Welcome to our series on who wore each number best for the Penguins.
The idea is being openly borrowed from our new hockey writer, Cody Tucker, and his project at the Lansing State Journal covering all the uniform numbers worn through Michigan State football history, one that’s been well received by their readers and prompted heavy discussion and debate.
Under my organization, and following the voting of a big chunk of our staff, we’ll publish one new one each day until completion, which should be right around the start of training camp.
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Name: Alexandre Picard
Number: 54
Position: Defenseman
Born: July 5, 1985, in Gatineau, Quebec
Seasons with Penguins: 2011-12
Statistics with Penguins: 17 games, four assists in regular season
WHY PICARD?
Picard is the first and only player to wear No. 54 for the Penguins, and he did so for 17 games in the 2011-12 season.
Picard came to the Penguins with over 200 games of NHL experience in his six-year career. He made his NHL debut with the Flyers, the team that drafted him in the third round, and also played for Tampa Bay, Ottawa, Carolina, and Montreal. He had spent most of his NHL career as a 6th or 7th defenseman, and he was considered a depth signing for the Penguins. At the time, there were seven defensemen ahead of him with one-way NHL contracts.
Kris Letang was out with a nagging injury, and Zbynek Michalek was placed on injured reserve in November, so the Penguins recalled Picard on Nov. 3. Two days later, Picard made his Penguins debut in Los Angeles. He remained in Pittsburgh for six games, and was scoreless with a plus-4 rating in that span before being reassigned to Wilkes-Barre.
Picard came back up for one more game in November, then again on Dec. 5 when Deryk Engelland joined Letang and Michalek on the injured list. He played 10 more games over two stints in Pittsburgh, amassing four points, including a two-assist night on Dec. 17 against Buffalo. Picard was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre for the final time on Dec. 30.
Not long after being re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre, Picard sustained an upper-body injury that kept him out of the lineup for five weeks. In total, he recorded eight goals and 13 assists in his 43 regular season games for Wilkes-Barre. He registered six assists in 12 postseason games as Wilkes-Barre was eliminated in the second round.
WHAT’S HE DOING NOW?
Picard's 2011-12 season was his last in North America.
Picard played for the Czech HC Lev Praha of the KHL, Graz 99ers of the Austrian EBEL, ERC Ingolstadt in the German DEL, and HC Fribourg-Gottéron in the Swiss NLA in the years after leaving the Penguins organization.
He returned to the DEL last season with Düsseldorfer EG, and will play in Düsseldorfer again next season.
IT WAS SPOKEN
"He’s a guy that has a heavy shot and is a guy that can be used on the power play. He’s a guy who’s fit into a fifth and sixth pairing for other teams and we’re going to expect him to come in and do that. Alex Picard was a guy we identified as a guy who is an NHL player and can play NHL games for us." -- Dan Bylsma on Picard
HONORABLE MENTIONS AT NO. 54:
None
ANY DEBATE?
Picard is the only player to have ever worn 54 for the Penguins.
Tomorrow: Finally, we have another big number. Dejan will take No. 55.
Yesterday: Rusty Fitzgerald (nobody has ever worn No. 53)
