Finally feeling at home, Brett Connolly wants to stay with the Capitals

NEW YORK — Brett Connolly’s first NHL stop was with the Lightning, with whom he eventually found his footing and became an effective player.

Then he left.

With the Bruins, it again took a while for Connolly to find a niche before producing the best offensive season of his career.

Then he left.

Now with the Capitals, Connolly is having the time of his hockey life, a Stanley Cup champion who is putting up big numbers and providing his team with the kind secondary scoring necessary to win another title.

He doesn’t want to leave.

At 26, Connolly not only has solidified a spot in the Capitals’ lineup but also has found a home in the community where he and his wife, Katrina, want to start a family.

Connolly loves playing for the Capitals, so it’s very fortuitous that the pending unrestricted free agent is playing his highest level of hockey. He’s already set career highs in goals with 16 and assists with 19 while playing in every game this season, including during the Capitals’ 3-2 victory in a shootout over the Rangers on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

“I feel like my game has taken a big turn since I came (to the Capitals),” said Connolly, who signed a one-year, $850,000 free-agent contract with the Capitals in July 2016 and then re-upped with a two-year, $3 million deal in June 2017. “I’m confident that I can consistently put up the numbers that I’ve been putting up. I’ve found a good role on a good team, and it definitely makes it a lot easier when you’re playing with good players and playing on a good team that moves the puck fast. We get up the ice quick and we’re creating a lot of five-on-five chances, so that definitely makes it easier.”

Playing consistently on the third line, Connolly is riding high with his confidence, something coach Todd Reirden said is key for the winger.

“He’s got elite skill (and) I think he’s really earned the year he’s had this year,” Reirden said. “He came in ready to go to start the year, and I’m not surprised to see him playing with the most confidence than he’s had. He’s a player that does well with confidence, and when you put him in situations and you give him opportunities, he’s taken advantage of them.”

Reirden and Connolly pointed to a phone conversation they had before this season. The coach promised that there would be a place for Connolly in the lineup on a nightly basis. That was not always the case when Barry Trotz was behind the Capitals’ bench.

“When I first got here, I was in and out of the lineup, and I really had to work because while Barry knew a little bit about me, he didn’t know a ton about me, so I had to really earn that trust from him and produce,” Connolly said. “Once I did that, everything kind of changed, and last year in the playoffs I think is when I was playing the best hockey of my career, and then this year that kind of carried over.”

When Reirden took over for Trotz this summer, he assured Connolly that he would be an everyday player.

“Todd has been really good for me,” Connolly said. “Like every season, you have games where you don’t play your best, and with (Reirden) when those games did happen, I knew I was going to be in the lineup the next game. That makes a big difference than when you’re not sure and it’s like, ‘Oh, I have to have a big game tonight or I’m not going to be in the lineup the next game.’ Yeah, that can push guys for sure to play better — that pressure helps some guys — but for me, I knew I was going to get in the lineup every night, which was really, really good to hear. Especially when I started to play better, I knew I wasn’t going to come out.”

Said Reirden: “Brett Connolly has had obviously a very strong year. When we first came in to start the year, he and I had a lengthy discussion about how this could be a great year for him. And how working together we could accomplish that and how he was going to be treated, which was different than how he was treated in past times here.

“He’s a guy who needs confidence, and we had a plan moving into the year that he was going to be given those opportunities and wasn’t going to be in and out of the lineup in a diminished role, and he was going to get opportunities to do things and he’s done them.”

Those opportunities were sporadic with the Lightning, who took Connolly with the No. 6 overall selection in the 2010 draft. The Campbell River, British Columbia, native played parts of four seasons with the Lightning, during which he scored 18 goals and added 14 assists in 134 games.

Connolly was dealt to the Bruins in March 2015 but suffered a broken finger in his first practice with the team and appeared in only five games with Boston that season.

In 2015-16 with the Bruins, Connolly had nine goals and 16 assists in 71 games. After that season, he signed his first deal with the Capitals.

“Some guys get drafted and stay with that team for six, seven years and everything is great, but for me it was a lot different,” Connolly said. “They were tough years for sure where I had to really battle and really look at myself in the mirror and find a way. I’m happy that I stuck with it and kept working and kept pushing.

