Mike Brown was one of the those players for whom the NHL trade deadline was just another date on the calendar. After signing a three-year $2.2 million (US) contract extension with Toronto about a month ago, it was clear he figured in the Leafs’ plans for the future.
Brown, 25, is pretty happy with the deal. The Leafs, he said after a practice at the team’s Etobicoke training facility, are on the way up. It’s got great management and coaching, and the city is a great place to play in, the Chicago native said.
For its part, management reciprocates the sentiment. “We are extremely pleased to have Mike under contract for the next three years,” said Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke, on signing Brown to the extension. “His blend of character, energy and toughness has proven to be a good fit in the overall structure and makeup of our team.”
Burke, it seems, has always had a fond spot for Brown. He’s the kind of player the Leafs’ head man has said Toronto needs – tough guys who play with the “proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence.”
Brown and Burke go back a long way – at least in hockey terms. Shortly after Burke left the Vancouver Canucks, his lieutenant, Dave Nonis, selected Brown from the University of Michigan in the fifth round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.
Brown played three seasons for the Canucks’ AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, before he was traded to the Anaheim Ducks. Coincidentally, Burke was the manager there when the Ducks acquired him.
After two years in Anaheim, he was traded to the Leafs this past summer for a fifth-round pick in the 2010 draft. Surprise, surprise. Burke was the general manager in Toronto at the time.
Burke has made it clear he wanted the Leafs to get tougher and not get pushed around by opponents.
Brown fits that to a T, and unlike other tough guys, he’s not a liability when he gets ice time. He’s generally a plus in the plus/minus statistic, and he provides the rough, sandpaper-like quality that Burke loves.
“My whole life I was told to get to the puck, to skate hard and fast, get in on the forecheck.” His goal is to get a good hit on the opponent’s defencemen “so they look behind them to see if I’m coming,” Brown said.
Sometimes, the hits are not so clear cut. He was suspended for three games earlier this season for a blind-side hit on Phoenix Coyotes defender Ed Jovanovski. And, no stranger to the penalty box, Brown has had plenty of five-minute fighting majors. There’s no shortage of Mike Brown fighting videos on YouTube, including heavyweight tussles with Darren McCarty and Milan Lucic.
It’s just a matter of “standing up for the team,” Brown explained.
Right now, Brown and the rest of the Leafs are fighting for a playoff spot. Only three points out of eighth place last week, the rest of the season promises to be a tight race that goes down to the wire. It’s a time of year Brown relishes. “Everyone’s playing with a lot of passion right now. The only way to get into the playoffs is to push it and lay it on the line.”
As for his own contribution, in 31 games this season – he’s missed a bunch due to injury – Brown has two goals and four assists, but he was plus three.
With his trademark mustache, high energy game, and willingness to drop the gloves, he’s become a fan favourite.
A native of Chicago, Brown’s formative hockey years were spent with the U.S. National Team Development Program. His early years were also spent around motorcycles – perhaps that explains his horseshoe or “biker” moustache. His father, Barry, owns Chicago Harley-Davidson and Mike “grew up around it.”
“I build ’em” in the off-season,” he said, but he won’t ride them anymore – at least not while he’s still playing.
“When I’m done playing,” that’s another matter, he added.
