Ottawa Senators Future Watch: Carter Yakemchuk's Confidence Continues To Blossom In Calgary

Only a few months after being chosen seventh total within the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, Carter Yakemchuk got here shut to creating the Ottawa Senators after his first coaching camp.

Yakemchuk did every little thing he may. He led the Sens in pre-season scoring, placing up seven factors in 4 video games. He even scored two game-winning objectives, together with a blinding end-to-end time beyond regulation effort to slay the hated Toronto Maple Leafs.

He made Ottawa’s choice to ship him again to Junior about as tough as attainable.

“Carter had an incredible coaching camp, however we made this choice in the most effective pursuits of his long-term improvement,” GM Steve Staios stated earlier this month. “We had a wholesome dialog with Carter, and we expressed that we’ve a plan for his improvement that can enable him to thrive as soon as he arrives within the Nationwide Hockey League on a full-time foundation. We’re excited to look at his progress and trajectory in Calgary this season.”

Had Staios recognized that Artem Zub, a fellow right-shot defenceman, would undergo a concussion within the group’s third sport, he may need determined to maintain Yakemchuk round for at the least that nine-game audition.

But when we agree that the NHL is not the suitable spot for his improvement proper now, it in all probability would have been greatest if the principles allowed the Sens to assign him to the AHL with Belleville this season.

Yakemchuk was already exhausting to deal with within the WHL final yr as an 18-year-old, scoring 30 objectives and 71 factors. At six-foot-three and over 200 kilos, now he is again there for one more go as a 19-year-old, dominating in opposition to 16-and 17-year-olds on a group tied for eighth within the WHL’s Japanese Convention.

Yakemchuk has three objectives and 6 factors in simply 4 video games for the Hitmen. That is a tidy tempo of 51 objectives and 102 factors over a full 68-game season.

Between his dimension, ability, what he did within the NHL pre-season, and what he is doing once more to date within the junior ranks, Yakemchuk can be a reasonably good argument for altering the prevailing CHL-NHL rule that forestalls junior-aged gamers (beneath 20) from being assigned to the AHL. Possibly there must be exemptions.

However let’s be clear. It is not like there is no improvement happening within the WHL. That is nonetheless a hell of a league with loads of expertise. Yakemchuk has a superb new head coach in Paul McFarland, who is aware of what’s required to make the NHL leap. He is spent six of the final seven years within the NHL as an assistant coach.

The psychological facet of the sport and the participant’s consolation should even be thought of.

For instance, at his first NHL coaching camp, Yakemchuk got here off as just a little shy with the media – a person of few phrases – which was greater than comprehensible.

However a few weeks later, in distinction, you possibly can already see his confidence blossoming in Calgary, on and off the ice, again along with his friends who now look as much as him much more. He is the man – the NHL first-rounder who nearly made it the present in his first camp.

A couple of days in the past, Yakemchuk was the one holding the microphone, completely unfastened and having enjoyable interviewing his teammates on social media.

Possibly the AHL can be just a little higher path for this explicit participant however along with his continued dominance within the WHL and management roles in Calgary and on the World Junior Championships in Ottawa, his improvement and profession trajectory ought to each be simply advantageous.