“There were a lot of things that I needed to work on being a professional, at the rink, away from the rink. I made the NHL so young, and who knows if I was really ready for that at age 19. Sometimes it takes a little longer for some guys to kind of find that role on a team.”

He has done that in D.C. In an ideal situation, re-signing with the Capitals would be a no-brainer. But the NHL is a business, and it will come down to the almighty dollar — or, when the salary cap comes into play, a lack of them. General manager Brian MacLellan will have a busy offseason, including at some point addressing Connolly’s situation.

“He’s had a great year,” MacLellan said of Connolly. “I think he’s even improved this year, playing a more all-around game from what I see. We have interest, for sure, in having him come back. We have to wait until we see what the cap situation is after we get our guys signed, how much money we’re going to have, and what he’s looking for.”

Connolly is tuned into the process, knowing that MacLellan will have to resolve several contract issues, including that of pending restricted free agent Jakub Vrana, who is having a career season of his own and at age 23 appears poised to become a star. Vrana will be in line for a large raise from his current deal, which carries a cap hit of $863,333, according to CapFriendly.com.

Chandler Stephenson and Christian Djoos (each with current cap hits of $650,000) will also be restricted free agents whom MacLellan will likely want back in the fold. Andre Burakovsky will command a qualifying offer of at least $3.25 million if MacLellan decides to extend him one and if pending unrestricted free agent Carl Hagelin ($1.875 million cap hit) impresses enough, he could get a deal to return.

Everything MacLellan does is with an eye on the future, including when Nicklas Backstrom and Braden Holtby are free agents after the 2019-20 season and Alex Ovechkin after 2020-21. Plenty of things will happen in the coming seasons, including trades, expiring contracts, retirements and the Seattle expansion draft, so that will all factor into the decision-making process.

“It’s all numbers now with the cap,” Connolly said. “I want to be back, that’s an obvious. There are things that are coming up with contracts. A couple of guys are up next year, and there’s a bunch of guys who need new deals like Vrana — that’s going to be an interesting one — and we’ll see what’s kind of left over, I guess you could say, in terms of money.

“Either way, I’ve put myself in a position that I wasn’t in a few years ago with the way I’ve played the last three years and last year winning the Cup and then coming in this year and having a strong season, my best season as a pro,” Connolly added. “So, I’m in a good position. I’m happy with the way things have gone. Now it’s just a matter of seeing the big picture with what Mac is thinking, and we’ll see what happens.

“But I’ve loved my time here. Mac’s been great since I got here, and so has the coaching staff and my teammates.”

It’s easy for anyone who hasn’t played the game to suggest to Connolly that if he likes his situation this much, he should give the Capitals a hometown discount and take less money than the raise he is due from $1.5 million per season.

Connolly said that has crossed his mind. However, he said, “I don’t want to take too less because you earn things. I’ve had a lot of adversity in my career that I’ve had to go through, so you want to be rewarded for getting through that and finding my game and having three good years and winning a Stanley Cup. That’s good for your résumé, for sure.

“I think there are other teams that need secondary scoring, so I think there will be options, it’s just a matter of what that’s going to be. We’ll look at all the options at the end of the year and we’ll see. Hopefully, I’m still here.”

Connolly and his agent, Gerry Johannson, decided in December to wait until MacLellan approaches them about a new deal.

“That was kind of our approach after Christmas, just to play and kind of leave me alone,” Connolly said. “We’ll see when (MacLellan) reaches out, but that’s not something I need to worry about. I’ve had another good year and I’m in a good position here moving forward. Everything is positive, and now it’s just a matter of numbers and all what’s going to fit.”

For now, Connolly is content to focus his efforts on the ice and wait to see how the season plays out.

“Hopefully, I can be around for a bunch of years after this,” Connolly said. “I’m looking for a little stability. I’m getting to be 26, 27 years old. I’m married now and we want to start a family, and that’s when you kind of start thinking big picture. Hopefully, everything will work for me. We’ll see.”

(Top photo: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)