Brendl cut by Euro team

[czechhockeyfan]

Brendl got cut by the Krefeld Pinguine as well

However the reason is Krefeld wanted to keep Brendl for the whole season and he has contract with Canes.

 

[Adlergirl]

However the reason is Krefeld wanted to keep Brendl for the whole season and he has contract with Canes.

I would guess they knew about that contract. why did they let him try out then if they didn't want him anyway?

 

[DaveG]

Why is he wasting his time over there anyway? Can't he play in the AHL this year? If he can, he definitly should.

I think he would have to clear waivers in order to go down to the AHL level this year.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

I think he would have to clear waivers in order to go down to the AHL level this year.

And he'd be claimed how?

 

[Sanderson]

I don't think players who have to pass waivers are allowed to play in the AHL this year.

Now, I do think he could sign an AHL-contract and play there, but he can't be assigned.

 

[pelts35.com]

I saw Brendl play a lot for the Phantoms. He has so much natural ability, but plays with the absolute minimum effort.

A complete waste of talent. Brendl makes Alexander Daigle look like a workhorse.

 

[DaveG]

And he'd be claimed how?

he would have had to clear waivers earlier... before the lockout. I'm not sure what the date was but there was a big fuss on the Canes part of the forums that Zigomanis was being put on waivers to play in Lowell.

 

[CoolburnIsGone]

he would have had to clear waivers earlier... before the lockout. I'm not sure what the date was but there was a big fuss on the Canes part of the forums that Zigomanis was being put on waivers to play in Lowell.

FWIW, after the lockout, FL signed several of its older prospects that would have to clear waivers to independent AHL contracts. Kwiatkowski, Beaudoin, Olson, & Payer all played in the NHL last yr and signed 2-way contracts before the CBA expired and all would've had to clear waivers to be sent down I believe.

I point this out because its possible for Brendl to sign the same kinda deal and play in Lowell this yr.

Source: http://www.sarampage.com/article_1022.shtml

 

[Habs33]

As a prospect in keeper leaguethen...would you guys pick Vorobiev over Brendl if you HAD to choose between them?

 

[Teezax]

He looks liek a couch potato on the ice, i bet if you taped a piece of turkey to the net, he'd skate his ass off to get there.
He won't have a future in the NHL, this guy is a career AHL'er at best.
Happy the Flyers parted with him quickly.

 

[MS]

Giving up is not much better than being kicked out, IMO.

We don't know all the circumstances here either. He's been benched before in the WHL and in the AHL and handled it pretty professionally in those cases. What I was objecting to was the notion that he was cut because he wasn't good enough to play in that league, which is just not true.

Yeah, it sounds like a regression on his part. But I don't know that it means a lot relative to his NHL career.

I haven't seen him in the AHL but I don't know if I would call his numbers there "lighting it up". He's 22-23 years old. Those are very ordinary numbers (33 points in 33 games) for a mature, experienced guy who is all about offense.

I did see him in Carolina, however, and was not too impressed. When I read that he was a more intense players, I couldn't wait to watch him. I was disappointed. He's still the old Brendl with the occasional effort boost but stretches of floating and he is still extremely unidimensional to me.

My biggest problem is that he is not even *offensively* well-rounded. This is what kills it for me. If he was all (great) offense and no defense, I could live with it. But I find deficiencies in his offensive game.

It was the same thing back in Philly. You had guys with rose-colored glasses saying he was improved and there was the occasional good comment in newspaper from the coaching staff... and then he would disappear once again.

Those numbers in the AHL are lighting it up. In the entire league, only one player had a better goals-per-game average amongst guys playing more than 20 games. Those sorts of numbers used to be commonplace in that league, but they aren't anymore. Those are dominant numbers down there. 22 isn't old for that league, either - of the 10 highest-scoring forwards on his team, only Kurka was younger and only by a few months at that.

You say nothing ever changes. But the fact is that in three years pro a lot has changed, and he's improved significantly every year. His first year pro he was having trouble putting up numbers in the AHL and looked completely lost in his NHL stint. Inside of two years, he's now a dominant AHL player and was looking like a decent NHL winger for Carolina and producing respectably when he was hurt.

It's Carolina. They have to, they're starving for any kind of talent over there. They're expectations are more hope and optimism than anything else. Not that Brendl doesn't have a chance but he's rather ordinary so far and everytime he switches to an upper level, it becomes harder for him to cheat his way and his impact becomes less and less important.

Oh, agreed. That organization is hopeless. But they aren't basing their expectations on nothing. When he was hurt - and I know the dangers of pro-rating - he was scoring on what would project as a 20-25 goal clip. If he keeps building on that and doesn't regress significantly he's definitely an NHL winger.

That I find hard to believe. With all the red flags about Brendl's attitude, this is definitly one more concern for me. I would not touch this player with a ten foot pole. Not because he's the most awful ever but there's much better out there.

There are guys who are more promising and many who will probably score just as much in the NHL while giving you a more well-rounded game.

Brendl is not an ordinary talent. He's one of the two or three purest goal-scoring talents to come along in the last decade. If he can ever round off the rest of his game well enough to harness his natural ability, his upside is enormous. And there's evidence he's gone a long way toward doing that in the last year or two.

