Prospect Info: Brennan Menell

[Lapa]

Any scouting report on this guy? Anyone think he'll get a contract?

Over PPG in the WHL last season as a defenseman.

Russo wrote an article about him:

He was cut from the varsity team at St. Thomas Academy his sophomore year and wasn’t even recruited by a single college team.

Yet there Brennan Menell was Saturday night at 20 years of age playing in an actual NHL exhibition game for his hometown Minnesota Wild. If that wasn’t enough, Menell, who grew up down the road in Woodbury, teamed up with longtime NHLer Eric Staal to assist on a Mikael Granlund power-play goal in the Wild’s 2-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche.

https://theathletic.com/109080/2017/09/23/wild-notebook-brennan-menell-devan-dubnyk-avalanche/

Click to read more...

 

[Minnesota]

Radio guys talked about him briefly last night - They said he might earn himself an AHL contract.

 

[TaLoN]

This thread appears to be missing a lot of posts...

EDIT: Correction... most threads appear to be missing a lot of posts...

 

[Lovonov]

6 points (1G, 5A) in 6 games so far this year after sitting out as a healthy scratch for the first few. He looks great in the games I've watched. I wonder if he gets called up this year to see if he can hang with the NHL competitors?

 

[Bazeek]

6 points (1G, 5A) in 6 games so far this year after sitting out as a healthy scratch for the first few. He looks great in the games I've watched. I wonder if he gets called up this year to see if he can hang with the NHL competitors?

He'd have his work cut out for him breaking onto the blueline this year, but I would've said the same thing about Seeler last year.

 

[2Pair]

He'd have his work cut out for him breaking onto the blueline this year, but I would've said the same thing about Seeler last year.

Pretty tough to make it through an entire season with 6 D. They will have to call someone up at some point. Would be nice to get a look at Menell and Belpedio to try and get an idea of how expendable Spurgeon might be.

 

[TaLoN]

He'd have his work cut out for him breaking onto the blueline this year, but I would've said the same thing about Seeler last year.

Prosser is truly the 7th D now, and glad to have him as such.

Allows the D in Iowa to keep playing in Iowa, and won't get a glance in a NHL game barring injury at this point.

This is the best D lineup we've ever had IMO. Solid pairs top to bottom. For sure one of the best 3rd pairs in the league, with Seeler possibly being one of the top 2-3 3rd pair defensemen in the league.

 

[57special]

Another smallish, offense minded, RHD? Spurgeon, Dumba, Belpedio, Murphy, Menell. If he can play, he can play, but I'm beginning to see why they got Pateryn, who isn't huge, but big and physical enough to knock the odd guy down. Dumba can, too, of course, but he doesn't have a big man's reach and leverage.

 

[TaLoN]

Dumba is 6', I wouldn't consider him smallish. He's not big, but most definitely not small.

We have Dumba, Seeler and Pateryn who can play physical, we're fine.

 

[Lovonov]

Pretty tough to make it through an entire season with 6 D. They will have to call someone up at some point. Would be nice to get a look at Menell and Belpedio to try and get an idea of how expendable Spurgeon might be.

I can imagine Bel gets the call first considering he got drafted and pulled away from University - either way they signed Menell with the intent to have him be a Wild one day so we'll see.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

I can imagine Bel gets the call first considering he got drafted and pulled away from University - either way they signed Menell with the intent to have him be a Wild one day so we'll see.

He played his 4 years.

 

[ThatGuy22]

Anyone actually see the points he got to see how involved he was? He's got 6 points, 5 of which are secondary. Given the small sample sizes we're dealing with pretty decent chance his start is just lucky.

 

[Lovonov]

He played his 4 years.

He could have gone UFA. Promises were probably made to get bumped up in the order is what I'm saying.

 

[Wabit]

He could have gone UFA. Promises were probably made to get bumped up in the order is what I'm saying.

If there were promises they were made by a different GM. GMPF has his own ideas (I guess, this team looks an awful lot like the team we had last year) on how he wants the teams to look.

It'll be hard for any of the d-men in the AHL to crack this roster until a trade or injuries happen. The 6th d-man has been there for the taking the last few years; this year isn't the case at all.

 

[TaLoN]

He could have gone UFA. Promises were probably made to get bumped up in the order is what I'm saying.

The only promise made was to get him games at the end of last season to start the elc early. Nothing more.

Faster a player moves from elc to next contract the more potential money to be made in their career.

No promises on future seasons. No team would do such a thing. Especially one with our depth on D.

 

[Mickey the mouse]

The only promise made was to get him games at the end of last season to start the elc early. Nothing more.

Faster a player moves from elc to next contract the more potential money to be made in their career.

No promises on future seasons. No team would do such a thing. Especially one with our depth on D.

That's completely incorrect.

Teams WILL and HAVE guaranteed games / days on roster ( basically salary ) in players contracts or agreements between agents and GM's.

