Alexandre Picard (ice hockey)

Playing career

As a kid, Alexandre Picard took part in the 1999 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament, skating for a minor team from Quebec City. He spent four full seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League before the Columbus Blue Jackets picked him eighth overall in the first round of the 2004 NHL draft. For the 2005–06 season, he suited up for Columbus’s AHL farm club, the Syracuse Crunch, and also made his NHL debut with the Blue Jackets that same year. On March 3, 2010, Columbus shipped Picard to the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for Chad Kolarik. On July 7, 2011, he inked a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning and was sent down to their AHL affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals. On June 9, 2012, Picard helped the Admirals capture the Calder Cup and was named playoff MVP. He then chose to head overseas, signing a multi-year contract with Swiss club Genève-Servette HC of the National League A starting with the 2012–13 season. With Genève-Servette, he won the Spengler Cup in December 2013 and again in December 2014. After three years there, he moved on. In December 2015, Picard joined NLA team HC Davos for the Spengler Cup and, for the third time, ended up on the winning side. Davos liked what they saw and gave him a contract for the rest of the 2015–16 season, which he signed in January 2016. When that season wrapped up, Picard left Switzerland and signed a one-year deal with Kunlun Red Star for their first KHL season, but he never actually played for them. On November 29, 2016, he joined HK Hradec Králové of the Czech Extraliga.