Prospect Info: 2022 Sens Development Camp

[RAFI BOMB]

And these are just drills we are watching, some guys are different in games than in practise. He is going back to school isn't he? So I doubt he gets a contract this time or at least their is still time on him, but what about Loheit do you know if he is done school or returning?

The Sens hold Novak's rights until August 15th. He committed to go back to Northeastern for a 5th season but there is no way he turns down an ELC if he gets offered it.

I chatted with him on twitter after his season ended and it seemed like he was ready to turn pro. I'm guessing he wasn't offered his ELC as he didn't join Belleville. I am speculating here but I think he planned on going back to Northeastern for a 5th season so he could try to prove himself to the Sens or other NHL teams to earn that ELC.

After he made that commitment I thought him and the organization had parted ways so I was surprised to see him listed as part of the development camp. The Sens must still be contemplating giving him an ELC. They let Eric Engstrand's rights expire, Tychonick didn't get an invite but both Novak and Loheit did.

The Sens hold Loheit's rights until August 15th next year so he could go back another season but then there is the risk that he waits until his rights expire and signs with another organization.

I had another brief exchange with Novak on twitter after he got the dev camp invite. I congratulated him and told him about some of the things DJ Smith or the organization might be looking for such as work ethic, attention to details, compete level, winning 50/50 battles, playing a territorial game, blocking shots and overall battle and intensity. He is keeping that stuff in mind.

I haven't been able to see the practices yet so I am not sure what he is doing well and what he might need to work on. My guess is that he is trying to implement the things he can and juggling the information he is getting with his hope to earn an ELC. Maybe he is more focused on demonstrating his attention to detail and work ethic by doing what the coaches are less focused on being nasty to play against. Earning that ELC is the key thing here, he can develop those other aspects more prominently if he can get that chance to be a pro.

I'm certainly cheering for him and I hope he has a strong 3-on-3 tournament tomorrow and earns that ELC.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Simmer mentioned Lavoie as someone he has heard good things about. Could get signed.

 

[R2010]

Simmer mentioned Lavoie as someone he has heard good things about. Could get signed.

Pretty decent stats for an undrafted player.

 

[aragorn]

Beat me to it.

Development Camp Day 4:
- while there were a couple of dozen people at the camp for days 1 to 3, Day 4 was full with people all the way around the rink which was nice to see & the brass were back in the rink today. Sanderson was at the rink again today watching. The ice was divided into two rinks with 3 on 3 action at both ends of the rink making it difficult to watch everyone.

- As SOS mentioned Team Green won the 3 on 3 competition today. Novak, Legault & Lavoie were really good together as was O'Neill, Ostapchuk & Donovan, Ostapchuk had at least one good goal this morning along with a few good defensive plays. Ostapchuk seems like a well rounded player who is good in all zones.

- @RAFI BOMB - Novak had a really good day today scoring at least one nice goal that I could see & played really well with Lavoie & Legault. Legault is really fast & at times looks like Formenton out there, no idea what they do with him but he has speed to burn. Novak is pretty fast too & Lavoie is the small skilled guy who got a nice goal in close. I just noticed that Legault is a defencemen, not sure how good a D he is but I would consider moving him to LW.

- if I had to pick a dark horse from the undrafted guys I would take McDonald who I don't know a lot about, but apparently is a local guy. He is huge, plays RW & showed some nice hands & skill at this camp. Legault would be right up there with him just due to his speed, but all the undrafted guys invited to camp did fairly well with the exception of Rousseau & Allard. I'm still puzzeled by Halliday's lack of intensity or determination & at times looks like a less skilled & smaller Logan Brown.

- I thought Boucher had a good 3 on 3 scoring at least two goals, one a beauty that I just happened to see at the other end of the ice on a really nice tic tac toe play that Boucher started & finished. The other goal was from a battle in front of the net which he won easily, he is thick, strong on his skates, hard to move, plays with an edge & has nice hands & a hard shot.

- I thought Daoust looked really good in these 3 on 3 games today, he is highly skilled with the puck & looking at them standing together made me think what a great line Daoust - Geig - Boucher would be. Ostapchuk with Greig & Boucher would bring a different element & be much tougher to play against. With Daoust the line would be much more offensive, with Ostapchuk they would be hell to play against & cause havoc for the opposition while still scoring some goals.