I'm not saying that's the case with Belpedio but it is a very common practice

 

[TaLoN]

That's completely incorrect.

Teams WILL and HAVE guaranteed games / days on roster ( basically salary ) in players contracts or agreements between agents and GM's.

I'm not saying that's the case with Belpedio but it is a very common practice

I'd need to see proof of that one, it's one thing to promise a player, yes I know that verbal promises happen with teams desperate for such a player, but I don't think it's ever been put in a contract.

I think mostly I was saying we sure as hell wouldn't considering our defensive depth.

Hell, we never even made such promises to Reilly and he was a free agent we were trying to lure.

 

[2Pair]

That's completely incorrect.

Teams WILL and HAVE guaranteed games / days on roster ( basically salary ) in players contracts or agreements between agents and GM's.

I'm not saying that's the case with Belpedio but it is a very common practice

I'm about 90% sure that it isn't even allowed to put that kind of wording into a players contract.

 

[Wabit]

That's completely incorrect.

Teams WILL and HAVE guaranteed games / days on roster ( basically salary ) in players contracts or agreements between agents and GM's.

I'm not saying that's the case with Belpedio but it is a very common practice

The only time there is a guarantee that a player won't spend time in the minors is if there is a NMC involved. If there was any agreement it was to burn the 1st year of Belpedio's ELC last season; which happened.

As for players not on the ELC, salary can be worked into the wording of the contract so they don't have to be called up to make x amount of dollars.

 

[ThatGuy22]

That's completely incorrect.

Teams WILL and HAVE guaranteed games / days on roster ( basically salary ) in players contracts or agreements between agents and GM's.

I'm not saying that's the case with Belpedio but it is a very common practice

I'd need to see proof of that one, it's one thing to promise a player, yes I know that verbal promises happen with teams desperate for such a player, but I don't think it's ever been put in a contract.

I think mostly I was saying we sure as hell wouldn't considering our defensive depth.

Hell, we never even made such promises to Reilly and he was a free agent we were trying to lure.

I'm about 90% sure that it isn't even allowed to put that kind of wording into a players contract.

There is a layer of truth to the Mickey the Mouse post. Teams can guarantee a minimum salary above the "Minors" salary on a two way contract, but ELC contracts are not eligible for it.

Cal O'Reilly is an example on the Wild. He get's paid 700k in the NHL, 375k in the AHL. But the Wild have guaranteed him that he will make atleast 425k. That extra 75k can be satisfied with the extra money in salary from NHL call ups, but it doesn't gurantee an NHL callups.

If O'Reilly spends every single day in the AHL this season, Leopold cuts him a check for 75k at the end of the season.

 

[TaLoN]

There is a layer of truth to the Mickey the Mouse post. Teams can guarantee a minimum salary above the "Minors" salary on a two way contract, but ELC contracts are not eligible for it.

Cal O'Reilly is an example on the Wild. He get's paid 700k in the NHL, 375k in the AHL. But the Wild have guaranteed him that he will make atleast 425k. That extra 75k can be satisfied with the extra money in salary from NHL call ups, but it doesn't gurantee an NHL callups.

If O'Reilly spends every single day in the AHL this season, Leopold cuts him a check for 75k at the end of the season.

The original argument was that the Wild had to guarantee him he would jump the ladder in the system.... not a chance.

 

[ThatGuy22]

The original argument was that the Wild had to guarantee him he would jump the ladder in the system.... not a chance.

I absolutely agree.

Just trying to clarify where he might be making the connection with his comment "Teams WILL and HAVE guaranteed games / days on roster ( basically salary ) "

Teams can and have guaranteed extra salary beyond their gameday checks if they don't get NHL callups.

In no way did Belpedio get such assurances or assurances on NHL time.

 

[2Pair]

There is a layer of truth to the Mickey the Mouse post. Teams can guarantee a minimum salary above the "Minors" salary on a two way contract, but ELC contracts are not eligible for it.

Cal O'Reilly is an example on the Wild. He get's paid 700k in the NHL, 375k in the AHL. But the Wild have guaranteed him that he will make atleast 425k. That extra 75k can be satisfied with the extra money in salary from NHL call ups, but it doesn't gurantee an NHL callups.

If O'Reilly spends every single day in the AHL this season, Leopold cuts him a check for 75k at the end of the season.

I did think of those deals, but those really aren't "guaranteed games/roster spots".

 

[ThatGuy22]

I did think of those deals, but those really aren't "guaranteed games/roster spots".

Right, they are guaranteed Salary that can be (but don't have to be) fulfilled by being on an NHL roster.

 

[2Pair]

Right, they are guaranteed Salary that can be (but don't have to be) fulfilled by being on an NHL roster.

Which, if you really think about it, is the exact opposite of guaranteeing a roster spot. They're basically saying that if you don't actually end up spending any time on the roster, we'll kick in a little extra at the end of the year.