Denver junior defenseman Garrett Brown has signed a two-year, entry-level contract beginning in 2026-27 with the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets.

Brown will report to AHL’s Manitoba Moose for the remainder of the 2025-26 season on an amateur tryout (ATO).

The San Jose native registered career bests offensively with the Pioneers in 2025-26 with 12 assists and 14 points while also matching a personal high with two goals. He had 12 penalty minutes and 29 blocked shots, and he finished 10th overall on the team with a plus-12 plus-minus rating and 58 shots on goal in 34 games.

Selected by Winnipeg in the fourth round (99th overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft, Brown helped Denver to a pair of national titles in 2024 and 2026 and played a key role this past year in the program’s 11th collegiate championship. He registered three assists in the two NCAA Frozen Four games last week in Las Vegas, picking up the primary assist on the tying marker by Clarke Caswell to force OT in the semifinals versus Michigan on Thursday before contributing assists on both goals in DU’s 2-1 comeback victory in the championship game on Saturday against Wisconsin.

Additionally, Brown blocked a career-high four shots in the national championship game on Saturday and totaled 11 blocks in the final five games of the season. He was also named the NCHC Defenseman of the Month for March/April, his first career monthly award.

Brown’s two helpers in the 2026 championship game marked his third multi-point outing of his career, as he also had two assists on March 21 in a 4-3 double-overtime win by the Pioneers against Minnesota Duluth in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship at Magness Arena.

Brown went on a career-long three-game assist/point streak early in the campaign from Oct. 17-24 (three assists) and finished with five points in his final five games (five assists) from March 21-April 11 after missing four previous contests with an upper-body injury (Feb. 28-March 14).

In 84 career games with the Pioneers, Brown finished with 26 points (four goals, 22 assists), 59 penalty minutes, 59 blocks and a plus-27 plus-minus rating.

Brown missed most of his freshman year in 2023-24 with a season-ending lower-body injury that November, as he suited up in only eight contests and had four assists during the Pioneers’ 10th championship season. He played his first full collegiate campaign in 2024-25, appearing in 42 of 44 outings and registering eight points (two goals, six assists) and 33 penalty minutes.

A product of the San Jose Jr. Sharks, Brown spent two seasons in the USHL from 2021-23 with the Sioux City Musketeers and Waterloo Black Hawks before joining the college ranks. He won a USHL Clark Cup championship with Sioux City in 2022 and helped the United States win a gold medal at the 2022 World Junior A Challenge. He also participated in the 2022 U.S. World Junior Summer Showcase, but wasn’t able to participate in the team’s training camp that December due to his season-ending injury.

Brown was named to the NCHC Academic Honor Roll in each of his three seasons at Denver.

Photo/C. Morgan Engel/Clarkson Creative Photography

— Denver Athletics

(April 18, 2026)