NLL Insider

Just over a week after Bob Hamley took over the reins as the Edmonton Rush’s new GM and Head Coach, he’s made his first trade, bringing in forward Brenden Thenhaus via a deal with the Philadelphia Wings.

Hamley sent a conditional second (or third depending on games logged by Thenhaus) round pick in this year’s draft the other way.

Thenhaus is best known for being a huge piece of the puzzle for the Oakville Buzz, one of Ontario’s most successful junior B clubs in recent years. He spent this past summer with the Brampton Excelsiors JR A team, finishing third in scoring behind Dylan Evans and Ryan Campbell, a likely high draft pick in the 2008 Entry Draft.

Brendan won the Founders Cup; the team hardware handed out to Canada’s best junior B club each summer, in 2006 and has been considered by many as a prospect that just needs to find the right fit in order to flourish in the NLL.

A former third round draft pick of the Buffalo Bandits, Thenhaus was signed as a free agent with the Wings this past off-season, but was the odd man out on Philadelphia’s overflowing right side.

“With so much depth on our right side, it was difficult to get Brenden into the lineup,” said Wings GM Lindsay Sanderson. “The move to Edmonton will give him the chance to play. It will also allow us to get Drew Westervelt on our roster after spending the past couple of months on injured reserve.”

Thenhaus gives Hamley a great team guy and a pretty solid outside shooter that terrorized junior B tenders for a number of years. The juries still out on if he’ll transition to the pros, but at minimum, it makes the aging Rush roster a bit younger.

Hamley told media earlier this week, “I don’t think we’re as talented as other teams in the league. We’ve got to acquire some talent and youth… We’re going to have to work at it. We don’t have any first-round picks in the next two years. It’s going to be tough.”

As he did in Columbus and then Arizona, Hamley showed he wasn’t afraid to make trades and reshuffle his roster if it meant getting what he considered as an ideal player on the rug. Many close to the Rush have told NLL Insider that they expect more moves, likely more substantial than the Thenhaus deal, to unfold over coming weeks.

NLL Insider has also learned that Hamley has been in contact with Victoria Shamrocks’ product and former Portland Lumberjax’s forward, Ryder Bateman, about potentially suiting up for the Rush this year, however, due to Batemen’s current working situation he’ll unlikely be donning an Edmonton sweater anytime soon.

The Rush are still also without defenders Andrew Turner and Chris McKay, both on the sidelines due to work commitments, and both incredibly unlikely to see any time this year for that same fact.

It also brings up the question not many have asked, with those two vet D guys, would the Rush still be 0-6 and without Paul Day on the bench? But in the same breath, with major issues on Edmonton’s offense and guys not stepping up, would it really have mattered?

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