CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Owen Pickering looks different this year.
Pickering, the Penguins' 2022 first-round pick, is still on the lanky side. Last year after being drafted in Montreal, though, he was a real string bean.
That's understandable, of course. Pickering was a late bloomer physically. It was only in 2019 that he was considered undersized -- especially for a defenseman -- at 5 foot 7, 145 pounds. After a growth spurt that had him shoot up nine inches in three years, he came into last summer's development camp at 6 foot 4 and about 175 pounds.
The Swift Current Broncos blueliner had the height, but the weight and strength were slow to catch up. But after a full year of working on his diet and training routine in the gym, Pickering has made massive strides where he needs it the most.
It's clear just by looking at Pickering that he's much stronger now. He's nowhere near as slender, and looks more filled-out with visible muscle. The scale tells the real story -- he weighed in at 194 on the first day of development camp. Pickering said that it's still not whee he wants to be, but he's happy with the progress he's made in such a short time.
Aside from just increased work in the weight room, Pickering gives a lot of credit to Dr. Marc Bubbs, the Penguins' performance nutritionist. Bubbs has Pickering eating about six meals a day plus a couple of shakes in order to continue to get bigger.
"I eat a lot of food, but it helps," Pickering told me on Day 1 of development camp at the Lemieux Complex on Saturday. "It's not easy sometimes, but it's not bad. You have to do it, so you try to enjoy it."
The good news with that is that it's good weight, lean muscle. As a result, Pickering hasn't seen those added pounds weigh him down when it comes to his skating.
"I haven't felt the weight yet run too heavy, it's not there yet," Pickering explained. "It's been pretty good, I feel stronger and more powerful."
Penguins director of player development Tom Kostopoulos said that about 10 of those pounds have come on fairly recently, since the end of Pickering's season, and that he's "still moving as well as he was before."
That was evident in the Penguins tournament to close out development camp on Monday. It's hardly an evaluation tournament and isn't "real" hockey at three-on-three with a running clock, but Pickering's skating stood out.
"Just the way he carries himself on and off the ice, he's full of confidence," Kostopoulos said. "He moves up and down the ice a ton. His reach and his length are there, and the playmaking making ability that he had out there just finding guys back door."
Pickering had a good year in the WHL, captaining the Broncos and playing on the left side of the top defense pairing. His nine goals in 61 games matched his total from the year before, and his 36 assists were 12 more than the year before. His Broncos fell just short of a spot in the postseason, a bittersweet result for Pickering. Bitter for obvious reasons, but sweet because the early exit allowed him to get some games in at the next level.
Pickering Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on an AHL amateur tryout deal after his WHL season ended, and the arrangement allowed him to get in some professional-level games without eating into his NHL entry-level contract. Wilkes-Barre was mathematically eliminated from playoff contention about a week later. The rest of the season for Wilkes-Barre became about getting some of those younger guys some valuable experience, and Pickering was no exception. He played in eight games and skated in a top-four role and quarterbacked a power play unit. Pickering didn't put up any points in those games, and there were definitely some moments when he struggled in his own end. The experience was a success either way because it gave Pickering an early taste of AHL hockey.
"Obviously, it's a transition," Pickering said of those games. "It was super cool to play pro hockey, I was very grateful for that opportunity, I think it went pretty well. The cliches about it being faster and stronger are all true. I think it only helped motivate me for the summer and going into next year."
Wilkes-Barre head coach J.D. Forrest was encouraged with what he saw from the Penguins' top defense prospect in that short stint.
"It's a heck of a jump going from juniors to the American League," Forrest said. "But every day we saw progression, and he's got a lot of tools. You know, I think one of the biggest things is he's playing against men all of a sudden. And he's doing a great job of getting physically ready for just advancing in his career. But what we liked was each day, there was a progression, he picked up a little bit of something, he got a little bit smarter, he understood how to play against his competition. It just shows his hockey smarts, which is something we always value."
Forrest said that what he'd like to see Pickering work on the most is his "calculator" when it comes to offensive-defensive risk and what he can get away with at the pro level, which is an incredibly common thing to say about any offensive-minded player once they turn pro, especially offensive defensemen. It's hardly a knock on Pickering, just the next step in his development.
"When you start moving up the levels, your decision-making has to be made a little bit more calculated," Forrest said. "I think he's understood that just from his short time with us, he's a real smart kid, a student of the game. He's got a lot of tools. Obviously, the physical component, for any 18 or 19 year old, you're trying to move up the ranks. He's working on that. That in itself because of his hockey smarts and his skill set will help him progress."
One thing is for certain now -- he won't be making that progress in Wilkes-Barre next season, even if it's what would be best for him. The NHL and Canadian major junior leagues have a transfer agreement that prevent junior-eligible players from going to the AHL full-time until they are 20 years old, an arrangement aimed at preventing the AHL from poaching all of the top junior talent, allowing those leagues to remain competitive and continue to churn out strong talent. For one more season, Pickering's options are either straight to the NHL or back to junior hockey in western Canada.
Since Pickering isn't quite ready to make it to the NHL full-time -- especially knowing that he needs to continue to get stronger -- it's almost certain that this coming season will be spent back in the WHL.
That doesn't mean that he won't try his hardest to stay right here in Pittsburgh, though.
"My goal coming into any camp is to make the team," Pickering said. "Whether last year that was realistic or not, I'm going to come in with that same mentality this year. I'm going to try make the team and I don't see a point in coming into a camp and not thinking that."
It's a great attitude for Pickering to have, and one that should have him pushing for NHL time sooner rather than later.