This is just anoher instance where Brendl gave up. Another in a long line of red flags. You have to give some room and a margin for players to blow a fuse or play subpar, or have problems adapting. These things happen. But with Brendl, there's always something happening.

What are the other instances in which he's given up? He's had more than his share of struggles, no doubt, but that's one thing he hasn't done before. He played out his full 3 years in the WHL when he could've just gone home given some of the criticism he was getting. He's been in North America for 6 years and has never done anything like this over here.

You say there's 'always something happening' like this is one of a string of off-ice problems. But that's just not the case. The only other major off-ice issue he's had that I can think of was the training camp in NY where he was really out-of-shape. Outside of that, everything I've ever read is that he's a pretty nice guy and isn't much of a distraction at all. He doesn't really have a history of missing curfews, refusing assignments, criticising coaches, or anything along those lines. All of the other 'red flags' have been in relation to his effort defensively, which is a hockey criticism, not a personal one.

Why is he wasting his time over there anyway? Can't he play in the AHL this year? If he can, he definitly should.

I'd suspect he can't go the AHL. He re-signed with Carolina this summer and whether he plays in the AHL is a team decision. If they want him to go down there, he has to. The fact that he isn't tells me that he's either ineligible or that his new contract is one-way and Carolina is holding him out to save money.

 

[Habs33]

MS,

With all his improvements in the past 2 years...how do you explain his lak of abailty in the Euro league...not being able to make the cut?

 

[emmjayb]

Obviously you didn't see a whole lot of Brendl in junior then. Sure he was lazy and a cherry picker (we used to call him "Brenda Euro Goal Suck"), but he was about as dominant a player as I've seen in the WHL in the last 15 years, including phenoms like Iginla and Hossa.

Agreed, went to see him play for the Hitmen a number of times. First time, I was soooo excited because of all of the hype. From the first shift, I said, holy crap, this guy can't skate and doesn't backcheck at all. He also had the puck on his stick ALL night, made an unbelievable number of brilliant passes, always attracted loose pucks, and absolutely dominated. I thought he was the second coming of Brett Hull.

Oh well.

 

[MS]

MS,

With all his improvements in the past 2 years...how do you explain his lak of abailty in the Euro league...not being able to make the cut?

Probably motivation. I doubt too many of the NHLers playing in Europe are giving the same sort of effort they do with their respective NHL clubs. From seeing him interviewed over the years, I do think Brendl really wants to be an NHLer quite badly, and when he isn't playing for that goal I wouldn't be surprised at all that his defensive effort/work ethic goes right back to where it was 3/4 years ago.

We also don't know what the coach is like ... some coaches will accomodate sketchy defensive play because of the offensive rewards the player can bring, while other coaches don't want players of his ilk anywhere near their roster. If the latter's the case and the coach had a hate on for Brendl because of his style, then maybe looking for a better situation was understandable.

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

You say there's 'always something happening' like this is one of a string of off-ice problems. But that's just not the case. The only other major off-ice issue he's had that I can think of was the training camp in NY where he was really out-of-shape. Outside of that, everything I've ever read is that he's a pretty nice guy and isn't much of a distraction at all. He doesn't really have a history of missing curfews, refusing assignments, criticising coaches, or anything along those lines. All of the other 'red flags' have been in relation to his effort defensively, which is a hockey criticism, not a personal one.

Yeah, that's what I am referring too. I don't want to sound like the guy is horrible off-ice. Haven't heard of too many incidents. But on-ice? My, sometimes it's just terrible. Not just defensively but the whole thing.

To me, it qualifies as red flag when a guy can't cut it with such natural talent. He doesn't seem to be gutsy in the least. Every year where he doesn't become a regular is a red flag. His horrible skating? Red flag. I know in Carolina most of the players aren't blessed with the cream of hockey sense but he was just very poor collectively to me. Doesn't backcheck, forecheck, anything check. Flags all over the map.

You're saying the 33 points in 33 games are very good for the AHL. It's all relative. As I said, it's ordinary for a guy who is *all about offense*. You said it yourself, allow me to quote you:

Brendl is not an ordinary talent. He's one of the two or three purest goal-scoring talents to come along in the last decade.

And we seem to agree, he doesn't do much else very well. Under those circumstances, I think those numbers are ordinary.

I think there is room for cheating and/or being one-dimensional in hockey if the sum of what you bring to your team makes you an asset. But you gotta light it up a lot more than that in the AHL if you float around in the rest of your game. IMHO, of course.

Otherwise, how is that out of the ordinary?

The reason why the AHL isn't set on fire most often seems to be because the elite prospects make the jump early, while the rest are in Europe. Brendl is a mature 1999-draftee. I think he can and should do much better in the AHL points-wise if he doesn't bring any other intangibles.

And in the NHL, same thing.
I can live with players who floats if at the end of the night they are on the scoring sheet once or twice. That's ok. Not something you want, but you can live with it. But, if you know only how to do one thing, you better do it, or you're toast.

Hope he proves me wrong but I think there is better out there.