Two years in the VHLM for McQueen

[Jamie 438]

Two years in the VHLM for McQueen



Although it ended in all smiles, there was a lot of a frustration for the young Scottish winger Brennan McQueen in his time spent in the minors. Let's go back to the start though. Brennan was an unlikely waiver pickup back in S33 near the end of the season but refused to move for a non-playoff team so he didn't get to play any games. In the S34 VHLM Dispersal Draft, he was picked 16th overall to a depleted Ottawa Lynx roster. Brennan ended up spending all season with the team and was informed that he would not be traded to a contender. It hurt a little bit but he stepped up his game and gave Ottawa a birth to the playoffs. His ending season stats were actually pretty impressive for who he was playing with and look as followed:

72 GP | 33 G | 50 A | -5 | 47 PIM | 185 H | 295 S | 43 SB

Brennan was good on both sides of the ice and even was brought up in the best two-way player award discussion but would fall short of getting that award. He went into the playoffs on his season-end hot streak and continued to light it up but the team couldn't get it done and were swept in 4 games. His stats look like this:
 

4 GP | 3 G | 3 A | +1 | 13 PIM | 14 H | 20 S | 1 SB

Going into his 2nd season with the Lynx, McQueen was named the captain to what turned out to be an extremely stacked team after the draft and the favourite to win the Cup in S35. Although he wasn't too happy with his numbers, he improved in almost every facet of the game. Most of the frustration came from Jeevan Samuelsson who was traded for and absolutely lit up the scoreboard night in and night out. Brennan did not get the opportunity to play with Jeevan until late in the season and that is when he too started to put more points on the board. Between that and being traded from the Seattle organization to Riga may have lit a fire under him for the last stretch. He managed just enough to top his 1st season with the Lynx.
 

72 GP | 49 G | 35 A | +42 | 183 PIM | 410 H | 315 S | 10 SB

It's clear to see that McQueen played more on the edge in S35, nearly doubling his hits which in turn caused a lot more penalties for the winger. He led by example and gave it 100% every shift even though he wasn't putting up the points like he wanted to, he was still an impact in many other ways. He did get 1 point more than his 1st season but he focused a lot more on goal scoring and the shots that he took went in more often. Come playoffs he continued his hot streak once again and helped lead the Lynx to their 1st Cup win since S23, which they made look easy. Here are his stats for the playoffs:
 

9 GP | 13 G | 2 A | +10 | 20 PIM | 55 H | 65 S | 1 SB

After his 2 seasons in the VHLM, Brennan's strengths are his shot and his physical play. He needs to work more on his defensive side of the game and pass the puck more, which may result in having a higher point total. He showed that he can be a leader but he also still has attitude problems to work on. He came up clutch in both playoffs he played and actually scored 4 game-winning-goals of the 8 wins that the Lynx had in the playoffs. If he can work on his weaknesses and continue improving at the same rate he has thus far, he should have a good VHL career ahead of himself.

[AwfulHomesick 148]

Content: 5/5 - McQueen is looking to fit into a solid two-way forward in the VHL. Any team could use a grinder with a scoring edge in their lineup. You'll definitely be a much needed spark of energy into the Reign's lineup this season.

Grammar: 1/1 - I didn't find anything wrong here.

Appearance: 1/1 - Loved the formatting.

Over 500 Words?: 1/1 - Yep.

 

Overall: 8/8

 

Final: 8/8