Patrick King

BRANDON, Man. -- Brayden Schenn has the benefit of a National Hockey League player offering him advice, even if it won't help his offensive game.

Schenn's older brother, Luke, a two-year pro with the Toronto Maple Leafs, has been in attendance at this year's MasterCard Memorial Cup. Luke arrived in Brandon on Sunday, just in time for the Wheat Kings' second game against the Moncton Wildcats and will remain in the host city as long as his brother is still playing.

Luke has seen the ups and downs of the Wheat Kings in this tournament which included a 4-0 win over Moncton and a 5-1 defeat to Calgary. Luke's advice for Brayden: play your game.

Which is to say, not Luke's game.

"If you look at his numbers over the years," Brayden said with a chuckle, poking fun at his brother whose style doesn't feature much offence. "He's an NHL player, but the thing is he's a d-man, I'm a forward."

"If anything, he'd probably give me pointers on the offence," said Luke.

The brothers are about as tight as can be, in spite of rarely ever seeing each other in recent years. The two last saw one another earlier in Brandon's playoff run when Luke made the trip to Calgary to watch Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference final with the Hitmen.

As much as Luke enjoys watching his brother's games, it comes with a certain degree of stress. Players want to play and Luke can't help but feel like wanting to join his brother on the ice.

"No question it's probably more nerve-wracking being up in the stands," he admitted. "I want the best for Brayden and the team, obviously, so it is a little bit nerve-wrecking out there. There's not much you can do about it in the stands."

Had Luke not possessed so much immediate NHL potential, he may have been able to help Brayden and the Wheat Kings on the ice. The elder Schenn would still have been eligible to play in the Canadian Hockey League this season as an overage, although his rights were owned by the Kelowna Rockets.

That irony was not lost on Luke, who never got a chance to play in a MasterCard Memorial Cup. A first-round pick of the Rockets in 2004, Luke joined his future team in London in 2005 to partake in the festivities, but did not play.

The Rockets then went to their fourth tournament in seven years last season. Luke, of course, was in Toronto with the Maple Leafs, thus missing out on another chance to play for junior hockey's holy grail.

"Maybe I jinxed it a bit or something," he kidded as the Rockets were unable to reach the tournament during his tenure. "It's good to see (the Rockets) have a lot of success and they're a winning organization. They'll be back again sooner than later."

Luke is enjoying his stay in Brandon, spending time with the family and Brayden's group of friends in the Wheat City. Prior to seeing him in Calgary, they had not seen each other since late August when their hockey careers split them apart.

However, two months before that, their hockey careers nearly intertwined when the Maple Leafs let it be known they were interested in drafting Brayden with their first pick, No. 7 overall in the NHL Entry Draft.

The Los Angeles Kings stepped in and took Brayden fifth overall, thus spoiling a family reunion in Toronto. It hadn't taken long for Luke to envision having his brother alongside him in Toronto before the draft, but he is still able to recognize the benefits of the situation for his brother in the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

"It would have been nice for sure to play with him, but L.A. is a great organization," Luke said. "They're a young team. You're far away, but it's still awesome to be selected. I hope he can have a good career in L.A."

That hasn't stopped Brayden from following Luke's career in Toronto.

"I pretty much watched every game of his that I could on TV this year," he said.

Like his participation in the MasterCard Memorial Cup, Brayden achieved another feat before his brother. The younger Schenn's career in Los Angeles actually began at a younger age than Luke's did in Toronto. The Wheat Kings forward had quite the double-header in November, when he played for the Kings in Vancouver one night and the Wheat Kings in Brandon the next.

As a late birthdate, Luke needed to play three years of junior before being eligible for the NHL draft.

"(Brayden) had a pretty good year this year with Brandon and got rewarded for it a little bit with the Kings calling him up for a game," Luke said. "Obviously it's a good feeling and an honour to play your first NHL game, but I know he's not satisfied. He wants to go in there and have a shot to make the team next year."

Luke won't be in attendance at Los Angeles' training camp next summer, but his message won't change: play your game.