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

[Silky Johnson]

I think if you had an 18 year old Jake Sanderson try out for the Sens in his draft year he looked like he would of been one of the best top 6 Dman and he belonged - not because he was ready but because we had horrible depth and a were a team with no plan desperate for good news.

Maybe Yak is better than JBD, but that doesn’t mean he’s ready for the NHL full time. It just means our RD depth isn’t that great

Depends on how much better he is. If he is better than replacement level then he should be considered.

I think your base assumption is wrong, that players are better off not playing in the NHL & tuat rushing them will hurt their development.

It depends on the player and the situation.

In my opinion, Yak might be better off playing against bigger faster players. He might benefit from better coaches, trainers and mentors.

If he plays well enough to get 15+ minutes a night it very well could be better for his development to stay up. Dominating lesser competition does not always help development.

We won't have a good enough answer about how he will until he gets some real NHL games. Thankfully we can give him 9 before the team has to decide.

 

[jake1]

Do what makes him the best version of himself in five years. Hopefully Green and Staios have an idea what that is.

 

[OD99]

Do what makes him the best version of himself in five years. Hopefully Green and Staios have an idea what that is.

I 100% guarantee that letting him stay and taste some NHL regular season games won't have any negative impact on the best version of himself in 5 years.

Raw chicken may kill you (I guess) but this won't.

 

[HSF]

Depends on how much better he is. If he is better than replacement level then he should be considered.

I think your base assumption is wrong, that players are better off not playing in the NHL & tuat rushing them will hurt their development.

It depends on the player and the situation.

In my opinion, Yak might be better off playing against bigger faster players. He might benefit from better coaches, trainers and mentors.

If he plays well enough to get 15+ minutes a night it very well could be better for his development to stay up. Dominating lesser competition does not always help development.

We won't have a good enough answer about how he will until he gets some real NHL games. Thankfully we can give him 9 before the team has to decide.

Sens won't keep Yak to play 3rd pairing mins. He probably gets a taste to give him an idea of NHL speed and then send him down. Unless a serious injury occurs

 

[DackellDuck]

Better to fo with Draft year...

Age has more to do with development than draft year.

Yakemchuk has played a full extra year in the CHL than many of the guys drafted alongside him.

He’s played 3 seasons. Dickinson, Iginla, Sennecke, Parekh, etc have played 2.

 

[thinkwild]

I dont think it's right to say that there are no negative implication of playing him for 9 games. Everyone keeps talking about how important it is to get off to a good start. Opposing coaches would game plan around taking advantage of a rookie being defensively sheltered. If he is ready, i wouldnt want to hold him back. Hard to believe he is ready yet.

 

[Boud]

I dont think it's right to say that there are no negative implication of playing him for 9 games. Everyone keeps talking about how important it is to get off to a good start. Opposing coaches would game plan around taking advantage of a rookie being defensively sheltered. If he is ready, i wouldnt want to hold him back. Hard to believe he is ready yet.

It's a great point. The thing is you can shelter him with Jensen and Zub already here. So that means he might play a 14-15 minutes a night in favourable situations. With any young player you live with their mistakes and good plays. The positive here is that we're not throwing him to the wolves.

If you see he can't hold a spot, you send him back to Calgary and put JBD on the 3rd pair.

I don't think there's any question that he's going back to the WHL. At this stage it's rewarding him for being one of our best players in pre-season and let him see what real NHL games look like, and give him a taste of it so that he knows what he needs to work on and spend a few more days with pros. It sends a message to other young players in the organization that if you play well enough, you will be rewarded and that means a lot for internal competition. It keeps the vets accountable and on their toes, guys on the 4th line and 3rd pairing knowing there's young guys knocking on the door and if they play well enough they will take your spot.

At some point you need to go with what you see and he's shown well enough to stick around. If he dosn't play well enough I have 0 doubt Green will make adjustments. Green wouldn't keep him around if he thought he would be a detriment to the team. He knows he needs to win games more than anyone. If he's keeping him here it's because he thinks he's able to handle it at this stage, until proven otherwise.

 

[Icelevel]

League (not team) leader points for dmen

 

[thinkwild]

That's impressive for Yak. But pre-season scoring awards only get you the Bochenski award. And doesnt speak to defensive experience at a pro level. I guess he did win the Bochenski award then now that i think about it.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

I dont think it's right to say that there are no negative implication of playing him for 9 games. Everyone keeps talking about how important it is to get off to a good start. Opposing coaches would game plan around taking advantage of a rookie being defensively sheltered. If he is ready, i wouldnt want to hold him back. Hard to believe he is ready yet.

Loser mentality won't get you very far, and let's face it, Yak would be playing very sheltered minutes.

 

[PlayersLtd]

Loser mentality won't get you very far, and let's face it, Yak would be playing very sheltered minutes.

If you're sheltering him than it is, by definition, because you are afraid of the consequences of exposing him too much. Furthermore, if he is playing 14 sheltered minutes a night, let's face it, you're one step away from that 'loser mentality' you're talking about.

I personally think giving Yak his 9 games (and perhaps then some) is the right move. I'm with you, but it's from a selfish place and there is absolutely reason to factor the negative implications of rushing him into the decision making process, as I believe @thinkwild was alluding to.

What if he gets postered on a rush by McKinnon, gets caught with two left feet and that pivot everyone says he sucks at is fully exposed. He goes down like a bantam player at a power skating clinic and Mack walks around him and scores the OT game winner and the camera pans to him mopping himself up off the ice with a look of dejection on his face. Let's just say that's in his 6th game and we were thinking it's time to send him back anyway. That's his last shift of the experiment. It makes all the highlights, the doubters come back in full force and it's picked apart for the next 12 months including during the WJHC when he's back in Ottawa. You never know if that stuff is going to be a learning experience for a player or mortifying and crushing, especially for a guy that is like a Jay Bouwmeester level introvert.

On the flip side he can go back to jr and just keep the good times rolling with one of the most dominant offensive seasons the WHL has seen from a dman in a long time and everyone keeps singing his praise for the next 12 months and he has one of the most exciting years of his life, full of anticipation for what's next as his confidence grows.

If you think SS didn't have a long hard debate with himself and Green about this one you're mistaken. Things can definitely go wrong and it's all about whether the risk is worth the reward. You think it is but it makes perfect sense that others look at it differently.