Bryce Pickford, his three brothers and their father Jim took a break from work at their family farm near Chauvin, Alta. last summer to discuss realistic goals for the Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman this season.
The talk quickly turned to specific numbers.
"I was thinking like 40 goals, and then my dad's like 'well, I think you can get 50," Pickford, 19, recalled in a telephone interview. "So then I scratched 40 and we put 50 as the goal. It's pretty crazy I'm close there, but I have to have a good finish if I want it."
Pretty crazy might be an understatement, considering the first-year Tigers captain plays defence and wasn't even selected in his first year of NHL Draft eligibility a couple of years ago before the Montreal Canadiens snapped him up in the third round in 2025.
The six-foot-one Pickford has a whopping 44 goals in 54 games, the fourth-most for a defenceman in a single season in CHL history and the most by a blue-liner since 1989.
Pickford would need six goals in his final two games, Friday and Saturday against the Red Deer Rebels, to tie Lawrence Sacharuk's record of 50, set in 1971-72 with the Saskatoon Blades. Keep in mind that Sacharuk and those at Nos. 2 and 3 on the list (Greg Hawgood with 48 in 1987-88 and Bryan Fogarty with 47 in 1988-89) needed either 65 or 66 games to hit those totals.
If not for an injury that kept him out nearly a month earlier this season, Pickford likely would be in the record books already.
"I didn't think his skating was maybe quite as quick as he needed (before this season). But he's a way better skater this year than last year," Tigers general manager/coach Willie Desjardins said. "He just has something inside of him where he wants to be a pro and he works at his game. You've got to give him credit. ... He came in as a different player (this season)."
Pickford started giving the Tigers a huge boost after Desjardins acquired him in a trade with the Seattle Thunderbirds prior to the 2024-25 season.
He helped the Thunderbids win the WHL title and advance to the Memorial Cup final in 2023, but Pickford played a far less flashy role, scoring only eight goals in 121 career regular-season games with Seattle.
Desjardins is the first to admit he didn't see this kind of explosion as a possibility when he made the trade. But he did feel there was untapped offensive potential.
"I talked to people and they said he had really good skill, way better skill than people were giving him credit for," said Desjardins, a former head coach for the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings.
"I went more on what people had told me about him. The things I liked about him are how hard he competed and how hard he played."
A 20-goal season in Pickford's first year in Medicine Hat was followed by 13 goals in 18 playoff games en route to another WHL title and Memorial Cup runner-up showing in 2025. Pickford's performance convinced the Canadiens to take him 81st overall after the disappointment of going uncalled in the 2024 draft.
"I kind of just took it day by day after (the 2024 draft) and just wanted to prove every team wrong," Pickford said. "It was a huge motivator for me the rest of the summer, and going into the season, I had something to play for right away."
This year, Pickford has taken his game to another level after a hard summer of work on a rink in a nearby barn under the watchful eye of his dad, a former junior player and Bryce's longtime trainer. They focused heavily on fascia training — exercises and movements designed to work on the body's connective tissues.
Despite not having Gavin McKenna as a teammate after the CHL's most outstanding player transferred to Penn State University last summer, Pickford hasn't missed a beat.
Without McKenna and several other key players from last year's championship team, the Tigers are still tied for top spot in the WHL's Eastern Conference with the Prince Albert Raiders.
"I think a lot of people thought we were going to lose a lot of guys and be a lower team in this league," said Pickford, who is plus-53 this season. "But I think we just talked at the beginning of the year and it was like let's just prove everybody wrong and (discussed) how good it would feel if we won without all those guys."
Proving others wrong seems to be a theme of Pickford's junior career. The Canadian junior team did not invite him to camp in December for the 2026 world juniors, where Canada won bronze.
"It's just another thing I could use to fire me up in games," said Pickford, who got a nice gift days before the world juniors when the Habs signed him to an entry-level deal.
"(The national junior team) obviously didn't see something in me that they wanted. I didn't get an invite, so I kind of keep in the back of my head game by game."
Desjardins believes Pickford's off-season paved the way for him to make a bigger impact, and noted he put in the work on and off the ice while maintaining his gruelling schedule at the family farm.
Pickford said farm life has helped him become the player he is.
"I think it teaches me a lot of life lessons," he said. "Taking care of animals is a huge one before me. We do chores before we even eat breakfast because we want them to eat. Sometimes, if something goes wrong, it's hours of work. I think it's an important skill to have to get up and do stuff early in the morning. I really love the mornings.
"It's been a lot of hard days, but looking back on it, I'm super grateful my dad grew us up on the farm because it teaches us what hard work looks like."
Games to watch
Friday, March 20: Moncton Wildcats (48-10-2-2) at Charlottetown Islanders (33-21-2-6), 6 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. AT
The Wildcats are one point up on the Chicoutimi Sagueneens for first place in the QMJHL entering a season-ending home-and-home series with Charlottetown. It won't be easy. The Islanders are 9-1 in their past 10.
Friday, March 20: Windsor Spitfires (43-15-6-2) at London Knights (39-22-4-1), 7 p.m. ET
Only one division title remains up for grabs in the OHL. The Spitfires can clinch the Midwest Division ahead of the Flint Firebirds with a win in their penultimate game of the season.
Saturday, March 21: Ohio State Buckeyes (14-20-2) at Michigan Wolverines (28-7-1) in Big Ten final, 8 p.m. ET
If the surprising Buckeyes pull off another upset, they'll grab an automatic berth in the 16-team national championship and take an at-large spot away from a potential bubble team. The brackets for the NCAA tournament will be unveiled Sunday.
Saturday, March 21: Seattle Thunderbirds (28-27-6-4) at Portland Winterhawks (29-30-6-1), 9:05 p.m. ET / 6:05 p.m. PT
These two teams and the Victoria Royals enter the final weekend in a tight battle for the final two playoff spots in the WHL's Western Conference.
