2022 NHL Draft Profile: Owen Pickering

The National Hockey League Combine can be an intimidating event for prospects.
Just think about it: meeting with NHL teams and answering questions about your game, performing fitness tests with strength and conditioning coaches watching your every move, and hoping your performance is enough to impress everyone in attendance.
Thankfully for Owen Pickering, he didn't head to this year's event alone.
The 18-year-old, who stands 6'5" and 179 pounds, was one of many Manitoban prospects that flew to Buffalo, NY for the Combine.
And at one time or another, he's been on the ice with all of them.

"I've been best friends with Josh Filmon since grade three," said Pickering, who lives in St. Adolphe, just 10 kilometres south of Winnipeg. "Reid Dyck, I played with him in Swift Current. Adam Ingram I've trained with and I'm close with him. Tyler Brennan, I trained with him too."
Another one of the familiar faces? His cousin Denton Mateychuk of Winnipeg (ranked 14th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting), who plays for the Western Hockey League's Moose Jaw Warriors.
Pickering - also a defenceman, like Mateychuk - is ranked 15th and had nine goals and 33 points in 62 games with the Swift Current Broncos in 2021-22.
"We're rivals now with Moose Jaw and Swift Current, but I'm very close with him," said Pickering. "He's a great player. I'm super excited to see what he can do. I know he's going to have a lot of success. Sharing this experience with him has been very special. We're both not taking it for granted, I know that for a fact."

They were rivals during the season, but were teammates at the 2022 CHL Top Prospects game on March 23 in Kitchener, ON. They helped Team White to a 3-1 win over Team Red.
The game was during the second half of the season, during which Pickering went from 21st on Central Scouting's rankings all the way up to his current 15th.
Although, Pickering didn't have much time to enjoy his new ranking. His teammates made sure of that.
"There were definitely some screenshots getting sent to the group chat saying things like 'Are they sure? Is that a typo?' They definitely managed to keep my head small," he laughed. "It's pretty cool to see your name there and to see what people who maybe mean something think of you. It's not the be all end all. That comes July 7."
But before July 7 - the first day of the NHL Draft - can arrive, the Combine is one of the last opportunities for teams, and prospects, to chat.
Pickering talked to all 32 teams, which meant a handshake with Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff.
"Shaking Cheveldayoff's hand was a special moment," Pickering said. "Growing up being a Jets fan, maybe it was a little extra surreal. I feel like the interview went well. Teams have different styles and you never really know if something went well or not until they draft you, but I feel it went well and it was a special experience."
Perhaps what was equally special was Pickering's performance in the fitness testing at the Combine.
He placed first in one of the most grueling tests, lasting 15:30 in the MaxVO2 test - which measures the oxygen uptake, heart rate, speed and/or watts at the ventilatory threshold at maximal load.
In other words, the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during exercise.
"I won it, and I don't feel like I won it," Pickering laughed, recalling the exhaustion he felt afterward.
He's put his best foot forward, and now it's just a matter of waiting for the big day to arrive.
He's back home in St. Adolphe, where flood waters covered some of the farmer fields Pickering is used to seeing.
"Where the farmers fields are supposed to be, there was a lake with white caps," he said. "We're in the clear now. It got a little scary there for a while."
As Pickering crosses days off the calendar leading up to the next big event in his career at the NHL Draft in Montreal, he's excited to once again be surrounded by familiar faces.
"I have 25 people coming. My family, Denton and I share some family obviously, and some friends too," he said. "I'm looking forward to sharing the moment with people who have given me everything growing up and always been by my side."