Bryce Pickford Picking Up Where He Left Off

In his first game back, Pickford recorded an assist in a 3-0 win against the Hurricanes on Friday night, allowing him to maintain his spot as the player with the highest points per game in the entire WHL. However, it was Saturday that he really showed that his pursuit of being the highest-scoring defenseman of the 21st century is still alive and well.

Pickford’s goal came on a 3-on-2 play where his teammate Andrew Basha dropped it into the slot for him to snipe it past the Hurricanes’ goaltender with 17 seconds left in overtime for the game-winner.

On top of his overtime goal, Pickford already had an assist on a power play goal scored by Liam Ruck during the first period of Saturday’s game. With his goal and assist, Pickford now has 65 points in 44 games.

Even with the 12 games that he missed, Pickford is still on pace to beat the CHL goal-scoring record for a defenseman since 2000 . At his current pace, the Habs prospect is on pace to score 43 goals, which would allow him to pass Marc-Andre Bergeron’s record of 42 goals from the 2000-01 season when the former Habs power play specialist was playing for the Shawinigan Cataractes of the QMJHL. As for the record in the WHL, he had already passed it before his injury, as it was held by former Medicine Hat Tigers defenseman Kris Russell, who scored 32 goals during the 2006-07 season.

Unfortunately, due to his injury, Pickford is almost guaranteed not to reach the 50-goal pace he was looking like he’d get before he got hurt. With just 12 games left and 16 goals needed to reach the mark, it’s nearly impossible to get to 50 goals, although with his booming shot, he could hit 45 goals realistically. Nonetheless, owning the record for most goals by a defenseman since 2000, which is an era where goal scoring has gone down a lot, is still an amazing accomplishment.

In the history of the CHL, only one defenseman ever scored 50 goals, which was Lawrence Sacharuk, who reached it all the way back in 1971-72 with the Saskatoon Blades. Back in 1988-89, former Quebec Nordiques defenseman Bryan Fogarty scored 47 goals in 66 games for the Niagara Falls Thunder. With Pickford’s pace, he would rank 3rd all-time in goals by a defenseman in the CHL, which is incredible considering it would be the most in 37 years.

Pickford’s final 12 games will surely be watched closely as he attempts to score the most goals by a CHL defenseman in the last 37 years.

Do you think Pickford will reach 43 goals by the end of the WHL season?