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

[PlayersLtd]

There is a lot of politics in WJC. Seeing as the Sens likely provided a lot of support for this WJC the least they could have done is scratched their backs a little bit by selecting a more than capable player in Yak as their 7th D.

f*** dem kids i hope Canada loses.

The tournament does more for Ottawa than Ottawa does for the tournament in terms of tourism, fan experience, venue rental and exposure. They owe the city and the Sens nothing as far as I'm concerned. As a Canadian I want the best team out there and I can easily understand why Yak was left off.

It's ironic that you're accusing them of politics out of one side of your mouth and advocating for your own politics from the other. It's just proof that politics are unavoidable. My rec ball hockey team has politics. It's part of life and yeah Hockey Canada can be frustrating at times but you move on and enjoy great hockey which at the end of the day is what this tournament is all about, for me anyway.

 

[darude]

The tournament does more for Ottawa than Ottawa does for the tournament in terms of tourism, fan experience, venue rental and exposure. They owe the city and the Sens nothing as far as I'm concerned. As a Canadian I want the best team out there and I can easily understand why Yak was left off.

It's ironic that you're accusing them of politics out of one side of your mouth and advocating for your own politics from the other. It's just proof that politics are unavoidable. My rec ball hockey team has politics. It's part of life and yeah Hockey Canada can be frustrating at times but you move on and enjoy great hockey which at the end of the day is what this tournament is all about, for me anyway.

I agree with this point about the city.

Problem with wanting the best team out there is these same guys finished without even sniffing a medal game last time doing the same thing.

 

[Masked]

I am disappointed that Yak was not selected. I don't like what this potentially means. However, I am hoping that Yak develops into a very good two-way defenceman for us.

Watching him play in the exhibition season the only reason I can gather for Team Canada not having him on the roster is that it must have one of their best d groups in world junior history. Otherwise it makes no sense to keep the player I watched off the team.

 

[Norris4Norris]

The tournament does more for Ottawa than Ottawa does for the tournament in terms of tourism, fan experience, venue rental and exposure. They owe the city and the Sens nothing as far as I'm concerned. As a Canadian I want the best team out there and I can easily understand why Yak was left off.

It's ironic that you're accusing them of politics out of one side of your mouth and advocating for your own politics from the other. It's just proof that politics are unavoidable. My rec ball hockey team has politics. It's part of life and yeah Hockey Canada can be frustrating at times but you move on and enjoy great hockey which at the end of the day is what this tournament is all about, for me anyway.

Explain to me how you can easily understand why Yak was left off?

 

[Hale The Villain]

Watching him play in the exhibition season the only reason I can gather for Team Canada not having him on the roster is that it must have one of their best d groups in world junior history. Otherwise it makes no sense to keep the player I watched off the team.

To be fair to Team Canada, from the sounds of it Yakemchuk's WHL season hasn't been nearly as impressive as his NHL pre-season, which, while extremely impressive, was a much smaller sample size and may not be representative of where he is as a player.

Then again, we're talking about Dave Cameron here. Dude is literally playing Oliver Bonk as their top PP QB, even though he doesn't even QB the top PP for his own junior team, so we're not talking about an elite hockey mind here.

 

[Tuna99]

To be fair to Team Canada, from the sounds of it Yakemchuk's WHL season hasn't been nearly as impressive as his NHL pre-season, which, while extremely impressive, was a much smaller sample size and may not be representative of where he is as a player.

Then again, we're talking about Dave Cameron here. Dude is literally playing Oliver Bonk as their top PP QB, even though he doesn't even QB the top PP for his own junior team, so we're not talking about an elite hockey mind here.

What an insult to Dave Cameron who coached me of the greatest runs in NHL history if not greatest run, and also was the only person employed by the Senators to ever go tell Eugene Melcnyck to go f*** himself in public.

Great man, deserves our praise and not our shade because Carter Yakemchuk doesn’t play defense well enough yet. We drafted a prospect not a complete hockey player.

 

[Hale The Villain]

What an insult to Dave Cameron who coached me of the greatest runs in NHL history if not greatest run, and also was the only person employed by the Senators to ever go tell Eugene Melcnyck to go f*** himself in public.

Great man, deserves our praise and not our shade because Carter Yakemchuk doesn’t play defense well enough yet. We drafted a prospect not a complete hockey player.

He's a lifelong loser who hasn't won a league championship in 20 years of coaching at various levels.

Also he was terrible as Sens coach and any credit you give him for the 2014/15 run to the playoffs should go to the Hamburglar.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

What an insult to Dave Cameron who coached me of the greatest runs in NHL history if not greatest run, and also was the only person employed by the Senators to ever go tell Eugene Melcnyck to go f*** himself in public.

