Prized prospect ready for the grind

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/08/2019 (2457 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The wait for Carson Lambos is over.

After two seasons as Western Canada’s most talked about blue-line prospect, the 16-year-old local product is set for full-time exposure to the major-junior hockey grind even though it’s clear he was probably capable of playing regularly as a 15-year-old.

Still, the Winnipeg Ice are trying to keep the lid on expectations for their prized prospect.

“It’s hard to say until you get him out there and you get him playing on a regular basis,” Ice associate coach Jon Klemm said in the midst of the second full day of workouts at the WHL team’s training camp at the Rink Training Centre on Friday. “He came up and played some games with us last year. It went real well. Obviously, the first game, he got a little nervous and the speed of the game, it was a pretty big jump to the Western Hockey League. But once he got comfortable and adjusted to the speed of the game, he was fine.”

Lambos’s physical maturity (he’s already a man-sized 6-0, 203 pounds), fearless manner of defending and offensive skills are big reasons he has been a steady first-round presence on most mock 2021 NHL drafts.

Klemm figures Lambos has something in common with Jared Cowen, a defenceman who broke in with the Spokane Chiefs more than a decade ago when Klemm was on the coaching staff there. Cowen went on to become the ninth-overall pick in the 2009 NHL draft.

“Physically, he’s probably ahead of a lot of 16-year-old players, but at the same time, he’s going to be playing against 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kids that are bigger and stronger,” Klemm added. “That’ll be a bit of an adjustment for him, for sure.”

Lambos, picked second overall in the 2018 bantam draft, isn’t afraid of the dirty work. In fact, during the off-season, he held a summer job at the Rink Training Centre — work that involved sweeping and mopping floors and taking out the trash.

Similarly, he’s prepared for the grunt work he’ll be expected to do on the ice.

In five regular-season games with the Ice last season, he scored his first WHL goal. With the RHA under-18 prep team, he had 15 goals and 31 points in a season shortened by injury to 26 games. That stint with the big club was crucial, even though the sample size was small.

“Yeah, just being a year older, I guess helps,” Lambos said. “I’ve been through it before. The game’s a lot harder, so it kinda makes you realize you have to show up and be ready.”

But is he affected by the expectations of others?

“Yes and no,” Lambos said.

“I expect myself to do good, but at the same time, I can’t let other people’s expectations dictate how I play.”

A top-four role on the Ice seems logical for a team undertaking a massive rebuild of its defensive corps, but the Ice may decide to bring Lambos along more slowly. 

“That’s something that’s up to him,” Klemm said of the top-four discussion. “Obviously, you don’t want to give him too much early on. You might want to gradually get him into that role, but early on, I think we want to get him in there and get him comfortable.”

NOTEWORTHY: Training camp intrasquad action continues today at the Rink Training Centre with games slated for 10 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m.

Today’s games are free and open to the public. Tickets for Sunday’s 5 p.m. showcase game are $5 each and available at the centre. Children 12 and under get in for free.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14