Jets prospect Brown looking forward following freak injury

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This article was published 06/07/2024 (459 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a bittersweet hockey season for Winnipeg Jets prospect Garrett Brown.

On one hand, the 20-year-old defenceman was thrilled that his University of Denver Pioneers made it all the way to the Frozen Four, then captured an NCAA-record 10th national championship in thrilling fashion by upsetting powerhouses Boston University and then Boston College in the tournament.

On the other hand, Brown was forced to watch the majority of the action from the sidelines, the result of a serious injury that happened during practice and limited him to just eight games in his rookie college campaign.

“You’re a hockey player, so you wish you were playing,” Brown, the 99th-overall pick in the 2022 NHL draft, told the Free Press on Saturday at the Hockey For All Centre. “But just being there, being able to support the team was awesome. It was an awesome experience.”

Brown underwent surgery last November for a torn ACL which occurred when he tried to hit teammate Kieran Cebrian during a routine one-on-one drill.

“I just felt a weird pop in my right knee,” Brown recalled. “It didn’t honestly hurt that bad. Just a freak accident. That’s sports, things happen.”

An MRI confirmed the worst and Brown’s year was over just as it was starting to get going. After being held off the scoresheet during his first three games with Denver, he’d racked up four assists over the next five contests and was really settling into a groove.

“I think I started off not so great. At the start, it was a bit of a jump,” said Brown, who had played the previous two seasons with the Sioux City Musketeers of the USHL.

“But I was kind of starting to gain some confidence. I had a great D partner in Shai Buium (a second-round pick of San Jose in 2021), he was helping me out a lot. I was starting to find my game there, and then the injury happened. It’s unfortunate.”

Brown is now far down the road to recovery, although not quite enough to hit the ice with 16 other Jets prospects and 18 free agent invites — including his Denver teammate, Cebrian — during his first-ever development camp this week.

The San Jose-born skater, who stands six-foot-three and weighs 195 pounds, has been doing off-ice workouts with the group, but is just beginning to slowly resume skating on his own.

“I’m starting to pick it up more and more,” he said. “I’m on a bit of a return to full contact program, so I think I’ve got about two more months until I’m full contact, so I’ll be good for training camp.”

At which point Brown hopes he can pick up where he left off and have a full, productive sophomore season in Denver with a healthy dose of adversity in the rear-view mirror.

“It was crushing,” he said of getting hurt. “But I think it was really good for me to kind of take the approach that this was an opportunity to better other habits in my life. My eating habits, my workout habits, my school habits. I think it’s kind of allowed me to better other attributes of my life, and I think it’s going to really benefit me moving forward.”

Spoken like a mature player who is wise beyond his years, which shouldn’t come as a surprise when you consider Brown’s Saskatchewan-born father, Curtis, played 736 games over his NHL career with the Buffalo Sabres, San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks.

“He’s the best resource,” said Brown.

“Obviously there’s times where it gets frustrating and I was down on myself and it’s like this is hard, this is tough. Being able to talk to my dad, he’s been through it, has been so helpful. He’s been there to kind of remind me to stick with it, that it’s OK, injuries happen. I think a lot of my mindset stems from him, and it’s helped me through the full process.”

When it comes to Winnipeg’s prospect pool, defencemen Ville Heinola (1st round, 2019) and Elias Salomonsson (2nd round, 2022) generate much of the buzz. You can now add Alfons Freij, selected last weekend in the second round by the Jets, to the list as well.

But don’t sleep on Brown, who is highly-regarded within the organization and might just have the tools to be a shutdown defender at the NHL level one day.

“The Jets have been awesome,” he said, noting how director of player development Jimmy Roy attended several of his games and has remained in constant communication.

For now, Brown is just soaking in the development camp experience which includes meeting many fellow Jets draft picks for the first time.

“It’s been unbelievable,” he said. “You know the names but getting to hang out with the guys over lunch, just at the hotel, football game (Friday) night, it’s a good group of guys and has been so much fun. Even all the staff, they’ve been great.”

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Saturday swap, signings

The Jets added a new player and retained two others in a trio of moves on Saturday.

Defenceman Dylan Coghlan was acquired in a trade from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for future considerations. The undrafted 26-year-old from British Columbia has played in 106 career NHL games (six goals, 16 assists) and will provide some additional blue-line depth in the organization.

Meanwhile, defenceman Logan Stanley and forward David Gustafsson both signed new contracts with the team the drafted them. Stanley, 26, will earn US $1.25 million over the next two seasons, while Gustafsson, 24, will make US $835,000.

Both players were restricted free agents. The Jets now have four RFAs left to re-sign: Coghlan, Heinola, Cole Perfetti and Simon Lundmark.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg