GDT: 2024 Rookie Tournament

[Hale The Villain]

Key takeaways after the 3 games:

Halliday is a steal and may have top 6 potential. Big, smart and skilled. Carries the puck well through traffic and has the creativity needed to generate offense at the pro level. I expect he'll have a big year in Belleville, but if Norris or another of our centers get injured I'd love to see him center one of our top 3 lines with some skill players.

Yakemchuk's feet are awful and his decision-making is not great. Great at jumping down low and utilizing his hands and shot, but his effectiveness at generating offense from the blueline will be limited unless he can improve his quickness significantly. Puck management and defensive attentiveness needs to improve as well. Not the best showing from a 7th overall pick.

Boucher, Eliasson and Nordberg are all great athletes with grit but rocks for brains. Just zero hockey IQ between them and as much as people will say they are raw and still need years of development, it's very very difficult to develop hockey sense. Don't expect much from any of them, despite all 3 picked in the first couple rounds.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Also it's unbelievable that a team with as little talent in our pool as us, that just left a draft with no 6th or 7th round picks, couldn't come up with better invites than we did.

You'd think we'd be trying our best to unearth some gems and replace some of the picks traded in recent years, but no our staff would rather invite plugs like Ward, Stewart and Boulton, not to mention filling out the rest of the roster with a bunch of former Bulldogs (Duarte, Humphrey, Moore, Egorov) and local guys with nothing better to do (Buckley, Rolofs).

For a team that loves drafting overagers, you'd think they'd recognize the value in getting a chance to tryout some 17/18 year olds and potentially save a draft pick or two by signing them to an ELC should they impress. They did that with Toure last year and while I'm skeptical he'll ever amount to much, he did look decent at the tourney this year.

 

[OD99]

Big hit by Boucher

Right after this hit, from the announcers:

Play-by-play guy: "Boucher is a big boy"
Colour guy: "Well, he has had a lot of time to work out being injured all the time"

LMFAO

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDoo]

Key takeaways after the 3 games:

Halliday is a steal and may have top 6 potential. Big, smart and skilled. Carries the puck well through traffic and has the creativity needed to generate offense at the pro level. I expect he'll have a big year in Belleville, but if Norris or another of our centers get injured I'd love to see him center one of our top 3 lines with some skill players.

...

You can see some skill with Halliday, but I'm not sure his skills are good enough at the NHL level. He's good with the puck, but I think he may be just "AHL good".

Would love to be wrong, this team clearly needs some guys to overachieve.

 

[Wallet Inspector]

Key takeaways after the 3 games:

Halliday is a steal and may have top 6 potential. Big, smart and skilled. Carries the puck well through traffic and has the creativity needed to generate offense at the pro level. I expect he'll have a big year in Belleville, but if Norris or another of our centers get injured I'd love to see him center one of our top 3 lines with some skill players.

Yakemchuk's feet are awful and his decision-making is not great. Great at jumping down low and utilizing his hands and shot, but his effectiveness at generating offense from the blueline will be limited unless he can improve his quickness significantly. Puck management and defensive attentiveness needs to improve as well. Not the best showing from a 7th overall pick.

Boucher, Eliasson and Nordberg are all great athletes with grit but rocks for brains. Just zero hockey IQ between them and as much as people will say they are raw and still need years of development, it's very very difficult to develop hockey sense. Don't expect much from any of them, despite all 3 picked in the first couple rounds.

Tbf I've seen mostly positive comments for Yakemchuk for the last couple of games

 

[OD99]

You can see some skill with Halliday, but I'm not sure his skills are good enough at the NHL level. He's good with the puck, but I think he may be just "AHL good".

Would love to be wrong, this team clearly needs some guys to overachieve.

His vision seems NHL level and I expect after some time in the AHL, he will show he can translate to the NHL.

Guys like that can be better at higher levels because guys go to the right spots more often and certainly can finish more often.

I am legit excited to see him in a couple of years.

 

[Wallet Inspector]

As long as Halliday's skating is at least "decent", he'll be an NHL player.

 

[Senator Stanley]

Both Halliday and Yakemchuk showed well and that's probably all that matters.

Now get to work revamping this scouting staff.

 

[Sens in Process]

Tbf I've seen mostly positive comments for Yakemchuk for the last couple of games

He was overall quite good in tournament. And you can tell he was quite good, because if he wasn't, this thread would have been fifteen pages longer with even more doom and gloom.

