Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
On Monday, Michel Picard goes into the American Hockey League Corridor of Fame.
However return greater than 35 years to Binghamton, New York. Picard, a ninth-round draft decide by the Hartford Whalers breaking into the AHL, went via one of many hardest potential experiences a rookie might have. His 1989-90 Binghamton Whalers went 11-60-9, setting ignominious AHL data for fewest wins and most losses in an 80-game season.
And it received more and more worse because the season wore on, with the Whalers successful simply 4 of their remaining 40 video games. They completed with a 20-game winless streak.
For a 20-year-old Picard, it was a good season personally with 40 factors (16 objectives, 24 assists) in 67 video games. And the painful marketing campaign supplied classes that that Picard might soak up early in his profession. It received higher. A lot better.
Within the ensuing offseason, Hartford affiliated with the close by Springfield Indians. Future AHL Corridor of Fame defenseman John Stevens came to visit from Hershey and introduced a brand new stage of depth to the roster. Jimmy Roberts, coming off a Calder Cup championship main Springfield as a New York Islanders affiliate, returned to the Indians.
Picard’s work earned him a recall to Hartford, and he scored in his NHL debut on Nov. 29, 1990, at Pittsburgh. For his third NHL recreation, the Quebec native skated towards the Canadiens on the Discussion board. And the season ended with Picard and his Springfield teammates lifted the Calder Cup. Picard had delivered a league-leading 56 regular-season objectives and took a spot on the AHL First All-Star Crew.
“Jimmy Roberts was the important thing to our Calder Cup,” Picard acknowledged. “Jimmy made me a greater athlete. He believed in me. The spirit, the environment, Jimmy made us imagine, and it was enjoyable going to the rink.”
Within the subsequent 4 years, the ups and downs continued. He made the Whalers roster out of camp in 1991 and performed for the primary time towards the Nordiques at Le Colisée, simply 10 minutes from his hometown of Beauport. Then he was acquired by San Jose and battled via one other attempting season in 1992-93, making 25 appearances for a Sharks workforce that received 11 of 84 video games.
In 1993-94, he scored 41 objectives within the common season and one other 11 in 17 playoff video games, serving to Barry Trotz’s Portland Pirates to the Calder Cup.
“Barry Trotz was the identical sort of head coach as Jimmy Roberts,” Picard defined. “He had that very same sort of presence within the locker room that everyone wished to play for him. And we did. We did.
“These years you don’t overlook.”
What’s extra, Picard, now a two-time AHL champion, hadn’t even reached his most completed touchdown spot. After two seasons with the Prince Edward Senators, the place he posted 69 objectives and 171 factors in 112 video games, he went to the Grand Rapids Griffins, a 1996 growth workforce within the former Worldwide Hockey League. He performed 4 seasons in Grand Rapids, and noticed time within the NHL with St. Louis and Edmonton. Picard spent the 2000-01 season in Philadelphia with the Phantoms and Flyers earlier than spending a season in Germany, then returned for 2 extra years in Grand Rapids, by now a member of the AHL. He skated 5 seasons taking part in semi-pro hockey again in Quebec earlier than formally retiring in 2009.
To this present day, Picard is tied for thirty sixth in AHL historical past with 638 factors, and his 283 objectives rank twenty eighth all-time. His 71 playoff factors are tied for twenty third whereas his 37 postseason objectives tie him for thirty seventh. He had two nods as a First Crew AHL All-Star and two extra on the Second Crew. His 158 objectives, 222 assists and 380 factors all high the Griffins’ franchise leaderboard, and he additionally completed with 166 NHL appearances. The Griffins retired his quantity 7 in 2022.
Picard made the transfer into scouting with St. Louis in 2009 and he’s nonetheless there, having helped to construct the Blues’ 2019 Stanley Cup championship workforce and having held roles as an novice scout and director of European scouting.
Put all of these numbers, honors, and achievements apart, although, and Picard is de facto only a hockey lifer, somebody grateful to have been capable of construct a post-playing profession position within the sport.
“I’m very, very, very fortunate to have that job,” Picard mentioned of his position with the Blues. “I’m very pleased.”
Picard thinks again to 2001 when he had a chance to stick with the Philadelphia group. As a substitute he signed to play abroad, a call that he says helped him notice that even at an older age and with much less of an opportunity to compete for NHL time, the American Hockey League supplied him an opportunity to mentor, to show younger teammates find out how to actually develop into a professional. Identical to he needed to do when he went via that grueling rookie season.
“It was not me,” Picard mentioned bluntly of his season in Europe. “My league was the American Hockey League. If I might play once more tomorrow, I might, you already know what I imply? I like it a lot.”
On the American Hockey League beat for 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at the moment covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
