Jared Picklyk ready to come off the bench

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on September 7, 2022.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Hurricanes season starter Jared Picklyk watches the second half of the Team Red and Team White instraquad game from the bench on Monday at the Enmax Centre.

Lethbridge Hurricanes goalie Jared Picklyk will begin the season as the No. 1 goalie for the team due to Bryan Thomson’s injury.

Picklyk took a couple of weeks off after the completion of last season and knowing Thomson would be on the shelf to start the season, he knew he had big boots to fill.

“I spent a lot of time with Eli Wilson and Kevin Swanson throughout the summer and skating and working every day,” said Picklyk.

He went into his preparations thinking that he would be the starting goalie to start the season.

“Just really good composure is what I found,” said Picklyk, on what he learned from Thomson last season.

“He uses his size really well and he plays the puck extremely well too and when it comes to rebounds, his rebound control was really good. I was working on my hands a lot and I was working on playing the puck a lot more too because I felt like I struggled with that too last season.”

The Kelowna, B.C. product also worked on narrowing his stance so he can play on his feet a lot better and move quicker.

“So I worked on that a lot and I worked on holding my feet more instead of collapsing into RVH (reverse vertical horizontal) and what not on the post.”

It’s an awesome feeling for Picklyk to start the season between the pipes.

“It’s really a dream come true at this point,” he said.

“I’ve dreamed about this since the day the I was drafted and I’m looking forward to this season.”

Head coach Brent Kisio thought Picklyk had a good camp.

“It’s going to be great opportunity for him to come in and start us off the right way and be a starter for us at the start of the season. We’ve got a good battle going in goal right now. We have a few kids here that are battling for that spot. We’ll continue that into exhibition season.”

Kisio thinks Thomson will be back in mid-October.