Great man, deserves our praise and not our shade because Carter Yakemchuk doesn’t play defense well enough yet. We drafted a prospect not a complete hockey player.

To be honest, none of the kids at this tournament are complete hockey players. They're all at the prospect stage.

 

[PlayersLtd]

Explain to me how you can easily understand why Yak was left off?

You first need to accept that HC is risk averse and that they seek players that can fit into a system with limited practice. That means that, above all else, they look for well rounded players and through the eyes of Hockey Canada Yak is a one dimensional D man. Since the offence, pp primarily, is/was going to be driven through Dickenson and Schaeffer on the left side that means they didn't have spots available on the right side to take a specialist or any risks.

On top of that, his physicality worked against him. HC avoids players that are prone to or have the potential for untimely penalties, which Yak does.

On top of that, his skating worked against him. HC avoids players who's skating could get exposed in any situation and like it or not, Yak falls into that category.

It's a bounty of riches situation and they go the way of safe players. They have their darlings and their darlings are well rounded guys that can be thrown out in all situations. They hedge their bets on the number of players that could emerge as 60 minute studs that can go over the boards in the third period of a tie game or in overtime. Offence is never an issue, the team is going to score, all around players are the target, mostly.

We as sens fans put too much stock into his preseason. It counts for absolutely nothing. In fact I kind of wish Yak didn't have a good showing in one of the most meaningless times of the year because now expectations are higher than they should be. I can almost guarantee you that he is destined for the AHL next year. That's fine. For all of HC's flaws their scouting is smarter than that, they took the preseason showing and threw it out and looked at how he showed in a short window situation (summer camp) and what they saw defensively in Calgary. Neither worked in his favour. As Sens fans we need to get over that.

 

[Bileur]

You first need to accept that HC is risk averse and that they seek players that can fit into a system with limited practice. That means that, above all else, they look for well rounded players and through the eyes of Hockey Canada Yak is a one dimensional D man. Since the offence, pp primarily, is/was going to be driven through Dickenson and Schaeffer on the left side that means they didn't have spots available on the right side to take a specialist or any risks.

On top of that, his physicality worked against him. HC avoids players that are prone to or have the potential for untimely penalties, which Yak does.

On top of that, his skating worked against him. HC avoids players who's skating could get exposed in any situation and like it or not, Yak falls into that category.

It's a bounty of riches situation and they go the way of safe players. They have their darlings and their darlings are well rounded guys that can be thrown out in all situations. They hedge their bets on the number of players that could emerge as 60 minute studs that can go over the boards in the third period of a tie game or in overtime. Offence is never an issue, the team is going to score, all around players are the target, mostly.

We as sens fans put too much stock into his preseason. It counts for absolutely nothing. In fact I kind of wish Yak didn't have a good showing in one of the most meaningless times of the year because now expectations are higher than they should be. I can almost guarantee you that he is destined for the AHL next year. That's fine. For all of HC's flaws their scouting is smarter than that, they took the preseason showing and threw it out and looked at how he showed in a short window situation (summer camp) and what they saw defensively in Calgary. Neither worked in his favour. As Sens fans we need to get over that.

Somewhat reminds me of team Canada not knowing whether and how to use PK Subban.

I’d at least have had him in the press box in case your first view of the lineup didn’t work and you needed an explosive boost.

 

[Icelevel]

To be fair to Team Canada, from the sounds of it Yakemchuk's WHL season hasn't been nearly as impressive as his NHL pre-season, which, while extremely impressive, was a much smaller sample size and may not be representative of where he is as a player.

Then again, we're talking about Dave Cameron here. Dude is literally playing Oliver Bonk as their top PP QB, even though he doesn't even QB the top PP for his own junior team, so we're not talking about an elite hockey mind here.

Dave Cameron is extremely overrated in every way. Some people might not realize that.

 

[Tuna99]

He's a lifelong loser who hasn't won a league championship in 20 years of coaching at various levels.

Also he was terrible as Sens coach and any credit you give him for the 2014/15 run to the playoffs should go to the Hamburglar.

You should turn in your Sens jersey immediately. He won gold and silver for Canada and runs one of the best junior hockey programs in the world and is so respected by Hockey Canada that they invited him back to coach the WJC which is the ultimate sign of respect.

And to people who understand hockey you know why Cameron’s philosophy didn’t have Yakemchuk on the team - Canada won 4-0, you see the 4, knowledgeable hockey people see the 0 and understand (like Jacques Martin and Travis Green) that hockey is won with defence and not offense, Team Canada wants to win 2-1 and not 5-4 and that’s why Yakemuchuk is not in the team.

and you give Hamburglar all the credit and don’t even mention Erik Karlsson shows your eyes watch hilite hockey and not the real game.