- Ottawa has a number of big fast skating defencemen at this camp, Roger is an excellent skater as is Legault (who should be a forward), Romeo is a very good skater too & Massicotte & Walberg bring an element of size, toughness but can also get around quite quickly. Donovan & Hamara at 6'2" & 6' are the two smaller D at camp that both skate well & can move the puck, Hamara looks like he may be slighty further ahead but he didn't really do anything special all week.

- of the goalies I liked Reidler the most, in fact even more than Mandolese, but to be fair Mando seemed like he was at this camp to cheer on all the prospects & talk to guys here & there. Also thought Robillard had a very good camp. Of the defencemen here I liked Roger, Legault, Romeo & Walberg, they could all skate the first three all loved to join the rush & Walberg cleared the front of the net.

- of the forwards I thought Greig & Boucher stood out the most all week as a Tier 1. In Tier two I would have Ostapchuk, Roger, Daoust & maybe Reidler, Tier 3 would be Romeo, Legault, O'Neill, Petersson, Novak, Loheit, Walberg, Robillard, Latimer, McDonald, Dyk & Hamara. Tier 4 Donovan, Massicotte, Johansson, Lavoie, Rousseau, Halliday & quite honestly I don't recall seeing Allard at all .... all week. Enjoy your weekend everyone. Petersson is another prospect to keep an eye on, he plays with some intensity & isn't afraid to mix it up.

 

[armani]

Beat me to it.

Development Camp Day 4:
- while there were a couple of dozen people at the camp for days 1 to 3, Day 4 was full with people all the way around the rink which was nice to see & the brass were back in the rink today. Sanderson was at the rink again today watching. The ice was divided into two rinks with 3 on 3 action at both ends of the rink making it difficult to watch everyone.

- As SOS mentioned Team Green won the 3 on 3 competition today. Novak, Legault & Lavoie were really good together as was O'Neill, Ostapchuk & Donovan, Ostapchuk had at least one good goal this morning along with a few good defensive plays. Ostapchuk seems like a well rounded player who is good in all zones.

- @RAFI BOMB - Novak had a really good day today scoring at least one nice goal that I could see & played really well with Lavoie & Legault. Legault is really fast & at times looks like Formenton out there, no idea what they do with him but he has speed to burn. Novak is pretty fast too & Lavoie is the small skilled guy who got a nice goal in close. I just noticed that Legault is a defencemen, not sure how good a D he is but I would consider moving him to LW.

- if I had to pick a dark horse from the undrafted guys I would take McDonald who I don't know a lot about, but apparently is a local guy. He is huge, plays RW & showed some nice hands & skill at this camp. Legault would be right up there with him just due to his speed, but all the undrafted guys invited to camp did fairly well with the exception of Rousseau & Allard. I'm still puzzeled by Halliday's lack of intensity or determination & at times looks like a less skilled & smaller Logan Brown.

- I thought Boucher had a good 3 on 3 scoring at least two goals, one a beauty that I just happened to see at the other end of the ice on a really nice tic tac toe play that Boucher started & finished. The other goal was from a battle in front of the net which he won easily, he is thick, strong on his skates, hard to move, plays with an edge & has nice hands & a hard shot.

- I thought Daoust looked really good in these 3 on 3 games today, he is highly skilled with the puck & looking at them standing together made me think what a great line Daoust - Geig - Boucher would be. Ostapchuk with Greig & Boucher would bring a different element & be much tougher to play against. With Daoust the line would be much more offensive, with Ostapchuk they would be hell to play against & cause havoc for the opposition while still scoring some goals.

- Ottawa has a number of big fast skating defencemen at this camp, Roger is an excellent skater as is Legault (who should be a forward), Romeo is a very good skater too & Massicotte & Walberg bring an element of size, toughness but can also get around quite quickly. Donovan & Hamara at 6'2" & 6' are the two smaller D at camp that both skate well & can move the puck, Hamara looks like he may be slighty further ahead but he didn't really do anything special all week.

- of the goalies I liked Reidler the most, in fact even more than Mandolese, but to be fair Mando seemed like he was at this camp to cheer on all the prospects & talk to guys here & there. Also thought Robillard had a very good camp. Of the defencemen here I liked Roger, Legault, Romeo & Walberg, they could all skate the first three all loved to join the rush & Walberg cleared the front of the net.

