THE FINAL PIECE OF THE PUZZLE: TJ BRENNAN

 

Image courtesy of the team's Facebook page

TJ Brennan is a 36yo American LHD who came out of the same Philadelphia Little Flyers as Trevor Gooch (albeit 5 years apart). He has played in the NHL, AHL and Swiss League, along with one year under Coach Cooper (as Assistant Coach) at Salzburg in the ICE League. Let me take you on a journey through Elite Prospects to show you who TJ Brennan has been and who he can be for us next season.

Image courtesy of the team's Facebook page

How does his only season in the ICE League look?

Admittedly, this was 4 years ago on a top team, but the stats jump off the screen. Yes, that's 47 pts in 48 games at a +33 in the regular season and a casual point-per-game +13 in the playoffs 😱 This would have been good for a 14-point lead as the top scorer if he had been in OLL's squad last season.

Image courtesy of me + https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/scooby-doo

Talking of points-scoring...

                                  

Check who's top of the list in the history of the AHL 😳 2nd-best league in the world, by the way!

On the subject of awards...

Old football meme, from https://imgflip.com/tag/tottenham+trophy+cabinet

New hockey meme, from me + https://imgflip.com/tag/tottenham+trophy+cabinet

What was his original draft year review?

Brennan is an offensive defenseman with a howitzer of a shot. He also skates well and has good passing skills. Needs to improve his defensive game.
- Erik K. Piri, EP (2013)

Now, this is only one guy's opinion, but let's take it at face value. What has happened to the team's defensive core? Both Brennan and Lalonde are renowned for their hard point shots. Those alone would really unlock a new level of offense for Olimpija, whether by scoring outright, creating deflection chances or simply causing net-front havoc for the likes of Polei, Pance and Mehle to take advantage of. But with Lalonde's threatening physical presence and Brennan's offensive wizardry, on top of their sharp shots? Plus Kirichenko's point-scoring capability? This will be a significantly different - and significantly upgraded - defensive engine room next season.

In terms of the comment on his defensive game, he has clearly had a lot of time to develop since 2013. You have to accept some risk to create offense, but thankfully we have Horak to (literally and figuratively) save us from the worst-case scenarios.

A note on his age: Nick Bonino, at 37, was extremely effective for us and was one of the best players in the league last season. I expect Brennan at 36 to be just the same for us - and act as another excellent example to the younger players, just like Bonino.

Projected defensive pairings:

You know I couldn't resist one of these!

TJ Brennan - Shawn Lalonde

Jan Ćosić - Clayton Kirichenko

Bine Mašič - Rožle Bohinc 

Reserves: Hebar, Gregorc, Crnović

It's important to note that, while TJ is an outrageously good signing for us, his arrival does create something of a logjam on the left side. Here, I have Bohinc playing his off-hand side (Lalonde and Kirichenko are true RHD). I put him in particular here because he played this position in preseason last year. Regardless of that decision, which will be up to Coach Cooper and the staff, I think this is a fearsome unit that should put us on a really good footing for the coming season. This is a playoff-ready defence - I look forward to seeing them get us there in the coming months!