C Beckett Sennecke - Oshawa Generals, OHL (2024, 3rd, ANA)

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Rinkside Roundup: Beckett Sennecke dazzles his way to World Juniors camp invitation

In this week's Roundup, Sebastian High highlights Beckett Sennecke, Shane Wright, Owen Beck, and more.

www.eliteprospects.com

OHL defences have struggled mightily to contain Sennecke this season, largely due to his versatility and intelligence. He’s tenacious along the boards, throws his weight around, and has gotten much better at establishing inside position and getting underneath opponents’ sticks. In gritty tight-quarters situations, he keeps his feet moving and continues to explore his playmaking skill. When he has space and time to operate, the pace, creativity, and handling take over, challenging defencemen and attacking downhill through the middle lane.

Here is an excerpt from Elite Prospects in December on Sennecke's progress. Does this sound anything like what is being said in here? Doesn't to me. And these people are paid to scout.

 

[Garbageyuk]

But you don't understand - he never said he was pretending to be a scout, so clearly he isn't.

You’re trying to be snarky, but that’s exactly how it works, dude

 

[KaseMeOutside]

Sharks fan here, I dont wish Senneckes production was better but I bet Ducks fans do. That being said I wouldn't be worried. I watched him undress Dickinson a few months ago 1 on 1 for a goal and the hands are unreal. He's becoming a gigantic power forward and has unreal skill. Hitting the weight room and getting proper coaching will probably get him away from the perimeter and have him putting pucks in at the next level. Time will tell but he has all the tools and even now isn't something to fret about... would've taken Demidov hehe.

What's wrong with the production, an 18 point increase in 7 fewer games played seems pretty good to me

 

[OversKy]

What's wrong with the production, an 18 point increase in 7 fewer games played seems pretty good to me

It's not awful or anything but wouldn't you like to see more than outside the OHL top 10 for ppg.

 

[Static]

It's not awful or anything but wouldn't you like to see more than outside the OHL top 10 for ppg.

Well, he is in that top 10. Unless you want to count kids who have played 1-30 games, which is silly. The points stuff is somewhat silly as well and not all that great of a predictor.

In 10 years we will see what was right and wrong.

 

[GunnarStahl]

Can we pause this thread, it is starting to smell of multiple loaded diapers...

 

[Juxtaposer]

I didn't watch it. But factoring into 3 goals is the literal definition of being a factor in a game.

Maybe Dickinson did do a good job. But you calling him a non-factor is example #890750359 on HFBoards of posters having to put down other teams' picks to make themselves feel better about their own.

The only people who are upset with the Ducks taking Sennecke are non-Ducks fans.

The other two points were on the PP, just for the record. So he wasn't a non-factor on the PP, sure.

Certainly there are some in here who are smugly criticizing the selection (won't name names but we both know who), but that's not what I'm trying to do. I just watch a ton of OHL hockey and was interested in discussing some of the stuff I've seen.

Of course, I admit to being biased, it would be silly not to. Of course, as a Sharks fan, it would thrill me if Sennecke full-on busted. But at the same time, I don't think it's fair to disregard everything said about Sennecke that doesn't please you.

Sennecke is incredibly skilled. The moves he pulls on kids in the OHL? I genuinely think he'll be able to pull them in the NHL. When he pantsed Dickinson in December, I bet 90% of NHL defensemen wouldn't defend any better than how Dickinson played it, and a lot of them would play it worse.

What the Ducks need to do is to put Sennecke in exactly the right situation to thrive. Give him no defensive responsibilities, no transition responsibilities, no retrieval responsibilities and no forechecking responsibilities. Give him two linemates who can do all that plus the dirty work to get him the puck and have the skill to make plays. Could Gauthier and Carlsson be those guys? Absolutely. Only time will tell how this plays out.

I would call his upside something like Mikko Rantanen. We've seen how he can thrive and score at a top-10 NHL level in the right situation. We've also seen him struggle to some extent when put in less optimal situations. There are some guys who are just so skilled that they can actually be non-factors at even strength most of the time and then put up 100 point seasons. Sennecke could be one, or he could develop more facets of his game and become a more well-rounded player. I personally believe that the best way to build a team is to find guys with complementary strengths and let them play to those strengths, not to try and turn every guy into a well-rounded player at the expense of the things they do extremely well.

I also think there are some legitimate reasons for Sennecke's stats being a little lower than they could be if he played for a different team or different coach. Oshawa often doesn't even play him with Ritchie or Barlow, which seems silly to me. He might have more points or look better if he had consistent and better linemates at evens, who knows.

All this to say: ignoring certain smug [redacted] posters, I don't see why any discussion or mild criticism of Sennecke has Ducks fans in a tizzy.