- of the forwards I thought Greig & Boucher stood out the most all week as a Tier 1. In Tier two I would have Ostapchuk, Roger, Daoust & maybe Reidler, Tier 3 would be Romeo, Legault, O'Neill, Petersson, Novak, Loheit, Walberg, Robillard, Latimer, McDonald, Dyk & Hamara. Tier 4 Donovan, Massicotte, Johansson, Lavoie, Rousseau, Halliday & quite honestly I don't recall seeing Allard at all .... all week. Enjoy your weekend everyone. Petersson is another prospect to keep an eye on, he plays with some intensity & isn't afraid to mix it up.

Gracias senor for the camp recap from the rink. Much appreciated, good to see Greig and Boucher being prominent performers of the camp.

 

[aragorn]

Gracias senor for the camp recap from the rink. Much appreciated, good to see Greig and Boucher being prominent performers of the camp.

You're welcome but keep in mind that these are just opinions based on everything happening in front of me & one person can't see everything going on all the time. There are players everywhere on the ice at times all doing drills & sometimes earlier in the week in different rinks. It would be nice to hear from others who might have been there. Those two were prominent to me, but others could have different opinions, Daoust & Ostapchuk were pretty good too as were others.

 

[Samboni]

Thanks for the updates, very informative.

 

[RAFI BOMB]

I got a chance to check out the 3-on-3 tournament today. It was difficult to get an evaluation of the majority of players because 2 games were happening simultaneously (like in past dev camps) and the Sens didn't release the official rosters anywhere so it took a bit of work to identify the players and attempt to get a read on them.

I mostly saw team green so I feel I have a better read on those players than the rest. But prior to commenting on them I will make some brief observations on the other players on the other teams.

Ridly Greig: He seemed like the best player on the ice as far as I could tell. He has excellent skating, is very agile, competes hard and can both generate chances individually and use his line mates effectively. I didn't see as much of him because he played most games on the other end of the ice but it did seem like he was part of a lot of the scoring that I didn't see.

Tyler Boucher: He is a very strong skater, he protects the puck well, he has good acceleration and is very capable of creating separation through power drives. He did a good job of carrying the puck, displayed patience and poise, made some good passes and generated some good shots. He is also good at defensive reads as he did a good job anticipating and intercepting passes, allowing his team to gain possession. He is probably the 2nd closest to being NHL ready after Greig.

Stephen Halliday: He has some decent skill but seems physically underdeveloped. I think this camp could be a wakeup call to just how much stronger and how much more physical development is needed for him to have a legitimate shot at being an NHL player.

Carson Latimer: I didn't notice much of him other than the fact that he does a good job at getting low on power drives.

Luke Loheit: I was impressed with his skating. He has solid edgework which allows him to ability to be very agile and make quick pivots. He shields the puck well, gets low, and likes to make those quick pivots and reversals to gain separation. He competes hard and has a decent set of hands.

Kyle McDonald: He is one of the undrafted camp invites. He has pretty good mobility for a player his size and has some quickness to him. He has good hands and a quality shot. He has a good compete level. I didn't see much of his defensive game so I am curious to see how he does in that aspect of his game. He could be worth a contract or at least a training camp invite and maybe an AHL contract to give himself a chance to earn an ELC. I could certainly see him as a guy worth gaining the rights of.

Ben Roger: He is very mobile and can make solid passes. I didn't notice him use his size much aside from one battle in the corner where he threw the other guy to the ice. He could certainly benefit from being more consistently physical.

 

[Bileur]

Beat me to it.

Development Camp Day 4

[snip]

Thanks for all the breakdowns the last few days aragorn. They have been fun reads.

But damn man, I’ve been trying to imagine a worse review than the following and coming up empty. Worse attitude Mike Hoffman? Softer Filatov?

I'm still puzzeled by Halliday's lack of intensity or determination & at times looks like a less skilled & smaller Logan Brown.

 

[RAFI BOMB]

Now for Team Green:

Jorian Donovan: He is a very good skater and likes to go deep in the zone. He is kind of like a forward out there. I didn't notice much of his defensive game and think he could probably improve that.

Charles Alexis-Legault: Much like Donovan, he is very mobile and has good speed. Also like Donovan he isn't that strong defensively or at least didn't demonstrate that here.

Zakary Lavoie: He has some skill but I felt he was regularly outcompeted. He lost a lot of 50/50 puck battles.

