It’s overtime at Scotiabank Arena and 2024 first-rounder Carter Yakemchuk is on the ice in his first ever pre-season game. First thing Yakemchuk does is slip past 69-goal man Auston Matthews behind Ottawa’s net. Gathering speed, he races up the ice, dangles through Jake McCabe, and then pushes past Mitch Marner and finishes off the game by undressing former Senators goaltender Matt Murray with a neat backhand move.
Welcome to the NHL and the highlight reel, kid.
“It just kind of opened up for me,” said Yakemchuk. “Personally, it was nice to see one go in in my first professional game.”
“Wow,” said Travis Green, commenting on the game-winning goal that delivered his first win behind the Senators’ bench.
Nothing will endear Yakemchuk to Ottawa Senators fans more than scoring an overtime goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs in his first game donning his new team’s colours.
There’s a lot of promise in Yakemchuk, a 6-foot-3, 201-pound offensive defenceman from Calgary, who seemed something of a risky selection for general manager Steve Staios at seventh overall because of his defensive warts. Yet, there was a reason Staios picked Yakemchuk: it’s no small feat to score 30 goals in 66 games as an 18-year-old defenceman in the Western Hockey League.
Yakemchuk was noticeable throughout the entire game Sunday night in which the Senators iced a lineup dominated by prospects while the Leafs fielded their big guns. He jumped into the rush, forced turnovers, and demonstrated poise on the puck. He did not look out of place; if anything he looked like a veteran of the group.
“Definitely a lot of nerves coming to the game, but I got settled in after the first couple shifts,” Yakemchuk said.
On one of his first shifts, he jumped into the play on the forecheck and drew a high-sticking penalty on Timothy Liljegren. Get used to that being a part of his game.
Yakemchuk quarterbacked the ensuing power play and, later on, jumped over the boards on a penalty kill, too.
From the start of camp, Green’s plan for Yakemchuk was to pair him with Thomas Chabot, who once was in Yakemchuk’s shoes as a first-round prospect and hoped-for saviour on the blue line.
So far the plan has been paying off.
“Playing [Yakemchuk] with Chabot all camp, there's purpose behind that,” said Green. “I've been impressed with him from day one. And the impressive part hasn't been the offence. It's been his attention to detail, his willingness to learn and knowing that he has that in him, and it was quite a night for him.”
Chabot, meantime, has embraced the role of mentor. He says he wants to do for Yakemchuk what the likes of Erik Karlsson did for him when he was the nervous young kid trying to break into the league. And Chabot also sees the potential within Yakemchuk.
“He's a talented player, fluid out there, just sees the game really well, with an elite shot,” said Chabot. “So you know what? There's not much that I'm going to teach him. I think he's already got most of it, and it's just about being there for him and helping him.”
There were other moments in Sunday’s game that gave a glimpse into what Chabot’s talking about. In the second period, Yakemchuk (No. 58) picked up the puck in the neutral zone and niftily sauced a backhand pass to Cole Reinhardt, leading to a 3-on-1 which nearly led to another Yakemchuk goal that Reinhardt eventually scored on.
Still, there were reminders that Yakemchuk is an unpolished player in the professional game and that he’ll go through the ups and downs most youngsters do. For example, on Toronto’s first goal, he lost track of Auston Matthews and allowed Matthew Knies to finish on a beautiful backdoor setup by Mitch Marner.
If Yakemchuk were to break camp with the Sens, these probably wouldn’t be his first regular season assignments. But pre-season allows the coaching staff to challenge a young player and see how he responds, which is why another part of Green’s plan has been to put Yakemchuk in all situations and expose him to tough NHL competition. Despite some wobbles in his own zone, Yakemchuk was consistently matched up against Toronto’s most dangerous offensive players, sharing ice with Matthews, Marner, Knies and John Tavares more than any other Leaf forwards.
And, in the end, the offensive defenceman created two of Ottawa’s goals, flashed some of the skill that has the team and fan base hoping he’s a future elite defenceman for them, and won the first game he played in OT.
As training camp has gone on, Yakemchuk’s confidence has grown. His first impression to Sens fans in game action was largely positive, leaving them wanting to see more.
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