 

[Sendhelp2Anaheim]

The other two points were on the PP, just for the record. So he wasn't a non-factor on the PP, sure.

Certainly there are some in here who are smugly criticizing the selection (won't name names but we both know who), but that's not what I'm trying to do. I just watch a ton of OHL hockey and was interested in discussing some of the stuff I've seen.

Of course, I admit to being biased, it would be silly not to. Of course, as a Sharks fan, it would thrill me if Sennecke full-on busted. But at the same time, I don't think it's fair to disregard everything said about Sennecke that doesn't please you.

Sennecke is incredibly skilled. The moves he pulls on kids in the OHL? I genuinely think he'll be able to pull them in the NHL. When he pantsed Dickinson in December, I bet 90% of NHL defensemen wouldn't defend any better than how Dickinson played it, and a lot of them would play it worse.

What the Ducks need to do is to put Sennecke in exactly the right situation to thrive. Give him no defensive responsibilities, no transition responsibilities, no retrieval responsibilities and no forechecking responsibilities. Give him two linemates who can do all that plus the dirty work to get him the puck and have the skill to make plays. Could Gauthier and Carlsson be those guys? Absolutely. Only time will tell how this plays out.

I would call his upside something like Mikko Rantanen. We've seen how he can thrive and score at a top-10 NHL level in the right situation. We've also seen him struggle to some extent when put in less optimal situations. There are some guys who are just so skilled that they can actually be non-factors at even strength most of the time and then put up 100 point seasons. Sennecke could be one, or he could develop more facets of his game and become a more well-rounded player. I personally believe that the best way to build a team is to find guys with complementary strengths and let them play to those strengths, not to try and turn every guy into a well-rounded player at the expense of the things they do extremely well.

I also think there are some legitimate reasons for Sennecke's stats being a little lower than they could be if he played for a different team or different coach. Oshawa often doesn't even play him with Ritchie or Barlow, which seems silly to me. He might have more points or look better if he had consistent and better linemates at evens, who knows.

All this to say: ignoring certain smug [redacted] posters, I don't see why any discussion or mild criticism of Sennecke has Ducks fans in a tizzy.

Gauthier - carlsson - sennecke could be a nice line in the future, they all kinda compliment each others games nicely.

I’m not so worried bout jr stuff…. Just hoping he’s filling out his body…. As he’s very thin. Not sure what the plan with him is next year…. Don’t think Jrs is going to be a great spot for him, he’s not eligible for AHL and even if he has a good camp/preseason, I don’t think we should rush him into NHL…. Let him continue to develop all aspects of the game and continue to fill out.

 

[zegrassyknoll]

The other two points were on the PP, just for the record. So he wasn't a non-factor on the PP, sure.

Certainly there are some in here who are smugly criticizing the selection (won't name names but we both know who), but that's not what I'm trying to do. I just watch a ton of OHL hockey and was interested in discussing some of the stuff I've seen.

Of course, I admit to being biased, it would be silly not to. Of course, as a Sharks fan, it would thrill me if Sennecke full-on busted. But at the same time, I don't think it's fair to disregard everything said about Sennecke that doesn't please you.

Sennecke is incredibly skilled. The moves he pulls on kids in the OHL? I genuinely think he'll be able to pull them in the NHL. When he pantsed Dickinson in December, I bet 90% of NHL defensemen wouldn't defend any better than how Dickinson played it, and a lot of them would play it worse.

What the Ducks need to do is to put Sennecke in exactly the right situation to thrive. Give him no defensive responsibilities, no transition responsibilities, no retrieval responsibilities and no forechecking responsibilities. Give him two linemates who can do all that plus the dirty work to get him the puck and have the skill to make plays. Could Gauthier and Carlsson be those guys? Absolutely. Only time will tell how this plays out.

I would call his upside something like Mikko Rantanen. We've seen how he can thrive and score at a top-10 NHL level in the right situation. We've also seen him struggle to some extent when put in less optimal situations. There are some guys who are just so skilled that they can actually be non-factors at even strength most of the time and then put up 100 point seasons. Sennecke could be one, or he could develop more facets of his game and become a more well-rounded player. I personally believe that the best way to build a team is to find guys with complementary strengths and let them play to those strengths, not to try and turn every guy into a well-rounded player at the expense of the things they do extremely well.

I also think there are some legitimate reasons for Sennecke's stats being a little lower than they could be if he played for a different team or different coach. Oshawa often doesn't even play him with Ritchie or Barlow, which seems silly to me. He might have more points or look better if he had consistent and better linemates at evens, who knows.

All this to say: ignoring certain smug [redacted] posters, I don't see why any discussion or mild criticism of Sennecke has Ducks fans in a tizzy.