Cameron O'Neill: I was really impressed with his game. This guy is a solid skater, has good speed, protects the puck well, has good vision, good hands, and makes quality passes. He has a good combination of edge and skill. Really good work by the scouting staff in finding this guy. I think he could easily be one of the steals of the draft. I am really interested to see how the Sens develop him.

Zack Ostapchuk: If I were to use one word to describe him it would be "explosive". He likes to make really rapid movements, like a big dangle or net drive. He has really good hands, excellent compete and is just very powerful. He made a lot of very good defensive reads by anticipating passes and intercepting pucks. He is going to be a very exciting and entertaining player. He does however have a tendency to rely on individual efforts, so he could use his teammates more. I wouldn't say it is a big issue or anything just that he has a tendency to almost go into a "hulk" mode where he is going to do the big heroic effort all by himself. It certainly gets the puck to the net it is more of a question of whether that creates the best scoring chance or if he can make the final pass after driving everybody to the net and forcing the goalie and defense to collapse in on him.

Jakov Novak: I'm a fan and I thought he had a excellent tournament. He was probably the best defensive player on the ice. Other players made defensive reads and intercepted passes, he took away time and space. He just plays such solid positional play, has excellent gap control, and uses his stick and skates to stifle offense. He was forcing a lot of turnovers and stunting the ability to generate offense by catching passes and shots in his skates. If I didn't know who he was I would think he was a big shutdown d man who looks like he is going to be a really solid depth guy at the NHL level. But he is actually a power forward. He played a really solid power game, he shield the puck well, made good passes, used his size to hide the puck and made smart passes to create quality scoring chances. He had some goals, some quality net drives. He has good speed and he was all over the ice. He won nearly all the 50/50 battles, played a strong territorial game and he got chippy and physical as his team progressed through the tournament. The main thing he needs to work on is his edgework and a bit more refinement to his skating. It limits his ability to gain separation and at times other players were able to get an angle on him. He recovered well and would still drive the other player wide like a quality shutdown d man but improving his edgework could really help take his game to another level.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Looking forward to seeing Boucher take another big step. Not surprised he showed well in this dev camp. Powerful guy. Looking forward to see how he does in the OHL this year.

I think Greig would be #1 re highest expectations.

Not surprised to see some good comments on Daoust. He is a smart player with some skill. Will be a good AHLer for a couple more years.

Dev camp is always good to see where some of the prospects are at and how close they may be. I remember Crookshank looking good in his 1st dev camp. I also remember Dzingel looking head and shoulders better than anyone else ahead of making it full time in Ottawa.

Thanks to the guys that attended and reported their viewings and impressions.

 

[SensBrawler]

 

[RAFI BOMB]

 

[cudi]

bodes well when one of your top prospects is also your hardest worker. Pumped to see how he does in his first pro season.

 

[Sweatred]

Future Stud 3LW

 

[Ice-Tray]

For some reason this thread refuses to open at the first new post

 

[aragorn]

Thanks for all the breakdowns the last few days aragorn. They have been fun reads.

But damn man, I’ve been trying to imagine a worse review than the following and coming up empty. Worse attitude Mike Hoffman? Softer Filatov?

I just don't know about Halliday, I hope I'm wrong & he turns into a stud quite honestly, but his body language & lack of intensity is definitely a red flag with this guy. There was one play where I could see he was going to lose his stick in a board battle just the way he was playing it & it went across the ice & it took him a while to get it back while the play was still going on. We'll see what kind of yr he has & how he looks next summer, let's hope for the best for this guy. Hopefully he has learned a lot & will come back better. P.S. Filatov was soft as butter ....

 

[Loach]

I just don't know about Halliday, I hope I'm wrong & he turns into a stud quite honestly, but his body language & lack of intensity is definitely a red flag with this guy. There was one play where I could see he was going to lose his stick in a board battle just the way he was playing it & it went across the ice & it took him a while to get it back while the play was still going on. We'll see what kind of yr he has & how he looks next summer, let's hope for the best for this guy. Hopefully he has learned a lot & will come back better.

Lost his stick and couldn't get it back fast enough or gave up on the play to get the stick? I had a coach duct tape my bottom hand to my stick in a practice and a game because I shoveled the puck ahead of me. Lol. Two hands on the stick!

