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.

 

[Senscore]

Senators return Carter Yakemchuk to Calgary Hitmen | Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators announced today that the team has returned defenceman Carter Yakemchuk to the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League.

www.nhl.com

 

[DJB]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843310642176073802

He deserved some games but the correct decision was made regarding his long term future

 

[TheNewEra]

oh come on, could have given him his 9 games

 

[Senscore]

I would have given him at least a few games personally. He earned it.

 

[Sun God Nika]

I don’t know man. This basically tells first year prospects they got no chance so just coast through your pre season.

Yaks hard work should have at least got him a game

 

[NyQuil]

Not really a surprise.

Also I suspect the team wants to move towards more permanent lineups sooner rather than later.

May have been the most-earned 9 game stint in a Senators uniform though, good for him.

Brandon Bochenski has a rival!

If we’d had more serious injuries on the back line he may have eked his way in.

 

[Micklebot]

I'm good with this decision. He'll go to the W with the knowledge of what he needs to improve on and get 25+ mins a night to work on it.

 

[Tuna99]

good news all around, Yak looks amazing and is exactly what this team needs next season, Hamonic looks good in that 3rd line roll and you have JBD teying to establish himself as a depth piece, Yak is back in 8 weeks for the WJc. Leaving Ottawa as the leading scoring Dman in the pre-season is a perfect start to his career, good on Yak and Staois for what they’ve done here - A+ all around

Doesn’t mean Yak isn’t back for the playoffs - could be a Charlie McAvoy type situation this year and it wouldn’t count against his slide

 

[L'Aveuglette]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843310642176073802

The correct decision was made regarding his future

That's BS. He deserved his 9 games in the NHL and there's no way that would have hurt his development in any way. It's also what the fans wanted.

 

[DackellDuck]

Not surprised but I would've given him the 9 games.

Seems like we're down to 21 guys now?

F: Tkachuk, Stützle, Giroux, Perron, Norris, Batherson, Greig, Pinto, Amadio, Gregor, Ostapchuk, Cousins
D: Sanderson, Jensen, Chabot, Zub, Kleven, Hamonic, Bernard-Docker
G: Ullmark, Forsberg

IR: Highmore

I wonder if we keep just one extra guy around to preserve cap space of if we're eyeing someone on waivers.

 

[NyQuil]

good news all around, Yak looks amazing and is exactly what this team needs next season, Hamonic looks good in that 3rd line roll and you have JBD teying to establish himself as a depth piece

I'm going to need a larger sample of games to renew my faith in Travis Hamonic.

 

[Tuna99]

Not surprised but I would've given him the 9 games.

Seems like we're down to 21 guys now?

F: Tkachuk, Stützle, Giroux, Perron, Norris, Batherson, Greig, Pinto, Amadio, Gregor, Ostapchuk, Cousins
D: Sanderson, Jensen, Chabot, Zub, Kleven, Hamonic, Bernard-Docker
G: Ullmark, Forsberg

IR: Highmore

I wonder if we keep just one extra guy around to preserve cap space of if we're eyeing someone on waivers.

No way he starts over Hamonic on Opening night, Greene is old school and the vets start - then you’re looking at Saturday start against Montreal and that’s going to be a gong show. And JBD needs a game. Not a perfect fit right now but what a bright future, exactly what this team needed. He’s going to be like a 25 minute a night Dman

Keep drafting ‘Chuks

 

[DackellDuck]

I'm going to need a larger sample of games to renew my faith in Travis Hamonic.

Hopefully if we play a more structured game where all 5 players on the ice focus on their end... it benefits him.

The "forwards clear the zone as soon as the defenseman touches the puck" way of playing was probably the worst case scenario for a guy like Hamonic...

 

[TheNewEra]

good news all around, Yak looks amazing and is exactly what this team needs next season, Hamonic looks good in that 3rd line roll and you have JBD teying to establish himself as a depth piece.

Doesn’t mean Yak isn’t back for the playoffs - could be a Charlie McAvoy type situation this year and it wouldn’t count against his slide

um what

i think he played 1 preseason game...that makes up for all of last year?