Prospect Info: 2024 7th OA : Carter Yakemchuk (RHD)

[Micklebot]

i think we keep him up until at least december. if he is slowing down, he goes back.

if he is still knocking it out of the park, keep him up past that too.

but winning nhl games is the most important thing for the franchise right now, and Yak is heck of a lot better than Hamonic and JBD and will very soon be better than Jensen if he isn't already.

I prefer slow cooking prospects too, since that never hurts development, but we need NHL wins dammit!

Idk, we're a team that first and foremost needs to clean up the defensive side of things. Winning hockey means having the right guys to put out there for the right situations.

I think we're better off having Jensen and Zub in the top 4, and imo the bottom pair is better suited to be defensive minded players, or two way guys. I think keeping Yakemchuk up won't likely do much to move the needle, I'm good with him getting a game or two, but he's got stuff to work on that would benefit from playing 25+ mins a night in the W rather than 10-14 in the NHL.

 

[Inf4mous0ne]

At this point I'm hoping they give Yak 9 games (assuming he keeps up this play) but space it out a bit longer by not playing them in a row.

Then he isn't playing as much as he would down in the CHL? If you mean spread the 9 games over the season, I believe once a prospect goes back to the CHL, they can't be called back up until next season, but people can correct me on that. I'd give him a look for 5 games or so and send him back unless he absolutely blows your socks off and proves you can't send him back.

 

[Micklebot]

Then he isn't playing as much as he would down in the CHL? If you mean spread the 9 games over the season, I believe once a prospect goes back to the CHL, they can't be called back up until next season, but people can correct me on that. I'd give him a look for 5 games or so and send him back unless he absolutely blows your socks off and proves you can't send him back.

Once sent back they can only come back on an emergency recall, and even then, you need to hit 3 emergency recalls before you can pull a guy from the CHL from what I understand.

 

[bicboi64]

It's really amazing how the narrative has changed with Yak over the course of the last few weeks.
It has gone from being 'why did we pick this guy so early over this guy and that guy' and he can't skate, questionable hockey intelligence, very raw, he's 3 years away from being on the team, etc.

Now, a few weeks later, we get comments like this above, which are pretty tough to argue with right now.
I would admit that I thought Yak was going to take at least 2 years (back to junior for 1 year and then AHL for 1 year) before he was ready.

At this point, he is at least earned the right to get some games in and see where that goes.
Should he continue to be one of our best d-man every game and help us to win hockey games, then he should stay.
I think ultimately, he goes back to Junior at some point and that is probably the best thing for his development, but this is such a great problem to have right now.

I'd like to line up for my plate of crow first. I thought it was a mistake picking Yak over Parekh and still think Parekh will be the better guy, but Yakemchuk has been an absolute stud for us and I want him on the big club for 9 games.

Play him on the 3rd pairing to get some defensive minutes, but then let him run the 1PP, he's got a better shot than Sandy and Chabot and we'll see some sweet one timer goals