Alexandre Picard rolled out of bed Monday morning, awoken by a telephone call. Upon picking up the receiver, he discovered four other people already on the line.
“They woke me up,” said the former Lewiston Maineiacs’ winger, “but it was OK, because it was good news.”
It took a bit longer than some people might have expected, but Picard on Monday became the newest member of the Columbus Blue Jackets when he signed a three-year deal with the NHL club.
“It is a good feeling to have,” said Picard, who will turn 20 on October 6.
Last season, Picard scored 40 goals for the Maineiacs, sixth best in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and was second on the team and eighth in the league in points with 85. He was the Blue Jackets’ first selection, eighth overall, in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, and was the first player from Lewiston ever selected by an NHL team.
“I am proud to be a Maineiac,” said Picard, “So I will try to represent the Maineiacs there like I always do.”
Picard, a 6-foot-2-inch, 190-pound native of Les Saules, Quebec, was ranked third among North American skaters by Central Scouting leading into the 2004 draft.
In 206 career games for the Lewiston franchise (the first two of his four years were played in Sherbrooke), Picard registered 93 goals and 104 assists for 197 points and 289 penalty minutes, twice finishing among the league’s top 10 goal scorers. He participated in the 2004 CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game and also represented Team QMJHL in both the 2003 and 2004 Canada/Russia Challenge.
“Alexandre Picard has established himself as one of the most dangerous goal scorers in Junior Hockey,” Columbus general manager Doug MacLean said in a press release Monday. “He’s a natural goal scorer who plays hard, crashes the net and has a physical edge. He’s a big part of our future and we think he has a chance to make an impact on our team as early as this season.”
Picard was also excited about the prospect of playing in the NHL as early as this year.
“I am just going to try my best to impress them at training camp,” said Picard. “They told me I have a good chance to make the team this year, so that is what I will try to do.”
Picard becomes the second former Maineiac to sign an NHL contract since the end of the lockout. Goaltender Jaroslav Halak signed a two-way deal with Montreal in July.
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