GARRIOCH: Ottawa Senators and Connor Brown avoid arbitration with three-year deal

All the talk turned to action for the Ottawa Senators and Connor Brown.

With an arbitration hearing set for 9 a.m. Thursday, Senators’ general manager Pierre Dorion and Brown’s agent Jeff Jackson agreed to a three-year deal with an average annual value of $3.6 million per season late Wednesday night.

The deal will pay Brown, 26, $2.8 million in 2020-21 and $4 million per season in the final two years.

Normally, arbitration spurs a deal and this was no different. In briefs filed between the two sides, the Senators were asking the arbitrator to settle on $2.25 million for one year while Brown’s camp was seeking $4.8 million. He was scheduled to become a unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.

The Senators want Brown in the fold because he helps provide leadership. He was brought to the Senators last July in the deal that brought defenceman Nikita Zaitsev to Ottawa from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for blueliner Cody Ceci. The Senators see value in Brown, but didn’t want to overpay.

With the arrival of winger Evgenii Dadonov as an unrestricted free agent from the Florida Panthers last week, Brown is already going to play a lesser role on this team.

Last year, Brown got an opportunity to play more minutes under coach D.J. Smith because he was one of the more experienced players on the roster.