The Victoria Junior Shamrocks captain was selected in the second round, 22nd overall, in Monday night’s 2017-18 National Lacrosse League draft by the Calgary Roughnecks.
“Obviously, all doors are open,” said the talented all-rounder.
“It’s a huge honour to be drafted in the NLL. I was shocked, to be honest, but excited.”
The shock factor comes from Pickup making it clear hockey is his priority, as the Victoria Grizzlies B.C. Hockey League graduate begins his freshman season in NCAA Div. 1 hockey at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
“I’ve dreamed about [making it in] hockey all my life,” said Pickup, who had 27 goals and 65 points last season for the Grizzlies.
His numbers in lacrosse, however, are splashier. Pickup led the Junior Shamrocks in scoring over the summer with 37 goals and 58 assists for a league third-best 95 points in 19 regular season games. He was a slippery and elusive offensive boxla natural right from the start for the Junior ’Rocks with 37 goals and 88 points in 2016, 36 goals and 75 points in 2015 and 32 goals and 71 points as a rookie in 2014.
Pickup put to rest any doubts he could continue that pace at the senior level by recording nine goals and 10 assists for 19 points in just five games as a call-up this past season for the Victoria Shamrocks of the Western Lacrosse Association.
“Maybe sometime down the road, when I’ve stopped hockey, lacrosse is something I might pursue,” said the 21-year-old Nebraska-Omaha business major.
“It’s been a cool ride so far in both sports. I’ll see what happens and where it all leads.”
Although the NLL plays the box version of lacrosse, the top 10 picks in the draft were from NCAA Div. 1 field lacrosse. Josh Byrne of Hofstra went No. 1 to Buffalo, Jake Withers of Ohio State second overall to Rochester and Zach Currier of Princeton third to Calgary. But there’s a lot of mix and match in lacrosse between field and box, especially among Canadian players. The offensively dynamic Byrne had 16 points in four games as a WLA call-up over the summer to the Burnaby Lakers while transition-player Currier helped lead the Peterborough Lakers to the Mann Cup last week in New Westminster.
The first B.C. player selected was Tyler Pace, a 2016 Minto Cup champion with the Coquitlam Junior Adanacs, ninth overall in the first round out of University of Denver field lacrosse.
Pickup was the eighth overall B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League player taken in the NLL draft.
He opens conference hockey play with Nebraska-Omaha on Oct. 13-14 at UMass-Lowell and plays his career first home games at Baxter Arena on Oct. 20-21 against Arizona State, before travelling to South Bend to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Oct. 26-27.
