Blue Jackets Pipeline Podcast: Kale Howarth

Look at Kale Howarth now and it's easy to see why the Blue Jackets targeted him as a fifth-round pick in the 2017 NHL draft.

The Red Deer, Alberta, native stands 6-foot-4 and is an imposing power forward prospect in the CBJ pipeline.

Rewind a few years, though, and the size that has become Howarth's hallmark wasn't always present.

"When I was in bantam, so I must have been 13 or 14, I think I was like 4-foot-11," Howarth told Dylan Tyrer on this week's episode of the Pipeline Podcast, a weekly interview series with top CBJ prospects presented by your central Ohio Toyota dealers. "I was always the smallest guy on my team. I'd always get targeted out there because I was the small guy. When I was younger, I had to rely on my skill and had to really train my skill to be able to compete with those guys.

"I think that's what's helped my game turn into what it is today because now I have the size to back it up and I have a little bit of that skill too that I use."

That's helped Howarth, 22, reach the NCAA level, where he plays for the University of Connecticut. After a productive three-year career with Trail of the BCHL where he had 61 points in 44 games in his final season, he arrived in Storrs two seasons ago and had a 5-6-11 line in 32 games for the Huskies.

This past season, his numbers improved across the board, as Howarth played in 29 games with the Huskies and had six goals and 10 assists for 16 points. He has an impressive shot and also can score as a big body at the front of the net.

Because he grew up smaller, Howarth said he has an array of skills he can use to produce a well-rounded game.

"I like to think of myself as a skilled power forward with a lot of grit to my game, something I tried to improve on," he told Tyrer. "I know scoring goals is everyone's favorite thing to do, but when you start to move up you can't always be a goal scorer, so I think just going in, using my body and getting on pucks hard, just bringing energy to the team. That's something that I bring to the table and that's my role and that's what I see my role being when I turn pro."

Howarth also spoke to Tyrer about a variety of subjects, from growing up in a city like Red Deer with WHL team and how that aided his development, to finding out he was drafted by the Blue Jackets while on the golf course to how he chose UConn and his interests outside the sport.

Be sure to check out the Pipeline Podcast in the audio player above,

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or listen to it through your favorite podcasting app by searching CBJ Radio.