 

[dumbdick]

I'd feel worse if they hadn't also left off other top talents.

It's a pendulum. One year they lose with the best players so the next they go with "complete" players. Then they lose with them too and HC gets criticized for not taking the best players. If they lose this year they won't be overlooking top-15 drafted players next year.

Back and forth, back and forth. They've been doing it for years like this. They benched makar one year, ffs.

They won last game 4-0. They dominated the first two periods but were only up by two through 50+ minutes. They gave up 20 shots against in the third period when they needed to be locking the game down. They got a 31 save shutout from their goalie.

Is that kind of showing enough to beat the better teams like the USA? I don't know.

I do know this: if they don't get enough scoring to beat the better teams, these roster decisions are going to get ripped apart.

 

[Tuna99]

Yakemchuk isn’t on the team because he doesn’t play defence well enough over 60 minutes.

It’s not a sign of disrespect or of stupidity by Hockey Canada - it’s a junior league player who needs to work on his game. The Sens scouts said themselves his junior team didn’t ask him to play D because they were always behind in games, but that was a benefit because his offensive game became elite but his 2 way game still needed work, we drafted this player knowing this, he has god given scoring ability he just needs to work on his game

Alex Daigle made the world juniors and did nothing, Curtis Lazar was the Captain and couldn’t score into open nets provided by Connor McDavid, these guys are 19 years old, chill out and trust the Sens will turn Carter into an excellent pro.

2 other players critized for their D at 19 who played WJC - Erik Karlsson and Thomas Chabot. Chill out guys, Carter Yakemchuk didn’t earn it but it’s not an Afront to him or the Sens scouting staff.

You can be a Team Canada fan and a Sens fan at the same time. Enjoy the games and Davw Cameron coaching

 

[dumbdick]

Yakemchuk isn’t on the team because he doesn’t play defence well enough over 60 minutes.

It’s not a sign of disrespect or of stupidity by Hockey Canada - it’s a junior league player who needs to work on his game. The Sens scouts said themselves his junior team didn’t ask him to play D because they were always behind in games, but that was a benefit because his offensive game became elite but his 2 way game still needed work, we drafted this player knowing this, he has god given scoring ability he just needs to work on his game.

HC made the decision, I believe, for the reasons you stated. But HC has been wrong before, and every time they leave behind highly ranked players they're gonna get questioned for trying to be too cute targeting roster chemistry or two-way play. Building some perfectly balanced roster with everyone slotted into specific roles.

I'm not going to look at the decision by HC and use it as evidence that Yak can't play WJC quality defence over 60 mins.
We already saw him do it in camp against better competition. We know he can do it.
Or that he has relatively more work to do on his game than these other teenagers.

They may see there are better defensive options and that if he's not playing PP1 then he gets passed over. I can understand that.

But you seem to be jumping to this conclusion that the WJC snub is proof that he's got all these holes in his game.

HC might just be trying to get too damned cute again.

 

[aragorn]

I agree with this point about the city.

Problem with wanting the best team out there is these same guys finished without even sniffing a medal game last time doing the same thing.

That's the thing about tournaments & sports in general, you never know when a team is going to go on a run & win it all or a good team lose to a worse team. It happens all the time.

IMO Yak is going to be a better defenceman in the NHL than Oliver Bonk however, you never know the criteria they use to select a players. It changes all the time because the people selecting these players change all the time, the game is constantly evolving as is the refing & different people have their own preferences for what they want.

I'm quite sure penalties & physicality was an issue with Yak since he gets a lot of penalties against smaller players he crushes & his defence needs work. The good news is that you can teach a player to be better defensively, while it's almost impossible to teach elite offensive abilities. Yak in time could be a very good well rounded defenceman with size who can play in all situations at both ends, who will bring a level of physicality when needed & put up pts.

 

[Tuna99]

HC made the decision, I believe, for the reasons you stated. But HC has been wrong before, and every time they leave behind highly ranked players they're gonna get questioned for trying to be too cute targeting roster chemistry or two-way play. Building some perfectly balanced roster with everyone slotted into specific roles.

I'm not going to look at the decision by HC and use it as evidence that Yak can't play WJC quality defence over 60 mins.
We already saw him do it in camp against better competition. We know he can do it.
Or that he has relatively more work to do on his game than these other teenagers.

They may see there are better defensive options and that if he's not playing PP1 then he gets passed over. I can understand that.

But you seem to be jumping to this conclusion that the WJC snub is proof that he's got all these holes in his game.

HC might just be trying to get too damned cute again.

He does have holes in his game, he’s never been a + player in Junior and that’s not a reason to freak out, it’s just the truth. He wasn’t picked because his defensive game wasn’t good enough, that’s the reason.