Comments like these are totally welcome and even encouraged, at least by me.

Ducks fans just have PTSD from the last few years of having multiple players' threads bombarded by fans of other teams who hate those players but also seem to want to trade for them. We have heard how we should have taken X player over Y while meanwhile we are happy to have Y.

I don't follow other teams' prospect threads so maybe it happens in every team, but it's getting a little silly.

 

[Juxtaposer]

Gauthier - carlsson - sennecke could be a nice line in the future, they all kinda compliment each others games nicely.

I’m not so worried bout jr stuff…. Just hoping he’s filling out his body…. As he’s very thin. Not sure what the plan with him is next year…. Don’t think Jrs is going to be a great spot for him, he’s not eligible for AHL and even if he has a good camp/preseason, I don’t think we should rush him into NHL…. Let him continue to develop all aspects of the game and continue to fill out.

Yeah, he's in the same situation as Parekh and Dickinson where they might not be "too good for juniors", but they definitely don't have anything left to learn in juniors and really need a new challenge. Musty's disastrous OHL season this year is a roadmap for what you don't want those guys to have happen next year.

I think you just have to return him to the OHL and give him a laundry list of specifics to work on both in the gym and on the ice. There's always room to improve, even for guys like that in this situation. Hopefully his attitude is better than Musty's, although the Sudbury stink probably has something to do with that specific situation.

The other option is to Will Smith him, where you accept that he'll probably look like garbage for the first 30 games, keep feeding him ice time anyway, and hope the elite talent pulls through by the end of the season. But the jump from the OHL to the NHL is a lot higher than the jump from the NCAA to pro hockey.

Comments like these are totally welcome and even encouraged, at least by me.

Ducks fans just have PTSD from the last few years of having multiple players' threads bombarded by fans of other teams who hate those players but also seem to want to trade for them. We have heard how we should have taken X player over Y while meanwhile we are happy to have Y.

I don't follow other teams' prospect threads so maybe it happens in every team, but it's getting a little silly.

And I completely understand that. The constant degradation of Zegras is annoying even to me, so I can't imagine what y'all deal with.

 

[tomd]

The Sennecke pick will always be scrutinized by virtue of passing on Demidov. Hopefully the Ducks made the right pick but it's a fair debate at this point. The Ducks also took grief for picking Carlsson over Fantilli and so far that's probably a wash but Carlsson has a ton of runway left to improve. I'd be happy if the Sennecke pick turned out the same and both he and Demidov became 1st line wingers. It's definitely possible.

 

[Trojans86]

He still has so much physical maturation to go. He grew an inch over the last year and who knows if he grows any more. It takes some time for a body finish maturing even after you stop growing vertically. This kid is very skinny. He could end up being 6’4 225 with elite offensive tools and iq.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

And that's absolutely the right course of action. Slow-play Sennecke, hope he finds those attributes he's missing.

But the greater point is that Sennecke's numbers this year are nothing special. He's 15th in the OHL in scoring. He was outscored by two defensemen drafted after him. Martone and Rehkopf outscored Sennecke but barely played at the WJC, yet many fans are convinced Sennecke would have lit up the tournament is the difference between medaling and what happened.

That's funny you cite that scenario as if it could never happen. I do recall one Trevor Zegras being like the 13th forward for team USA's WJC-20, Zegras' first WJC-20. All Zegras did was prove on the ice how he was a difference maker and ended being team USA's leading scorer with 9 points, all assists. Zegras started on the fourth line as the 13th forward. This disproves your impossible scenario is not possible false. And we already know what happened with team Canada. The most points scored by a Canadian for the WJC-20 was 3 points. Yeah... your scenario make it more plausible that Sennecke would have provided more offense for team Canada.

As for comparing Sennecke (Oshawa) to Dickinson (London) and Parekh's (Saginaw) scoring, then you have to add context. Are they on teams whose talent quantity and level equal? This is where qualitative analysis begins because we add context. If you put Dickinson on Oshawa without Beckett, I don't think Dickson would put up higher numbers. If you put Sennecke on London without Dickinson, Sennecke would put up more than the 82 points he did with Oshawa. Similarly, if you swapped Parekh with Sennecke, then Sennecke would be generating more points.

It is facetious to cite that two defensemen drafted below Sennecke are putting up more points than Sennecke, therefore Sennecke sucks.

20+ goal scorers
Oshawa: 4 players (Sennecke's 36 goals leads the team)
London: 8 players (Sim's 30 goals leads the team)
Saginaw: 6 players (Misa's 62 goals leads the team)

 

[Juxtaposer]

That's funny you cite that scenario as if it could never happen. I do recall one Trevor Zegras being like the 13th forward for team USA's WJC-20, Zegras' first WJC-20. All Zegras did was prove on the ice how he was a difference maker and ended being team USA's leading scorer with 9 points, all assists. Zegras started on the fourth line as the 13th forward. This disproves your impossible scenario is not possible false. And we already know what happened with team Canada. The most points scored by a Canadian for the WJC-20 was 3 points. Yeah... your scenario make it more plausible that Sennecke would have provided more offense for team Canada.

