Pavel Brendl: A Man Among Boys

By Brandon LeBourveau
Well, as we all know Pavel Brendl did not make the New York Rangers this season and was sent back to Calgary of the WHL for another year in juniors. Despite his unwillingness to go back to juniors and play with kids, Brendl reported to the Hitmen anyway and he has been on fire since his return.

Brendl has 11 goals and 4 assists (15 points) in 6 games, which leads the Hitmen in scoring. He is currently 4th in the WHL in goals, but if he played in every game like the 3 players ahead of him (Konstanin Panov with 12, Layne Ulmer with 19, and Mike Comrie with 21), he would be the leading scorer if he kept up this pace. The biggest highlight of his season so far probably came a couple nights ago when he scorched Jamie Lundmark’s Moose Jaw Warriors for 4 goals in the 3rd period to help the Hitmen to a 5-2 victory. (However, Lundmark did not play in that game and has still not played a game with the Warriors yet as he is sitting home waiting to be traded.) Even though Brendl is starting off great with the Hitmen, lots of people (including myself) are wondering if it was the right decision to send him back to juniors..

I don’t know how much you can learn from dominating a league mostly made up of kids 2-3 years younger than you night in and night out. I still believe the Rangers made the wrong choice. They should have kept Brendl on the team and let him get 3rd or 4th line ice time. Look what happened with Joe Thornton in his rookie season. He spent the whole season on either the 3rd or 4th line, and got to learn the ropes of the NHL. Thornton has now slowly developed into on of the premier up and coming all-stars in the game. The same thing should have been done with Brendl. Let him learn the NHL slowly and let him develop at his own pace. We could have had a very good player on our hands a lot sooner, but now we have to sit around and wait another year to see this guy on Broadway..