As a kid growing up in Bethel Park, my friends and I were avid baseball card collectors. Occasionally we’d flip ‘em or swap ‘em.
“No takebacks!” was a familiar refrain following such sacred transactions.
Unfortunately, the same rules apply to the NHL draft. When a player is selected, he’s yours. No do-overs.
Okay, Buker. What are you getting at?
Having read Other Rick’s latest lament about the Penguins burning their first pick in this summer’s draft on Owen Pickering instead of Maveric Lamoureux (pictured above)? While my esteemed colleague and I don’t always see eye to eye, I can definitely see where he’s coming from.
Statistically, there wasn’t much separating Pickering and Lamoureux as 17-year-olds.
| Player | Team | League | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | +/- |
| Pickering | Swift Current | WHL | 62 | 9 | 24 | 33 | 39 | -29 |
| Lamoureux | Drummondville | QMJHL | 54 | 4 | 20 | 24 | 69 | -30 |
Ironically, each had the worst plus/minus on his respective junior team.
The clincher for me may well be Lamoureux’s player description on Elite Prospects:
In the offensive zone, he activates, often ahead of the play. He anticipates openings and makes sure to become an option. He turns shots into passes from the far corners of the offensive zone. In transition, he uses the middle, tries to slip pucks through defenders, and identifies cross-lane opportunities. Defensively, he’s ultra-physical and gets on players early.
Yes, there’s a reason I bolded that last sentence.
I’m thinking specifically of comments Pickering himself made after being selected with the 21st pick…eight slots ahead of Lamoureux, who went to Arizona.
“The thing I would like to work on is physical strength,” Pickering said. “I feel like that’s … the natural path for me, just kind of filling out… It’s about being strong, being able to battle.”
The operative words in the statement are being able to. As in, he isn’t able to at this stage of his development?
In his defense, Pickering sprouted from 5’7” to 6’4” in a ridiculously short span. It’s only natural he has some filling out to do. And there’s certainly ample room on his coltish frame for muscle to be added and for the physical maturation process to occur.
For the record, both players are on the lean side. Lamoureux goes 6’7” and 200 pounds. Pickering 6’4” 180.
Am I splitting hairs? Perhaps. But like Other Rick, I long for a guy who plays an honest-to-goodness physical game. Now. Without qualifiers, like wait till he grows into his frame.
It’s been so long since the Pens have had a bona fide physical presence on the blue line…or anywhere for that matter. You have to set the WABAC machine to the start of the 2019-20 season and Erik Gudbranson. Guddy was gone by the end of October.
Indeed, we shed physical players with greater efficacy than fleas dropping off Rover after he’s been fitted with a fresh Hartz Flea & Tick Collar. I guess that’s to be expected given Mike Sullivan’s “just play” mantra. In “Sully’s” book, middleweight Zach Aston-Reese was a heavy player.
It’s beginning to sink in that GM Ron Hextall doesn’t necessarily have a bent toward muscle, either. Yes, he drafts size. But judging by his picks with Philly, size that rarely translated into tough. They equated to…well…Pickering.
Maybe Hextall knew what he was doing when he selected the Manitoba native. Quite a few rival GMs complimented GMRH on his choice, not exactly a common occurrence. And the kid certainly has the raw tools. Perhaps Pickering will, indeed, fulfill his promise and blossom into a rangy, puck-moving second pairing defenseman as envisioned.
However, Lamoureux (who can fight and fight well) may have eventually provided a Zdeno Chara-type presence for a team that in IMHO could sorely use one. Wrapped in a kid who can play.
Guys like that don’t come along very often…especially in this day and age.
No offense to Pickering, who by all accounts is a good kid and a solid choice. But it kinda makes me wish we had a takeback.
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Hey guys,
Very interesting discussion between the both of you. I agree coach Pickering would not be my first choice either. However I am blessed to see that the new organization has realized not to trade the first round pick.
Rick that was a great article and it brings back a lot of fun memories., God bless you both.
Cheers, Jim
Hey Jim,
Yes, it is nice to have a 1st round pick for a change.
What really was great was seeing how what little we have in our cupboard played over the weekend. Not only did the boys win but they did with sand and grit as much as anything else.
And thank you Jim, He already did when you found this site!
The seasons just around the corner.
Great to hear from you
Hey Rick,
Great article!
Although I am a self-professed stat geek, my assessments of both Pickering and Lamoureux were not based on stats, nor were they based on someone else's opinion. I did look at the numbers and what was written by others, but most importantly I dug out game films. I looked and looked all over the internet for actual full length games and not just highlight reel footage.
What I saw in Lamoureux was that he really did have a strong point shot and didn't need to skate into the faceoff circles to be a threat. I like that he hit like Ulfie used to hit in open ice in the neutral zone, slowing down opponents transition game. I liked that he protected his goalie and his goalies crease. More than once a game he put an opponent who was trying to screen his goalie on his wallet. In the corners he almost always came away with the free puck, having crushed the attacking forward into the wall or to the ice. I liked how he used his stick to cut down the passing lanes.
At 6'-7", 200lbs, he is tall but he isn't all that skinny, compared to the rest of the kids his age. It is really hard to manage both hypertrophic growth and statural growth, there is serious competition between contractile and structural protein synthesis so both kids need to fill out, but 200lbs isn't all that bad considering he is only 19.
In Pickering, I saw a handful of homerun passes stick-to-stick. However, I also saw a kid that rarely ever defended his own crease, instead chased the puck around his defensive zone like a 6 year old. On the occasions that he was trying to defend rather than chase the puck, he was a stick waving Ruth Buzzy. He had good forward skating ability but not backwards skating ability and turned in wide slow arcs. When entering the attacking zone while carrying the puck, he was lazy and down shifted to a glide losing the puck on more than 1 occasion and lackadaisically hung out in front of the attacking goal well after the play fell apart rather than quickly retreating to his own defensive position.
Pickering was rated a 2nd/3rd round project for most of the season. His stock underwent a meteoric rise when a tournament coach, after coaching him for three games raved about him. Three games is hardly a strong sample size.
I don't like to put down any kid, therefore I am not saying Pickering will never develop. He could very well turn out to be a good pick. He will need a good strength and conditioning coach and listen to him or her, leaving his ego behind and staying the course of the program.
However, I am saying I wouldn't have wasted my first, first round pick since the 8th grade picnic on a project and as you pointed out, I want some Defensemen that can weather a physical storm, giving back what they are getting rather than panicking when a heavy fore-checker looms near and blindly throws the puck away in preparing for the collision like Pettersson and Marino did in the playoffs. Imagine if this team had players like Andrey Pedan, Nicolas Hague, Oliwer Kaski, Jamie Oleksiak, Eric Gudbranson, or Cody Ceci protecting our goalies, instead of the stick wavers we have, would Jarry have gotten hurt and missed the bulk of the playoffs?
Maybe, but the probabilities would have certainly been reduced dramatically.
Hey Other Rick.
Excellent comments that filled in the missing pieces in my post. In fact, I think your comment should be the article and my article the comment...lol.
But seriously, great work to put the time in and really observe Pickering and Lamoureux in game action so you could compare their strengths and weaknesses. It reinforces that Lamoureux is the more physical of the two. Although it's anathema to the Penguins way, I'd gladly sacrifice a goal or an assist here and there for a legit backline thumper.
Again, great observations!
Rick