 

[RAFI BOMB]

 

[aragorn]

Lost his stick and couldn't get it back fast enough or gave up on the play to get the stick? I had a coach duct tape my bottom hand to my stick in a practice and a game because I shoveled the puck ahead of me. Lol. Two hands on the stick!

Actually both, lost it first but didn't go after it quick enough until the other team got possession of the puck which was too late to go after it but luckily it didn't hurt the team either on that play. He was also drafted as an overager at 20 yrs old which already places him behind a number of others.

 

[RAFI BOMB]

 

[Webberford]

The Sens hold Novak's rights until August 15th. He committed to go back to Northeastern for a 5th season but there is no way he turns down an ELC if he gets offered it.

I chatted with him on twitter after his season ended and it seemed like he was ready to turn pro. I'm guessing he wasn't offered his ELC as he didn't join Belleville. I am speculating here but I think he planned on going back to Northeastern for a 5th season so he could try to prove himself to the Sens or other NHL teams to earn that ELC.

After he made that commitment I thought him and the organization had parted ways so I was surprised to see him listed as part of the development camp. The Sens must still be contemplating giving him an ELC. They let Eric Engstrand's rights expire, Tychonick didn't get an invite but both Novak and Loheit did.

The Sens hold Loheit's rights until August 15th next year so he could go back another season but then there is the risk that he waits until his rights expire and signs with another organization.

I had another brief exchange with Novak on twitter after he got the dev camp invite. I congratulated him and told him about some of the things DJ Smith or the organization might be looking for such as work ethic, attention to details, compete level, winning 50/50 battles, playing a territorial game, blocking shots and overall battle and intensity. He is keeping that stuff in mind.

I haven't been able to see the practices yet so I am not sure what he is doing well and what he might need to work on. My guess is that he is trying to implement the things he can and juggling the information he is getting with his hope to earn an ELC. Maybe he is more focused on demonstrating his attention to detail and work ethic by doing what the coaches are less focused on being nasty to play against. Earning that ELC is the key thing here, he can develop those other aspects more prominently if he can get that chance to be a pro.

I'm certainly cheering for him and I hope he has a strong 3-on-3 tournament tomorrow and earns that ELC.

Capfreindly says Aug 15th, 2023 ???

 

[RAFI BOMB]

Capfreindly says Aug 15th, 2023 ???

Interesting. That is what Capfriendly says in regards to the Senators reserve list:
Ottawa Senators Reserve List Players - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

When I checked it the last time it was listed as August 15th 2022 for Jakov Novak just like it currently says for Jonathan Tychonick. The only player listed as August 15th 2023 was Luke Loheit, but like you said now it is listed as that for Novak as well.

Maybe because Novak publicly declared his commitment to return to Northeastern that it allows the Sens to retain his rights for another year. That is good to know so thanks for informing me.

I do think that both Novak and Loheit did enough in dev camp to earn their ELCs so I am curious to see if the Sens sign both or let them go back to the NCAA for another season. If they are offered their ELCs then I think they would certainly sign them right away and relinquish their NCAA eligibility. The Sens certainly have the contract space and they could use the added depth in Belleville. The Sens also have a ton of prospects that are years away from turning pro so they don't need to be worried about contract limits if they do offer Novak and Loheit their ELCs. I would certainly like to see them turn pro.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Interesting. That is what Capfriendly says in regards to the Senators reserve list:
Ottawa Senators Reserve List Players - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

When I checked it the last time it was listed as August 15th 2022 for Jakov Novak just like it currently says for Jonathan Tychonick. The only player listed as August 15th 2023 was Luke Loheit, but like you said now it is listed as that for Novak as well.

Maybe because Novak publicly declared his commitment to return to Northeastern that it allows the Sens to retain his rights for another year. That is good to know so thanks for informing me.

I do think that both Novak and Loheit did enough in dev camp to earn their ELCs so I am curious to see if the Sens sign both or let them go back to the NCAA for another season. If they are offered their ELCs then I think they would certainly sign them right away and relinquish their NCAA eligibility. The Sens certainly have the contract space and they could use the added depth in Belleville. The Sens also have a ton of prospects that are years away from turning pro so they don't need to be worried about contract limits if they do offer Novak and Loheit their ELCs. I would certainly like to see them turn pro.

I think that begs the question for Loheit and Novak - if they’re good enough to recieve ELC’s - why can’t they produce in the NCAA?