I watched Parekh's two games in the rookie tournament to provide a comparable baseline in which to measure Yakemchuk. And with no hint of of exaggeration, Parekh was probably one of the worst players on the ice the first game. After a brutal 1st period in game 2, he settled down a bit and played better, and generated some offense. You can go watch the highlights or reference the Flames hfboard as they watched the game in real time. Yakemchuk has been the far better player and I don't think it is particularly close.

As long as Halliday's skating is at least "decent", he'll be an NHL player.

It is decent and good enough

 

[bert]

Much better period.

Yakemchuks talent starting to shine through

Clearly a very skilled player. Reading some of the evaluations on here its obvious people's ego's are far more important than watching the games and actually evaluating. Or maybe they are incapable of it in general.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Tbf I've seen mostly positive comments for Yakemchuk for the last couple of games

As you would expect. No one, especially Sens twitter hype guys, wants to criticize the kid we just took 7th overall.

 

[bert]

You can see some skill with Halliday, but I'm not sure his skills are good enough at the NHL level. He's good with the puck, but I think he may be just "AHL good".

Would love to be wrong, this team clearly needs some guys to overachieve.

I think a full year in Belleville with him getting used to a pro schedule will really tell us a more clear story about what he can be. Its alot harder to be good in 70 + games than 35. Especially when the physicality ramps up and you are playing 3 in 4 more weeks. He is very smooth, has good body awareness for a big player and is slippery. But he needs reps, as a late bloomer and big body there is nothing wrong with him playing in all situations in Belleville this year.

As you would expect. No one, especially Sens twitter hype guys, wants to criticize the kid we just took 7th overall.

Or maybe you just are seeing ghosts after going off the rails after they drafted him and are in fact wrong.

His skating while it needs work is so much better than you are describing. Its just a matter of building strength and growing into his body. He has a ways to go but the technical aspect is fine and his edge work is actually quite good for a 6'3 18 year old.

 

[Senator Stanley]

As you would expect. No one, especially Sens twitter hype guys, wants to criticize the kid we just took 7th overall.

Or maybe they just think he played well?

Sometimes people are just making good faith observations. Not everyone has an agenda.

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

Maybe Halliday looks so good to us only because he is like 2 levels above anyone else we had lol.

He did look great though, played a mature heady game and uses his size well. Sounds like an NHLer and and probably will be better than Ostapchuck.

 

[Senscore]

Yakemchuk got walked a few times and his play in his own zone leaves more to be desired. I don't think anyone is trying to deny that's what happened.

There are parts of his game that are really raw and need work but he's unquestionably one of the few guys in this group with real skill.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Or maybe you just are seeing ghosts after going off the rails after they drafted him and are in fact wrong.

His skating while it needs work is so much better than you are describing. Its just a matter of building strength and growing into his body. He has a ways to go but the technical aspect is fine and his edge work is actually quite good for a 6'3 18 year old.

I was fully against Yakemchuk at #7 months and months before we drafted him, but you know that. Has nothing to do with the Sens picking him, just never thought he was as good as you and several others on this site thought he was.

His skating was noticeably terrible. Not his top speed, which his fine, but his quickness and footspeed. He got burned for multiple breakaways against and got himself into some trouble from quicker forwards all tournament, resulting in some bad turnovers.

You can hand wave this away saying it's all a strength issue, but he's already a late birthday (older than most 2024 draftees) and it doesn't look like his skating has improved at all over the summer.

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

What makes me nervous about Yak is how reliant he is on his hands to create offense.

Like it's one thing if you're an elite skater like Hughes, Karlsson or Makar and deking out everyone.

But on the other side you have David Rundblad. Where your bread and butter advantage vanishes overnight in the NHL.

 

[Hale The Villain]

What makes me nervous about Yak is how reliant he is on his hands to create offense.

Like it's one thing if you're an elite skater like Hughes, Karlsson or Makar and deking out everyone.

But on the other side you have David Rundblad.

He tried some dangling in the first couple games and it didn't work at all, as you would expect once the level of competition increases.

To his credit he didn't try it in the last game and turned the puck over less.

 

[HoweHullOrr]

Key takeaways after the 3 games:

Halliday is a steal and may have top 6 potential. Big, smart and skilled. Carries the puck well through traffic and has the creativity needed to generate offense at the pro level. I expect he'll have a big year in Belleville, but if Norris or another of our centers get injured I'd love to see him center one of our top 3 lines with some skill players.

