Penguin Primer for Prospective Draft Picks: Brad Lambert

Now after “We skipped the light fandango” of another hockey season and our favorite flightless fowl “Turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor” of another frustrating first round playoff loss, I don’t know about you but “I am feeling kind of seasick”. We keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Unfortunately, “The crowd called out for more.” I keep hearing and reading people not wanting to take an honest look at this team and assess its strengths and weaknesses.

Now with the rapidly approaching UFA market set to open up, “The room is [is] humming harder, As the ceiling [is about to fly] away” with Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang on the brink of changing sweaters. “And so it [is] that Later, As the miller told his tale, That [our team], at first just ghostly”, is about “Turned a whiter shade of pale”.

If there is any good news as “we wander through our playing cards” this off-season, all signs point to a very rare sighting, a sighting as rare as a yellow-bellied sap sucker, almost as rare as a unicorn sighting, our boys of winter will have a first-round draft pick. Barring GM Ron Hextall trading up in the draft, there may be some that will yawn at the thought of a bottom third draft pick, but let’s face it our Pittsburgh Penguins have only had a first-round draft pick in 3 of the last 10 seasons.

(Yes, I kept hearing Procol Harem as I composed this piece) 

And that brings me to the meat of this post, who will the Penguins draft.

Even before our friend Mike brought this subject up a couple of days ago, I have been contemplating doing some sort of draft primer. My only sticking point has been whether I talk about all the players of note in this draft or focus on those that will likely be around for our 21st pick. I have chosen to focus, at least at first, on those players our Penguins are likely to draft.

Today, I want to start off talking about a prospect our long-lost friend Caleb first noted last year about this time, right before he suggested the Penguins trade for Jack Eichel and John Gibson. Last year at this time, there was already a lot of chatter about two players that would come out in this year’s draft, Shane Wright and Brad Lambert. I can’t remember how much Caleb wrote about Lambert, but he was very high on this kid in verbal conversations he and I had back then.

Caleb wasn’t the only one totally impressed with Lambert, last year at this time he was projected to challenge Wright for the top spot in the draft. What a difference a year makes. Both Wright and Lambert have had a touch of their luster tarnish, Lambert more so than Wright. Wright is still projected as the number 1 overall pick, but I have now seen Lambert fall considerably. In fact, I have chosen to write about him because I have seen in several mock drafts, pundits suggest that he not only will be around for our Penguins to pluck, but that Hextall actual does draft him. Adam Kimelman of the NHL.com website and the bleacher report have Lambert coming to Pittsburgh.

So, who is Brad Lambert?

Brad Lambert was born in Finland. His father was a Ross Lambert, a former Canadian professional hockey player. Truth be told, Lambert is the epitome of a Mike Sullivan kind of player, for both good and bad.

Skating

From a skating standpoint, Lambert is great to watch. Ben Kerr of the Last Word on Hockey wrote

“Lambert is a dynamic skater. His stride is nearly textbook. It gives him excellent acceleration and top-end speed. Lambert can take a defender wide and cut to the net. His edgework and agility are also close to elite. His ability to move laterally, make quick stops and starts and change directions on a dime can catch defenders flat-footed and make them look silly at times. Lambert is also able to change speeds, slowing down to create shooting and passing lanes. His stride also gives him power and balance. He is very tough to knock off the puck. Lambert can fight through checks and keeps his feet moving to get to the net.”

After watching as many highlights of Lambert as I could find, I would agree with most of what Kerr wrote. My only point of worry, here isn’t really doubting that Lambert could fight through checks, only that I didn’t really see him do that too often.

Josh Tessler of SMAHT Hockey wrote,

“Lambert implements quality pivoting to shake off the back-check along the boards. Sometimes he will struggle and lose his balance when attempting to pivot out from a back check attempt along the half-wall. 

At open ice, Lambert will utilize a well-timed spin move to dodge pressure in the offensive zone when he completes a controlled zone entry but faces tight pressure from an opponent. “

Stick/Puck handling

Reading through the scouting reports Nick Richards of Dobber Hockey wrote,

“He is a dynamic player who drives the play with his excellent skating ability and great puck handling skills. He is really good in the transitional game and is great at carrying the puck into the offensive zone with control.”

Ben Kerr wrote,

“Lambert marries his skating with outstanding puckhandling ability. He can make plays while moving at top speed. This helps him to carry the puck through the neutral zone, weaving through traffic and generating effective zone entries. On the rush, he is tough to contain and can beat defenders in one-on-one situations. Lambert also does a good job of controlling the puck in the offensive zone, working the cycle game and maintaining puck possession.”

Sam Milligan of Sports Edge wrote,

“Very few draft eligibles are able to fly through the middle third of the ice the way Lambert can, combining sharp directional changes with razor tight puck handling mechanics to squeeze through molecular sized gaps in the defense. His tools are not the only thing that makes his transitional game such a threat, as he combines them with good habits and fundamentals to become the ultimate transitional asset for his team”

After watching videos of Lambert, wow are they right. He certainly is exciting to watch moving through center ice and into the attacking zone. Again, I am not blessed with being able to go watch full games over in Finland, so I have no idea if what I am seeing is an anomaly or the norm, but if it is the norm, he could the kind of player that attracts fans to regular season games, when the ice is far more open.

