Brennan Menell

Playing career

Menell went undrafted and played junior hockey for the Vancouver Giants and Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. After turning heads during a training camp tryout on September 26, 2017, he inked a three-year entry-level deal with the Minnesota Wild as a free agent. In the final season of that contract, he was sent back to Minnesota’s AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, for a third straight year. During the 2019-20 campaign, he posted a personal-best 47 points in 57 games, ranking second among AHL defensemen in scoring and leading the league in assists with 42. He became Iowa’s all-time leader in nearly every offensive category for blue-liners, racking up 101 assists and 116 points over 199 AHL games, and earned a spot on the AHL First All-Star Team. That season, he got called up and made his NHL debut on December 10, 2019, against the Anaheim Ducks, skating in five games without registering a point.

Facing restricted free agency and an uncertain start to the 2020-21 North American season, Menell chose to head overseas on August 29, 2020, signing a one-year deal with Belarusian KHL club HC Dinamo Minsk. On July 28, 2021, the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired his signing rights from the Wild for a seventh-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, and he signed a one-year, two-way contract worth $750,000 on August 1, 2021. The next season, on March 23, 2022—one day after the trade deadline—he was dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers for future considerations. He finished the year with the Flyers’ AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, notching six assists in 18 games.

After becoming a free agent, Menell returned to the KHL on September 19, 2022, signing a one-year contract with Russian club HC Dynamo Moscow. Following three seasons with Dynamo, he was traded to SKA Saint Petersburg on July 8, 2025, in exchange for Timur Kol and Stanislav Berezhnoy.