Yakemchuk's feet are awful and his decision-making is not great. Great at jumping down low and utilizing his hands and shot, but his effectiveness at generating offense from the blueline will be limited unless he can improve his quickness significantly. Puck management and defensive attentiveness needs to improve as well. Not the best showing from a 7th overall pick.

Boucher, Eliasson and Nordberg are all great athletes with grit but rocks for brains. Just zero hockey IQ between them and as much as people will say they are raw and still need years of development, it's very very difficult to develop hockey sense. Don't expect much from any of them, despite all 3 picked in the first couple rounds.

Tbf I've seen mostly positive comments for Yakemchuk for the last couple of games

I thought Yakemchuk looked pretty good at times. He does show some offensive skill with the puck. He probably deserved some blame for one of CBJs goals (the 3rd one?) though.

 

[Sens in Process]

He tried some dangling in the first couple games and it didn't work at all, as you would expect once the level of competition increases.

To his credit he didn't try it in the last game and turned the puck over less.

He only started dangling when the game was well out of reach For the majority of the tournament, he played a quietly effective offensive game. Like his team in Calgary, the forward group were unable to hang on to pucks, make plays and maintain zone time. It has hard to showcase your offensive skillset when a forward group is so limited. Despite this, he had 2 points in three games- was on 50% of the teams goals.

I think what we saw is a guy that has a clear development path to becoming a solid two-way, physical dman, whose skating is better than advertised and it will continue to get better.

 

[Ouroboros]

It was a mixed bag for Yakemchuk. He made a number of unforced turnovers, and he was often caught deep in the offensive zone pressing for offence. That's a problem because his skating doesn't really allow him to reliably get back into position. On the other hand, he's pretty much the only guy the Sens had on the ice that could start the transition or create any sort of opportunities with the puck.

With Halliday you have to give some consideration to the fact that he's nearly a full 4 years older than some of the other players on the team. That kind of difference is really meaningful in this age group. I thought he looked decent, but not exceptional. He's at his best when he has lots of time and space - like on the PP - but he didn't really establish himself at even-strength. He's going to have to up his work rate and use his body more to win puck battles. Whether he makes it or not will probably depend on whether he can get things done at 5-on-5.

I think that both guys were hurt - to some extent at least - by not having much talent to play with.

 

[Icelevel]

Key takeaways after the 3 games:

Halliday is a steal and may have top 6 potential. Big, smart and skilled. Carries the puck well through traffic and has the creativity needed to generate offense at the pro level. I expect he'll have a big year in Belleville, but if Norris or another of our centers get injured I'd love to see him center one of our top 3 lines with some skill players.

Yakemchuk's feet are awful and his decision-making is not great. Great at jumping down low and utilizing his hands and shot, but his effectiveness at generating offense from the blueline will be limited unless he can improve his quickness significantly. Puck management and defensive attentiveness needs to improve as well. Not the best showing from a 7th overall pick.

Boucher, Eliasson and Nordberg are all great athletes with grit but rocks for brains. Just zero hockey IQ between them and as much as people will say they are raw and still need years of development, it's very very difficult to develop hockey sense. Don't expect much from any of them, despite all 3 picked in the first couple rounds.

On yakemchuk I agree. I just hope that if he works on the skating that will help t he decision making (with more time and confidence to make them).
So the skating doesn’t worry me so much(I think he can improve that) but the decision making is a worry we’ll have to be optimistic about.

First time we’ve seen him with Ottawa.

 

[Sens in Process]

GARRIOCH: Senators prospects go winless, but gain experience with main camp set to open

Bowness on Yakemchuk's play:

“His instinctual play is very noticeable,” Bowness said. “For an event like this, the first game everybody wasn’t comfortable with the systems and stuff like that, but with him you could see the instincts he has.



“He has poise with the puck, the little plays he makes with the puck, he got better as the first game went on and he carried that over into the second game. We’re anxious to see improvement. The biggest thing that stands out for me is the way he sees the ice and the plays he has the ability to make.”

Bowness on Halliday:

“He sees the game so well,” Bowness said. “His offensive instincts, the way he handles the puck, the poise and the way he protects the puck with his body, he just has good hockey sense. He doesn’t get phased by anything out there. He plays his game and plays with confidence.



“He just goes out there and performs. He was at the point last year where our veteran guys (in Belleville) were asking Bell if they could play with him because they saw the impact he has on the game.”

 

[Joeyjoejoe]

When does the NHL camp start this year?

 

[Micklebot]

When does the NHL camp start this year?

Tomorrow I think