Brad Lambert was in no man’s land last Tuesday at the Bell MTS Iceplex.

As the Manitoba Moose geared up to practice that morning, Lambert was on a separate sheet of ice — decked out in Manitoba’s practice attire — working on drills with Mike Keane, the Winnipeg Jets’ player development coordinator. While the Jets’ 2022 first-round pick was “released” to the Moose on October 7th, he didn’t ink his entry-level contract until October 12th. But even since joining the Moose, Lambert remains in limbo.

He’s still CHL eligible — with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds owning his rights — and there’s still a possibility Winnipeg send him to juniors.

“I haven’t been told straight up what I’m doing,” Lambert said after his first practice with the Moose last Thursday when asked if he has any indication of where he’s playing this year.

Chaz Lucius is sort of in the same boat.

The Jets’ 2021 first-round pick is CHL-eligible as well, with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks owning the 19-year-old forwards rights.

“I’d say it’s the first time in my career where I’ve really had to take it day-by-day and not really know where I’m going to play,”  Lucius explained to Full Press Coverage during a one-on-one interview last Tuesday. “I guess at the end of the day, whatever decision the Jets make will be the right decision and I’ll be happy with that.” 

Now, after a weekend where both scored goals and made some eye-catching plays, the notion of sending either to Juniors may sound preposterous to some. But the transition from the amateur ranks to the pros is no small feat.

“Guys are just bigger, faster, stronger – all the cliche things but it’s true,” 28-year-old Moose defenceman Ashton Sautner, a veteran of 283 career AHL games, said last Tuesday. “It’s a big adjustment but I think with every player, it takes time.”

According to Puckpedia.com, Winnipeg can send Lucius or Lambert to the CHL at any point this season. Even without a firm deadline, odds are we’ll have a concrete answer on both fronts sooner rather than later. 

Let’s take a look at each player’s situation. 

Brad Lambert

You rarely see players as young as Lambert, 18, in the minors.

Over the last 15 years, there have been just 17 forwards to play in 30+ AHL games at his age.

Having spent the past two seasons playing pro hockey in Liiga, it’d be fair to assume that someone like Lambert — with dynamic speed and high-end playmaking ability —would have nothing left to gain in Juniors. But that’s not necessarily true. The Finnish forward — once widely regarded as a consensus top-five talent for the 2022 draft, only to end up falling to Winnipeg at pick #30 — has had an unusual development path. Highly touted since signing a Liiga contract at 15, Lambert’s skillset had scouts salivating through his teen years. However, his flashes of brilliance were overshadowed by his lack of intensity and consistency which ultimately played a big part in his draft day drop.

“I think my speed translates pretty well to that game,” Lambert said as he reflected on his NHL exhibition games after the Moose’s practice last Thursday. “Obviously, It was a big eye-opener to realize some of the things you need to work on.” 

And Lambert’s shortcomings were quite apparent in his first two AHL games.

In game one, Lambert wasn’t really engaged. He wasn’t very involved offensively, often straying to the perimeter as the smaller ice surface appeared to suffocate him. He failed to weaponize his speed on the other side of the puck, too, letting up when vying for loose pucks and defending puck carriers. There just wasn’t any urgency in his game. Lambert, who finished with a -3 rating, told reporters post-game that he wasn’t happy with his AHL debut.

“I think I need to win more one-on-one battles to get the puck more and to be able to use my skill with the puck,” Lambert said. 

Morrison didn’t echo Lambert’s disappointment, though. Instead, he preached patience.

“It’s a process. He wants it to happen probably a little quicker but I didn’t mind Brad’s game, either,” Morrison said after the Saturday matinee against Rockford. “We’re not looking for him to go end-to-end, we’re looking for him to learn the pro game.”

While Lambert’s showing in the second game was a bit better — highlighted by a nifty breakaway goal fresh out of the penalty box — he still appeared out of place. He was once again pushed off the puck very easily and albeit showing some nice handles, he was hesitant to attack the net or drive down low, often stopping up at the blue line and killing a rush chance. And his passing was out-of-sync, too.

Before the season even started though, Morrison touched on the adjustment Lambert faces in jumping into the AHL at his age.

“I think the biggest thing right away is getting him playing the system properly so it buys him ice time,” Morrison said after the Moose’s practice on October 9th. “For him to be really good at his game, he’s going to have to get on the walls in the D-zone as a winger. And he’s going to have to move the puck and make the right decisions with the puck through the neutral zone.”

Morrison then added a caveat.

“But we wouldn’t want to make too many rules for him,” the Moose’s bench boss cautioned. “We want him to play [his game] because speed and creativity is his [strength].”

And that’s why the AHL may not be the place for him, just yet.

Considering he hasn’t played a full season with his peers since two years before his draft year, Lambert hasn’t been able to play freely and just dominate in a while. In Liiga, Lambert was treading water in a bottom-six role and doing whatever he could to stay in the lineup and his individual progression wasn’t at the forefront. Interestingly enough, when Jets Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Hillier spoke to the media after the 2022 draft, he said he was hoping for Lambert to play in the WHL this year.

So, what’s changed? Nothing, really. The WHL probably still makes the most sense for Lambert.

Going to Seattle forges Lambert an opportunity to dominate against his peers and in turn, hopefully, regain some confidence. If he’s going to be an offensive playmaker at the NHL level one day, he’s got to develop as one in his formative years and he’ll need plenty of ice time and puck touches to do so. In the WHL, Lambert will be able to just play his game and hone his offensive craft right away. In the AHL, he’ll have to learn the pro game first and get acclimated — a process that takes time.

For now, it might be best for him to get a year of Major Junior hockey under his belt before transitioning to the North American pro game. 

 

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Chaz Lucius

When Jets training camp first got underway, it wasn’t clear where Lucius would play this year.

The Lawrence Kansas native, who recorded 19 points in 24 games with the University of Minnesota Gophers last season, was coming off an ankle injury that cut his freshman season short.

“Whatever the case may be, it’s pretty open and all about just seeing how I play and how I perform,” Lucius said. 

But after having a profound impact in his first two AHL games, things appear to be tilted in favour of him staying with Manitoba this season.

Lucius, who centred Manitoba’s first line alongside Alex Limoges and Mikey Eyssimont, was one of the best forwards in last weekend’s series. Lucius racked up a team-high 9 even-strength scoring chances —  with 5 of them coming from the inner slot —and averaged 16:32 minutes of ice time per game. He also scored his first pro goal thanks to a net-front tip on the power play. And by the end of the first game, he was already really feeling himself as he nearly converted on this slick stickwork.

Imagine if Chaz Lucius scored here. #MBMoose #NHLJets pic.twitter.com/UHwfqisllh

— Jacob Stoller (@JLStoller) October 20, 2022

“I feel like the coaching staff here really believes in me and the team as well,” Lucius said after his pro debut on Saturday. “So I think with regards to that, I just, I don’t know maybe [feel] a bit of freedom to play my game [while] still [playing] both sides of the puck really well.”

Given how poised Lucius was with the puck, let alone how fearless he was while getting to the dirty areas of the ice to fight for pucks, I’d be surprised if he was sent to Portland.

 

All Stats Courtesy of InStat

 

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