Lambos looking good in spotlight Winnipeg defenceman working hard ahead of NHL Draft By: Mike Sawatzky Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Thursday, Jun. 24, 2021

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This article was published 23/06/2021 (1237 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Carson Lambos is most comfortable flying under the radar.

He prefers to avoid the limelight, which could be a dicey proposition when you’re the best blue-line prospect produced in Manitoba since Ryan Pulock emerged from Grandview more than a decade ago.

But Lambos, a city boy, is getting used to the attention.

The NHL Draft is less than five weeks away and he has done his best to deal with the unrelenting hype of the past four years.

At 14, he was the can’t-miss kid chosen second overall in the WHL Draft by the Kootenay Ice and he played first-pairing minutes as a 16-year-old for the franchise when it relocated to Winnipeg.

At 17, he was pegged as a sure-fire NHL first-rounder, perhaps even a top-five pick.

But at 18, following a pandemic-inspired trip to play in Finland while the WHL was shut down and a sudden departure from the WHL East Division hub after only playing two games with the Ice due to an undeclared medical issue, the road ahead isn’t as clearly defined.

The ailment, for Carson’s part, will remain undeclared.

He will say he had a medical procedure on April 28 to correct the problem, which prevented him from playing for Canada at the U18 worlds in Texas. He has since been given a clean bill of health.

For a time, when he relocated to Finland to play for JYP and then in the East hub, he admits he felt “two, three, four or five steps behind.”

The medical details are now available to all NHL clubs. Not surprisingly, his draft stock has fallen. NHL Central Scouting has him as the 11th best skater among North American prospects in its final rankings.

“I was in a tough position this year with what I had to go through, and I feel, looking back, like I had my hands tied a little bit,” says Lambos.

“I know within myself that I still pushed myself and worked hard but there were outside circumstances that kind of affected that. So if that’s going to result in me dropping however many picks, I mean, it is what it is.

“Obviously, it’s not really what I had in mind for this year but all I can really focus on now is work hard and get ready for a training camp. I have a lot to prove next year.”

Calgary-based agent Mark Mackay acknowledges the medical uncertainty has probably affected his star client’s draft status but Carson’s blend of physicality, skating, passing skills and an NHL-calibre snapshot make him an intriguing NHL prospect.

“I really believe this guy can be a (Mark) Giordano and or a (Dan) Hamhuis,” says Mackay. “He’s gonna be a 15-year NHLer…

“He can play the power play or he can be that shutdown guy or that penalty-killer. For those reasons, I think the team that steps up in the teens (picking between No. 10 and 20 overall) and takes him, I think it’s a good buy.”

By his own admission, it’s been a difficult year for Lambos. But he’s been able to lean on his family for moral support throughout.

His brother Jonny, a 20-year-old defenceman for the Brandon Wheat Kings, has a good idea of what his younger sibling has been going through.

“There’s some teams that are concerned, possibly, that he had to have this medical procedure done,” says Jonny. “…He was really upset that he wasn’t gonna have the chance to play with the Ice (again) this year but I said, ‘You proved yourself last year, you’re obviously a really good player, a really good person and if you end up dropping in the draft because of your health or whatever… I’m sure you’re gonna make (the teams that pass on you) regret it down the road.”

The NHL Combine, cancelled due to the pandemic, was supposed to be a primary way for teams to observe and interview potential draft picks. Now, Zoom calls with prospects will have to suffice.

And the first question is no surprise.

“We’ve gotten a clearance letter from the doctor that did my procedure and I’m in contact with a lot of the teams and they’re all asking about it and I’m able to now say that I’m back to 100 per cent and it’s not going to be an issue moving forward,” says Carson.

What else do they ask about?

“It varies from team to team,” says Carson, an alternate captain with the Ice as a 17-year-old. “It’s a lot of those kind of standard questions like, what’s the strength of your game? What are the weaknesses? What do you want to work on? When do you think you’ll be ready to play in the NHL and where do you see yourself being drafted and then some teams have sports psychologists… that want to evaluate your character maybe, or your mental state.

“So there’s some interesting questions that go along with those ones as well that dig pretty deep.”

Mom Simone Lambos says her kids have strong but distinctly different personalities: Jonny, undrafted by the NHL, is more serious while Carson is more likely to find humour in a situation.

“There’s just an interesting dynamic between the two of them, particularly at this point in their lives, right?” says Simone, who has spent 28 years as a firefighter with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service. “They might be going in different directions hockey-wise but both have great strengths and they don’t mind pointing out each other’s weaknesses from time to time but that is far and fewer between.”

The brothers support for one another but they’ve also been pushing each other in their home-based gym with rinks and public workout facilities closed during the current health restrictions. Dubbed the ‘Gritty Garage’ by Simone, Carson and Jonny assembled enough equipment recently — borrowing and buying extra pieces — and have been lifting weights five or six times a week.

“It’s pretty Rocky-esque,” says Simone. “They’re very determined to get their workouts and so they make it work somehow.”

Also, once a week, Carson runs sprints up Garbage Hill. He credits parents — dad Steve is a local realtor — for instilling a keen interest in fitness from an early age.

“Obviously, it’s not really what I had in mind for this year but all I can really focus on now is work hard and get ready for a training camp. I have a lot to prove next year.”
– Carson Lambos

“I keep my circle pretty tight and I’m not not drawing too much attention to myself away from hockey,” says Carson, who is learning to play guitar with the help of YouTube videos during the shutdown. “In normal times, I’d definitely still be spending time around other people but I don’t think I want to be the centre of attention or anything.

“I’m perfectly content with just kind of going through the days and seeing the people I want to see and not trying to meet 100 new people and just kind of staying around those who know I can trust and I enjoy my time around.”

Carson has routinely tested as one of the fittest players on the Ice, something he has worked on diligently, and he takes some of his inspiration from his 83-year-old grandfather, John Lambos, who retired last year after a lengthy career in the restaurant business.

Grandson and grandpa have a tight bond.

“He immigrated from Greece (in 1960) and he’s someone who’s a little bit of a hero of mine,” says Carson. “He came to Canada with next to nothing and he worked work tirelessly through however many years building up the Dairi-Wip (Drive-In on Marion Street). He’s just the prime example of hard work and he never looks to what he needs for himself… His happiness is making other people close around him happy.”

John Lambos, Steve says, would dearly love to see his grandson drafted by the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets own the 17th pick in the first round but Carson isn’t saying anything about a preference.

“I haven’t really been through it at the NHL level so I see my role as giving him someone to talk to you,” says Jonny. “I can imagine it’s got to be really stressful, so I just try to make sure that he’s staying loose and not worrying too much about it because, you know, it’s sort of out of his control of this point.”

Jonny says Carson’s skill set is diverse enough to attract any NHL club.

“When he was a bit younger he was more focused on being offensive and I think now, even (in 2019-20) as a 16-year-old, you don’t see many 16-year-olds that are line-matched against other teams’ top lines and then also on the power play. So I think he’s just done a really good job of taking care of his own end while also being really dynamic in the offensive zone.”

Simone Lambos knows the athlete Carson has become but she also appreciates his quieter, introspective side, which may account for some of his natural leadership skills.

“He’s empathetic,” she says. “What would be the word to describe him? Just very intuitive, sensitive, kind… generous. I know that’s not really the hockey thing…

“He’s definitely a thinker. He’s very respectful of other people’s opinions and I think I see him as always trying to see things from other people’s point of view.”

 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14