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Pavel Brendl: The Ridiculous Story ("Hot dogs and wieners is the best food for me.")

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What makes the Brendl story great for me is that I could totally see my teenaged self act much the same if I was in the same situation. :laugh:

aemoreira1981 said:
Kirill Kabanov, who has been cut by two KHL teams and is now a free agent, just has a bad attitude and doesn't like to be coached...not unlike Nikita Filatov. A difference is that Kabanov was red-flagged early and fell through the draft. His only productive season since leaving North America was 2014-15 with Skelleftea in the SHL. He might be done with hockey and he isn't 25 yet.

No rebound Filatov might be a better option. Was he red flagged before the draft?
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Didn't Kabanov have a serious wrist injury to start off his draft year? Someone would probably have risked a 1st on him if he had played a full season, in spite of the known character issues.
 
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A little bit more about Brendl.

In light of the Sedins' retirement this week and the celebrations, it's worth noting that if the Rangers had picked first overall, they would have selected Brendl ahead of everybody else.

HOCKEY; Rangers Pay A Price To Draft Czech Wing
HOCKEY; Rangers Pay A Price To Draft Czech Wing
By JOE LAPOINTE
JUNE 27, 1999

The Atlanta Thrashers, an expansion team, used the No. 1 pick over all to take Patrik Stefan, a top talent whose value was clouded by unanswered questions regarding post-concussion syndrome.

And the Vancouver Canucks, who brokered much of the shifting, used the second and third picks to choose Daniel and Henrik Sedin, twin brothers from Sweden who could make up two-thirds of a first line.

Afterward, Neil Smith, the Rangers president and general manager, said he got the best player among these 18-year-olds. He is Pavel Brendl, a right wing Smith called a franchise player who could make the New York roster next season.

...

Brendl, a 6-foot, 204-pound right wing, is from the Czech Republic but played last season with the Calgary Hitmen of the Western League, one of three major-junior circuits in Canada. In 68 games, he scored 73 goals and had 61 assists. The N.H.L. Central Scouting Bureau report rated Brendl ''a powerful skater with a wide stride'' who has ''deceptive speed that often results in breakaway opportunities.'' Although just 18, Brendl predicted he could play next season in New York, possibly alongside center Petr Nedved, already a friend.

''Yeah, that's why I'm here,'' he said, when asked if he is ready for the big league. ''I believe I can make the step. I'm not scared that I can't score in the N.H.L.''

...

Speaking of Brendl, Smith said: ''If we were picking first, we were picking Brendl. We had him No. 1. He should be a franchise N.H.L. player.''

...
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''If we were picking first, we were picking Brendl. We had him No. 1. He should be a franchise N.H.L. player.'' - Neil Smith, June 1999

 
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Franck said:
What makes the Brendl story great for me is that I could totally see my teenaged self act much the same if I was in the same situation. :laugh:



Didn't Kabanov have a serious wrist injury to start off his draft year? Someone would probably have risked a 1st on him if he had played a full season, in spite of the known character issues.
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I think it was well known among NHL execs that he had a pretty serious drinking problem.
 
Can I be brutally honest and say that I personally was skeptical about Brendl? I don't know, I am not a pro scout or anything but I always get a little skeptical about players that come out of nowhere to be a potential #1 pick. David Legwand was someone else I was critical of too. Not that he didn't have a respectable career. But if people remember correctly, in 1998 there was some serious questions on whether he should be taken above Lecavalier. I had seen enough of Lecavalier and since Legwand played in the OHL I saw him too. I didn't see it. I couldn't understand why it was even a debate. Lecavalier was better already by then and had WAY more upside.

While Legwand played in over 1,000 NHL games and was good enough to stick around and be serviceable he was still never a star. Lecavalier was. I wouldn't put him in the HHOF, but his name will get dropped on here once in a while. So Brendl gave me that same sort of impression. I had heard plenty about the Sedin twins, and Patrick Stefan prior to 1999, but not Brendl. I just thought of him as more of a flash in the pan. I guess I never "saw it" when he played. Usually a player sticks out when you watch him, but for him he never did. I did a thread about the biggest cherrypickers of all-time and that is what I always gathered with him, and what I read about him as well even in junior. There are some players that have great instincts and can cherrypick when the time is right (Gretzky, Lemieux, etc.) but that is because of their hockey sense and anticipation. With Brendl he just appeared to be the guy that hung around high waiting for a pass.

Granted no one is always right. I thought Stefan would be a Larionov-like player.
 
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Blade Paradigm said:
A little bit more about Brendl.

In light of the Sedins' retirement this week and the celebrations, it's worth noting that if the Rangers had picked first overall, they would have selected Brendl ahead of everybody else.

HOCKEY; Rangers Pay A Price To Draft Czech Wing

''If we were picking first, we were picking Brendl. We had him No. 1. He should be a franchise N.H.L. player.'' - Neil Smith, June 1999
Click to expand...



I wish there was something like this in regarding Patrik Stefan. I know the history of his concussions ruined his career before it started in the NHL, but was he really *THAT* regarded in the draft? I know it was a weak draft to begin with (even the Sedins weren’t touted like that)
 
Big Phil said:
Can I be brutally honest and say that I personally was skeptical about Brendl? I don't know, I am not a pro scout or anything but I always get a little skeptical about players that come out of nowhere to be a potential #1 pick.
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Not that Ryan Johansen or Mark Scheifele were touted to be number one picks, but those are two examples of players who came out of nowhere in their draft year and turned out pretty good careers.
 
Sticks and Pucks said:
Not that Ryan Johansen or Mark Scheifele were touted to be number one picks, but those are two examples of players who came out of nowhere in their draft year and turned out pretty good careers.
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jovo too. and when all is said and done there's not a guy in the top ten you'd take over him.

dylan pendergast said:
The entire draft sucked. Stefan, brendl, beech, koltsov were all soft in the corners
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ironically, that draft also produced two of the most durable, punishment-absorbing corner guys that ever lived.
 
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Still remember watching that draft with my buddy and being so excited about him and Jamie Lundmark. We also had Manny Maholtra from the year before. Those couple of years really woke me up as a young fan as to how hard it is to successfully draft and develop 18 year old kids.
 
In a way you gotta admire Brendl's staying true to himself, no matter how crappy that self is. Got paid to play hockey for over a decade and never made the sacrifices most other people have to make to do that. Most guys would be spending their life flipping burgers and being in and out of jail if they had Brendl's approach.
 
vadim sharifijanov said:
jovo too. and when all is said and done there's not a guy in the top ten you'd take over him.



ironically, that draft also produced two of the most durable, punishment-absorbing corner guys that ever lived.
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I wish that draft was as good as it was hyped to be. Not a penguins fan but playing old nhl man I love Kris Beech. He’s got great hands, opposite of real life.
 
That line in the first quote of the original post "treats defence like an evil whose necessity he is still pondering" may be the most entertaining description of a hockey player I've ever seen
 
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