Maveric Lamoureux is 6 feet 7. He has more weight to spare than most, but when the Coyotes defensive prospect underwent shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum and remove some bone pieces after the 2022 Scouting Combine in Buffalo, it felt like he had shed a small child.

“I was down to 183 at 6-7 which is not good,” he said, laughing. “So I spent like five weeks last summer in Arizona with all the staff for my rehab, just working out, practicing with [Clayton] Keller and [Jakob] Chychrun, who were coming back from rehab.”

Lamoureux underwent the surgery for a shoulder that he dislocated in his second year of juniors — and then dislocated six more times that season. He missed six months while rehabbing the injury. When the waif of his former self arrived in Arizona, he got acquainted with Coyotes high performance nutrition coach Carl Bombardier, who put him on a calorie-heavy diet. 

“Today, I’ve got to eat like 4,600 calories during the whole day,” Lamoureux said after the first day of development camp on Monday. “I have a goal, which is to gain weight during the summer, and it’s really going well now. Since being here, I have gained five pounds.”

Weight, height, age and activity all impact calorie intake but per multiple health sites, the average man should generally eat between 2,000 and 2,500 calories a day. Lamoureux is basically doubling that diet, and it has helped him climb to 208 pounds.

“It’s a lot of protein, which is mostly chicken, beef and then a lot of rice and potatoes, and a lot of shakes, too,” he said. “I get shakes after my workout and then I’ve got to eat more shakes at night before going to bed. I don’t like eggs for my breakfast so I just put them in my shakes and I get more protein there, too. It’s shakes all day long!”

When Lamoureux first stepped back on the ice just before the Christmas break last season with Drummondville in the QMJHL, the loss of weight was apparent in his strength and endurance, but he said the surgery made a greater impact on his mind.

“I would say it was a month and a half because I still had in my head: ‘Is my shoulder gonna be fine or am I gonna hurt it again?'” he said. “I dislocated it so many times that it just took some time to get all that stress out of my head and then just get back into the game because all those players had been playing for half a year and I was just coming back right before Christmas for my first game. Just the adaptation of that took me some time before I finally got it right and then I liked my season after that.”

In 35 games, Lamoureux had five goals and 19 points for the Voltiguers. He added two goals and six points in nine playoff games. Coyotes development coach Kurtis Foster spent a lot of time working with Lamoureux last season on the guts of his game (puck retrievals, gaps, passing) and his state of mind.

“When he first came back, I think he worked so hard physically just to get back that he was living on adrenaline; living on excitement,” said Foster, who works with the defensive prospects. “When he got through Christmas and got back into the grind of three games in three nights or three games in a week, he almost forgot about the mental side of it and he started realizing that he had to do a few other things to be prepared every night. That’s when I started to see massive improvement in his game. 

“He’s such a good kid and he wants to do everything at once, but once we started breaking down his game, he started really taking pride in what he was doing and we started to see more and more improvements. It was a matter of basically not trying to be a difference maker every single shift. He’s such a presence physically that he found himself in the box at times because he would get frustrated and take too many penalties. When you’re six foot seven, all eyes are already on so you can’t take that extra shot or that extra cross-check. That’s one place I did see massive improvement throughout the year was his physical play and finding that fine line.”

Lamoureux admits to frustration with the lost development time — a loss that can be even more pronounced with players of his stature who must adapt to their larger frames. He will undoubtedly head back to Drummondville next season for a fourth year in juniors before the Coyotes make a determination on what’s next. Even so, Lamoureux admits to feeling much better in camp than he expected.

Development camp may not be the time for evaluation, but Foster has had some wow moments while watching the 2022 No. 29 overall pick this week. He and skating coach Lars Hepso stared at each other with wide eyes after he tossed 2023 pick Justin Kipkie aside with one arm in a battle. Kipkie is 6 feet 3, 195 pounds.

“He’s just such a presence and he moves so well for a big guy,” Foster said. “When he’s moving pucks quick and efficiently and really thinking about shooting the puck, the reality is he has a bomb and it’s heavy. When he’s getting it through and shooting in quantity — not trying to make the perfect play — that’s when he’s really effective.”

Lamoureux has some specific goals in what he expects to be his final season in junior under new coach Sylvain Favreau.

“We’re gonna have a good team so definitely, I want to win, and then I want to be the best defenseman in my league,” he said. “I know I can do it so that’s what is in my head right now; to be the best, or at least one of the best.”

Top photo of Maveric Lamoureux via Getty Images

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