Hockey IQ

From everything I have read this is an aspect of Lambert’s game that needs work. Only watching highlights, I can’t comment.

Ben Kerr wrote,

“However, his vision and decision-making can use some improvement. Lambert can wait a little too long at times to make a pass to a teammate, getting himself into trouble as he skates himself into trouble.”

Sam Milligan wrote,

“His intelligence is the biggest question mark surrounding his play, often being cited as one of the draft’s best examples of scouts being unable to reach a consensus. Some scouts deem Lambert highly intelligent, seeing calculation behind his decision making, while others doubt his in-game processing due to a higher frequency of forced plays, missed opportunities and objectively bad decisions. The real answer is likely somewhere in the middle, as one cannot overlook a player consistently making inefficient reads or ignore the intelligent decisions that drive good results for the player’s team.”

Eetu Siltanen was quoted as saying,

“..he needs to simplify his decisions with the puck on his stick”

If Milligan is right about Lambert forcing some plays and passing up opportunities, he will be a perfect fit for our Pens, particularly is we Penguins’ fans lose Malkin and Letang this off season. We will need someone to fill the gap of bad decisions. (Yes, a little sarcasm there)

Shooting

This is another area under construction in Lambert’s game. Eetu Siltanen wrote, “

“Lambert’s shot is the biggest thing he needs to improve in his offensive game. Even though he can shoot accurate wristers and score from different situations, he still has to significantly improve his finishing ability to become a real dual-threat offensively.”

Ben Kerr wrote,

“Lambert can also continue to work on his shot. He has a quick and deceptive release and that really helps him. However, his wrist shot lacks power at times. Most of his goals come close to the net. Lambert has the soft hands to make a deke and finish in tight. He can elevate the puck quickly on both his forehand and back hand.”

Josh Tessler wrote,

“When you look at Lambert’s shot under a microscope, you will notice that it is the weaker part of his game. He will have difficulty elevating his shots. It’s an issue that is constant no matter where he is in the offensive zone. When down low, he will struggle with manipulating the opposing goaltender as he looks to key up a quality shot opportunity. If he manages to lure the goaltender into a vulnerable position, he will have issues generating the necessary height in his shot to beat the goaltender clean. When taking a snap shot from range and implements a weight transfer, his plant leg ends up facing away from the net and that hurts his shot accuracy. It’s not just his footing. He also needs to work on the weight transfer itself as he doesn’t exert his body forward enough to garner enough power behind his shot.”

From what I watched; I would have to agree with those assessments. Of the goals I watched him score, I would not have said he beat the Goalie, rather the Goalie let the goal in, or was out of position on a back door play. Right now, I don’t see him as a high end Goal scorer against NHL calibre Goaltending.

Physicality

Josh Tessler wrote,

“He will use his upper body strength to overwhelm attackers in open ice loose puck battles.”

But quite frankly I didn’t see any examples of that. From what I saw, he ain’t no Jack Lambert. What I witnessed was closer to what Ben Kerr wrote,

“However, he prefers to play on the perimeter, rather than driving the net consistently. When he gets to the front of the net, he is effective, but this is something that he needs to do more often.”

I only witnessed him go inside with the puck on 2 occasions; both times following a teammate who was going in on a center drive, like a little running back hiding behind a behemoth offensive lineman.

One other time I watched him go inside; he scored a goal. Lambert snuck into a soft spot in the low slot while all opposing eyes were in the corner watching one of the young prospect’s teammates cycled behind the net. His teammate found him in front all alone, with all defender’s backs toward him.

On the plus side he did tickle the twine, unlike a certain human pylon, who would have shot the puck over the net and into the stands.

Conclusions

Sorry, Caleb and other folks who may feel the same as Caleb, if I were looking to win hockey games, particularly in the playoffs, and address our Penguins biggest needs, there should be plenty of better options out there when Hextall gets to make that call. The last thing this team needs is another in an interminably long line of perimeter players. The only way I see him being effective in Black-and-Gold is if our brain-trust goes out and gets then employs a couple of Patric Hornqvists to play with him.

Another thing I have to consider is the number of teams he has played for already. Some writers try to excuse his drop off this passed season on not being a good fit for JYP of the Finnish Liiga.

Nick Richards wrote.

“After a tough first half of the season, rumors of a split between Lambert and JYP have come to fruition. Lambert’s contract was terminated at his request and he will return to Pelicans for the remainder of the season after playing in their program from 2017 to 2019. He managed just two goals and four assists through 24 games with JYP this season and will be hoping a fresh start with a new club can help him unlock the potential he showed in his first full Liiga season”

But as Andre Forbes of the Hockey Writers noted,

“Lambert started this season with Liiga’s JYP, but quickly moved on in mid-January to the Pelicans after a sub-par start. However, the move didn’t do much for the 18-year-old who had just four points in 25 regular season games for the Pelicans.”

All this makes me wonder if he will be another Daniel Sprong

However, I can already hear our Coach Mike Sullivan beating Hextall’s ear to bring in another Mr. Softie to add to his collection of Smurf like players.