Prospect Info: Owen Pickering, 21st Overall, 2022 NHL Draft

[Turin]

Harrington, Despres, Pouliot, Addison.

I guess the moral is the story is don’t draft smallish Canadian defensemen without a standout skill. Despres seems to be the best out of that group.

 

[jmelm]

Pouliot was our last prospect on team Canada at the WJC.

And right after that tournament is exactly when we should have sold high on that player. If it wasn't apparent to our scouts by the 2012 draft that Pouliot would be a bust, it should have been very clear within a year or two after his draft. That's why I've always said, however much I wanted Forsberg, I don't blame the team for the pick itself nearly as much as I blame them for not trading him within that year or two after the draft before his value went to shit like he did.

Pouliot just ended up to be Xavier LaFlamme

Except with none of the excitement or charisma.

Harrington, Despres, Pouliot, Addison.

I guess the moral is the story is don’t draft smallish Canadian defensemen. Despres seems to be the best out of that group.

The moral of the story is don't draft shitty defensemen, or shitty players in general (like Poulin who didn't even make the team).

Addison may still turn out to be very good down the road.

The other moral of the story is never hire Shero to be your GM.

 

[Jacob]

Mentioned this before but it’s interesting that of all those Shero (and later) era D men we stockpiled Dumo became by far the best of the bunch, and he was probably the lowest drafted and lowest rated of the whole lot too. Took a while too, 3 full AHL seasons and he turned pro at 21.

I also, though, remember being very impressed with Dumo in the A. In his first year they also had Morrow and Despres but it was Dumoulin that stood out- and he was probably NHL-ready much earlier. And I have similar feelings about POJ based on observations of him in the AHL. They’re at least comparable at similar ages and stages in their development.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Mentioned this before but it’s interesting that of all those Shero (and later) era D men we stockpiled Dumo became by far the best of the bunch, and he was probably the lowest drafted and lowest rated of the whole lot too. Took a while too, 3 full AHL seasons and he turned pro at 21.

I also, though, remember being very impressed with Dumo in the A. In his first year they also had Morrow and Despres but it was Dumoulin that stood out- and he was probably NHL-ready much earlier. And I have similar feelings about POJ based on observations of him in the AHL. They’re at least comparable at similar ages and stages in their development.

Yeah, it's wild to me that people think POJ is a bust because he's not a full time NHLer yet. Dude is still super young and if people actually watched him play they'd see his talent.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Watch... the games? What a novel idea!

 

[hockeykid87]

Pickering made his season debut this past weekend. Three assists in two games. Also took a puck in the mouth while jumping up into the play. Played over 30 minutes on Friday, which will likely be a recurring thing this season.

 

[wej20]

Harrington, Despres, Pouliot, Addison.

I guess the moral is the story is don’t draft smallish Canadian defensemen without a standout skill. Despres seems to be the best out of that group.

Do you not remember Despres? He was a bloody big boy.

 

[Turin]

Do you not remember Despres? He was a bloody big boy.

I do, I guess I just didn’t finish my thought.. no idea where I was going with that.

 

[66-30-33]

Pickering made his season debut this past weekend. Three assists in two games. Also took a puck in the mouth while jumping up into the play. Played over 30 minutes on Friday, which will likely be a recurring thing this season.

Is he Letang?

 

[eXile3]

Harrington, Despres, Pouliot, Addison.

I guess the moral is the story is don’t draft smallish Canadian defensemen without a standout skill. Despres seems to be the best out of that group.

Lol what? Harrington is 6’2 + 200lbs, DP is 6’ + 200lbs, Despres is 6’4 + 200lbs.

The moral is don’t reach on players because of size.

 

[Turin]

Lol what? Harrington is 6’2 + 200lbs, DP is 6’ + 200lbs, Despres is 6’4 + 200lbs.

The moral is don’t reach on players because of size.

Don’t think Harrington and Pouliot are big at all for defensemen and I don’t even think those numbers are accurate, or were with the Pens. No idea what I was talking about with Despres.

