, Johansson has been a positive possession player. He has been above 50 percent in that regard in each of his last nine seasons in the League and is at 54.6 percent for his career.
Expect to see the 31-year-old Johansson utilized at all three forward positions and deployed up and down the team's lineup. In his 18 games and six playoff contests with the Caps last season, that's how he was deployed by Caps coach Peter Laviolette, who frequently complimented his work on the ice here over those two months. Johansson is also capable of contributing on the power play, where he notched just over a third of his 29 points (nine goals, 20 assists) last season.
With both Nicklas Backstrom (hip resurfacing) and Tom Wilson (knee) facing lengthy rehabs following offseason surgeries, the Caps were looking to thicken their forward ranks. With the addition of Brown and the re-signing of Johansson, they've got two forwards who can be assets both horizontally and vertically on their depth chart. That should help them withstand the temporary loss of two of their top-six forwards.
The Wednesday evening additions of Brown and Johansson augment a busy afternoon in which Washington signed a pair of free agent goaltenders in Darcy Kuemper and Charlie Lindgren, and it also inked free agent defenseman Erik Gustafsson. With a trade, a trio of free agent signings and the re-signing of Johansson, Wednesday ranks as one of the busiest days in recent Caps history in terms of players coming into the organization.
