Patrick WilliamsTheahl.com’s writer
on Monday, Michel Picard (Michel Picard) Enter the Hall of Fame of the American Hocket League.
But returned to Bin Emton, New York for more than 35 years. Picard is one of the most difficult experiences that Hartford Whalers break into AHL. His 1989-90 Bin Emton whaling team set the Indiminious Ahl record with a score of 11-60-9, and won the minimum victory and most of the losses in 80 games.
With the end of the season, the whaler only won four games in the last 40 games, and the situation became worse. They ended the victory of 20 consecutive victories.
For a 20 -year -old Picard, this is a respected season. In 67 games, 40 points (16 goals, 24 assists). The painful exercise provides a lesson that Picard can absorb in the early stages of career. It becomes better. better.
In the subsequent off -season period, Hartford belonged to the nearby Springfield Indians. The defender of the future AHL Hall of Fame John Stevens Walking from a good time has brought new intensity to the lineup. Jimmy RobertsThe champion of the New York Islanders’ branches as the New York Island returned to the Indians.
Picard’s work won his recall, and he scored for the first time in Pittsburgh’s NHL on November 29, 1990. In his third NHL competition, Quebec skate with the Canadian team on the forum. In the season, Picard and his Springfield teammate raised the Cald Cup. Picard achieved the league’s 56 regular season goals and won a place in the AHL’s first All -Star team.
“Jimmy Roberts is the key to our Calder Cup,” said Picard. “Jimmy makes me a better athlete. He believes me. Jimmy (Jimmy) makes us believe in the spirit, atmosphere, and skating rinks.”
In the next four years, the ups and downs are uncertain. In 1991, he set off the list of whaling people from the camp, and for the first time in Northern Europe, a Northern Europe that was against Lecolisée, only 10 minutes from his hometown of Beauport. He was then acquired by San Jose and fought in another attempt of 1992-93 to play 25 shark teams who won 11 games in 84 games.
In 1993-94, he scored 41 goals in the regular season, and in the 17 playoffs in the 17th playoffs, to help Barry Trotz (Barry Trotz)Portland pirates to the Cald Cup.
Piad explained: “Barry Trotz is the same as Jimmy Roberts.” “He has the same type in the locker room, everyone wants to perform for him. We do it. It is done.
“You will not forget those years.”
More importantly, Picard is now winning the AHL championship twice, and has not even reached his most successful landing point. In the two seasons with Prince Edward Senator, he scored 69 goals and 171 points in 112 games. He went to the 1996 Expansion Team Girinus in the 1996 International Music Hocket League. He played four seasons in Grand Rapids and saw time with St. Louis and Edmonton in NHL. Picard spent the phantom and leaflets in the 2000-01 season in Philadelphia, and then spent a season in Germany, and then returned to Grand Rapids for another two years. He is now member of AHL. Prior to the official retirement in 2009, he skated for five seasons to play half -professional hockey in Quebec.
To this day, Picard ranked 36th in AHL history with 638 points, and his 283 goals have always ranked 28th. His 71st playoffs scored the 23rd, and his 37 playoffs scored him 37th. He nodded in the first lineup AHL All -Star, and there were two nods in the second team. His 158 goals, 222 assists and 380 points ranked the highest on the Griffins’s franchise list, and he also completed 166 NHL appearances. Griffin retired in 2022.
Picard participated in the reconnaissance with St. Louis in 2009. He was still there to help build the 2019 Stanley Cup champion of Blues and serve as amateur scouts and European scouts director.
However, put all these numbers, honors and achievements aside. Picada is actually just a life of a hockey. People are glad to establish a career in this sport.
“I’m fortunate to find this job,” Picad said when he talked about his role in Bruce. “I am very happy.”
Picard remembered that in 2001, he had the opportunity to stay in Philadelphia. Instead, he signed a game overseas, and he said that this decision helped him realize that even if he was older and did not have the opportunity to participate in NHL time, the American hockey alliance provided him with the opportunity to guide him. You can teach young teammates how to be true. Become professionals. Just as he had to do that difficult rookie season.
“It’s not me,” Picard said bluntly to his season in Europe. “My Alliance is the American Hockey Alliance. If I can play again tomorrow, will I know what I mean? I like it very much.”
In the fifty years of the American Hockey Alliance, theahl.com writer Patrick Williams is currently covering the alliance of NHL.COM and FLOSPORTS, and is the regular contributor of Siriusxm Nhl New Network Radio. He won AHL James H. Ellri Commemorative Award for his outstanding league report in 2016.
