Ottawa Senators sign Fort McMurray's Carter Yakemchuk

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Carter Yakemchuk has signed on the dotted line.

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The Ottawa Senators continued to take care of their off-season business Tuesday by signing their first-round selection in the National Hockey League draft in June to a three-year entry-level contract.

Yakemchuk, 18, a defenceman selected No. 7 overall at the draft held in The Sphere in Vegas, has spent the last three seasons with the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen and he’ll be in Ottawa when camp opens in September.

“Carter has a bright future ahead of him,” Ottawa general manager Steve Staios said in a statement. “He’s an offensively-gifted defenceman who’s competitive and who has an NHL-ready shot.

“With continued development, we expect him to become a key member of our defence corps for many years to come.”

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Getting the contract out of the way allows Yakemchuk to focus on getting ready for what will be a big year.

He was invited to participate in the summer camp held last week in Windsor for candidates for Team Canada at the 2025 International Ice Hockey Federation world junior championships.

It just so happens those will be held at the Canadian Tire Centre and TD Place Arena during the holiday season, which means there’s a good opportunity here for Yakemchuk to show what he’s got in a city where he could start his NHL career.

Yakemchuk, who has good size at 6-foot-3, scored 30 goals and 71 points in 66 games with the Hitmen last season, and finished second on Calgary in scoring. There was no discussion at the table when he was available at No. 7.

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Senators chief scout Don Boyd liked what he saw from Yakemchuk during several viewings last season.

“The obvious is his offence, but he’s got the size, skating ability, the shot from the blueline and his ability to move in to use the full depth of the offensive zone,” Boyd said. “He’s got a little bit of an edge to his game on the back side. I felt that he had a presence that a lot of other people don’t.

“He’s a right-handed shot, and he was sitting right in front of us, and we didn’t have to chase it so that makes you feel good.”

No, Yakemchuk’s not going to push for a spot in camp. He has a good upside, but needs to improve his defensive game. That’s an area the Senators will be focused on working with him when the junior season gets underway.

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They want him to be a strong at both ends of the ice because he was relied on to be a big part of the Calgary offence last season. You can’t teach players how to score goals, but you can always impress upon them the importance of defence.

Hitmen GM Garry Davidson is a huge fan of Yakemchuk.

“He’s a quality offensive wow guy,” Davidson said after the Senators selected Yakemchuk. “So I’m not surprised at all that someone sees all the potential upside with him being an NHL player.

“It’s pretty easy to see a guy who scored 30 goals from the back end and really drove offence for a very young, inexperienced group that we had in Calgary this year. And that offensive part of the game is something that’s not as easy to teach.

“I think, as an old coach, I always felt you could make a guy a better defending player, but offence is really a difficult part of the game. It takes a lot of commitment, a lot of extra time and, obviously, some of it’s just a natural thing that some players have over other players. That’s probably what they saw in Yak.”

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A native of Fort McMurray, Yakemchuk has spent his whole junior career with the Hitmen. He has posted 53 goals and 131 points in 189 career games. One of his goals during this off-season is to improve his footwork and skating.

“Six-foot-three defenceman who not only has some grit to his game but he’s got some offence,” said Staios. “We feel there’s a lot of raw skill as well. We feel the potential is really there for Carter.

“These types of players are hard to find. We feel Carter has got the offence to his game. We have to round out his game and we feel we got a good one.”

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