 

[eXile3]

Don’t think Harrington and Pouliot are big at all for defensemen and I don’t even think those numbers are accurate, or were with the Pens. No idea what I was talking about with Despres.

Your counter argument is “the internet is lying about player heights”? Okay.

 

[Pens x]

Hopefully, for Owen’s sake, we will
have a new regime in the front office/behind the bench when he’s on the verge of being NHL ready so that Ruh and other mid to late 30 year olds won’t block him.

 

[Jacob]

So anyway.. 30 minutes a night sounds good.

 

[Turin]

Your counter argument is “the internet is lying about player heights”? Okay.

You think Harrington and Pouliot are/were big defensemen? I think Pouliot especially was sort of a smaller defenseman who wasn’t particularly fast. I’m not even arguing, I’m responding to a random ass response to an old post. Anyways, the context reading back was talking about Pens players who’ve made Canadas WJC in recent memory. And how none have had all that much success.

 

[jmelm]

So anyway.. 30 minutes a night sounds good.

True….but that only works if he’s healthy. Will he ever be healthy enough to really play hockey again?

 

[HandshakeLine]

You could knock Despres’ noggin, but he was looking like a legit top 4 guy until injuries and organizational drama did him in here, resulting in the trade. If he was concussion free, I’d wager we’d be talking about him as one that got away instead of a bust.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

You could knock Despres’ noggin, but he was looking like a legit top 4 guy until injuries and organizational drama did him in here, resulting in the trade. If he was concussion free, I’d wager we’d be talking about him as one that got away instead of a bust.

His playoff run with Anaheim post-trade was pretty impressive IIRC.

I'm not saying he was gonna be a guaranteed stud defenseman but a solid second pairing guy with great size, skating and offensive instincts is sure looking like where he was heading. Hell I thought he was pretty clearly the best of the Shero "Defensemen U" bunch with maybe the exception of pre-issues Maatta.

EDIT: Dumo too, of course. Though I guess I was thinking straight up Pens draftees.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

So anyway.. 30 minutes a night sounds good.

Million minutes and touches for a raw defenseman prospect does seem good.

Hope his team isn’t too shitty, they seem piss poor again but it’s early.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I'm a proud Ducks Despres jersey owner.

 

[HandshakeLine]

His playoff run with Anaheim post-trade was pretty impressive IIRC.

I'm not saying he was gonna be a guaranteed stud defenseman but a solid second pairing guy with great size, skating and offensive instincts is sure looking like where he was heading. Hell I thought he was pretty clearly the best of the Shero "Defensemen U" bunch with maybe the exception of pre-issues Maatta.

EDIT: Dumo too, of course. Though I guess I was thinking straight up Pens draftees.

He was legitimately the perfect kind of defenseman for this team, especially with a prime Letang. Shame about his noggin, though.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Yeah, I had really high hopes for Despres and he killed it after getting to the Ducks. Concussions completely ruined what I think would've been a really solid career.

Makes you appreciate that Sid was able to recover from his issues that much more.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Hopefully Pickering's offensive game really blossoms. Would be nice if one of our defense prospects blossoms higher than his projected ceiling (ie. turn into a Sanheim rather than another Pettersson).

 

[Victor Z]

You could knock Despres’ noggin, but he was looking like a legit top 4 guy until injuries and organizational drama did him in here, resulting in the trade. If he was concussion free, I’d wager we’d be talking about him as one that got away instead of a bust.

In Despres' last partial season in Pittsburgh he was not only playing very well but IIRC was doing so while dragging the corpse of Rob Scuderi around the ice with him on every shift.

But.... Despres had a fat face, or a stupid grin, or something.

 

[cygnus47]

In Despres' last partial season in Pittsburgh he was not only playing very well but IIRC was doing so while dragging the corpse of Rob Scuderi around the ice with him on every shift.

But.... Despres had a fat face, or a stupid grin, or something.

There HAS to be a story there.