As for comparing Sennecke (Oshawa) to Dickinson (London) and Parekh's (Saginaw) scoring, then you have to add context. Are they on teams whose talent quantity and level equal? This is where qualitative analysis begins because we add context. If you put Dickinson on Oshawa without Beckett, I don't think Dickson would put up higher numbers. If you put Sennecke on London without Dickinson, Sennecke would put up more than the 82 points he did with Oshawa. Similarly, if you swapped Parekh with Sennecke, then Sennecke would be generating more points.

It is facetious to cite that two defensemen drafted below Sennecke are putting up more points than Sennecke, therefore Sennecke sucks.

20+ goal scorers
Oshawa: 4 players (Sennecke's 36 goals leads the team)
London: 8 players (Sim's 30 goals leads the team)
Saginaw: 6 players (Misa's 62 goals leads the team)

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Sorry, so the default is to assume unequivocally that your fantasy Sennecke situation would have definitely played out because Zegras had a nice U20 a few years ago? Did you even watch this year's WJC at all? Not a single player on the Canadian team looked good except Schaefer. Gavin McKenna, who led the entire CHL in scoring, looked like a total scrub. Cal Ritchie, who was scoring at the same pace on the same team as Sennecke at the time of the tournament, looked like hot garbage. Sennecke would not have looked any better with that awful coaching job.

Certainly, Dickinson would not have the scoring numbers he put up with London if he hadn't played on the team that he did. Which would be expected, because Dickinson is a defenseman who scored 91 f***ing points in 55 games. He's not an elite offensive defenseman, he shouldn't be outscoring a supposedly elite offensive winger.

But if you don't think Parekh would score just as many points on Oshawa as he did in Saginaw, you just plain don't watch OHL hockey. Parekh is an elite offensive defenseman who depends on absolutely no one to create offense. He'd have scored that much on any team with one decent forward option, which Ritchie is.

Anyway, I'm not sure why you're getting so worked up about hypotheticals when the simple statement I made, "Sennecke's numbers this year are nothing special", is simply factual. You'd like your 18 year old 3rd overall pick who is a purely offensive winger to be better than 12th in the OHL in scoring (PPG), especially when only 4 of the guys ahead of him were 2023 draftees or older.

Please point to where I said Sennecke sucks, by the way.

 

[SirloinUB]

It’s funny how draft position skews perceptions and expectations.

People are disappointed with his offensive production for a 3rd overall pick. On the other side of it I got this guy 10th in my keeper league entry draft and I am thrilled with what he has done.

 

[Garbageyuk]

If you put Dickinson on Oshawa without Beckett, I don't think Dickson would put up higher numbers. If you put Sennecke on London without Dickinson, Sennecke would put up more than the 82 points he did with Oshawa. Similarly, if you swapped Parekh with Sennecke, then Sennecke would be generating more points.

What a convenient way of looking at this hypothetical scenario for a Ducks fan. But the thing you aren’t taking into account, even with your extremely presumptuous and convenient assumption that Sennecke’s scoring would increase, is that it’s much harder for defensemen to put up points than it is for forwards, so Sennecke would have to vastly outperform their numbers for it to be equivalent. I don’t see that happening. That is, how many D have put up the kind of numbers in the OHL that Parekh and Dickinson did this season in the OHL at the same age? A handful, ever. How many forwards have put up the numbers Sennecke did? It’s so common that it isn’t even worth talking about - he didn’t even get near 100 points.

It is facetious to cite that two defensemen drafted below Sennecke are putting up more points than Sennecke, therefore Sennecke sucks.

Nobody said that. However, it’s fair to point out that Sennecke’s numbers this year were pretty underwhelming for an offense only D+1 player, especially relative to his own draft class, and in light of how much we heard since the draft that he was supposed to explode offensively due to some mythic, vast reserve of untapped potential.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Back to the O or in the league with Anaheim next year?

 

[HanSolo]

Back to the O or in the league with Anaheim next year?

Knowing Verbeek? Probably Anaheim. He should be going to the AHL though.

Kid needs to bulk up big time. Leo, Sennecke, and Zegras should spend half the summer training together with weight training personal trainers.

 

[Static]

Back to the O or in the league with Anaheim next year?

He will get some games with Anaheim, an AHL conditioning stint, then the world juniors, and then the OHL playoffs. Same game plan as what they did with McTavish.