It didn’t take long for Carter Yakemchuk to re-establish himself as the go-to guy with the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) Calgary Hitmen. After playing a handful of preseason games with the Ottawa Senators, the 2024 seventh-overall selection was returned to his junior team, and it only took a game for him to find his rhythm again. Since then, he hasn’t gone a single game without scoring a point, and last week, he put up four points in three games, helping the Hitmen secure their first road victory of the season, making him your Senators’ Prospect of the Week for the week of Oct. 22-27, 2024, and the first to earn the honour twice this season.
Yakemchuk’s Deadly Partnership With Kindel
One of the big reasons for Yakemchuk’s excellent week has been his teammate and 2025 draft-eligible forward, Benjamin Kindel. The Hitmen began their week on the road, traveling south to take on the Medicine Hat Tigers. The Canadian Hockey League’s preseason Top-10 leader struggled to start the season, losing four of their first five games, but you can only keep Gavin McKenna at bay for so long, and heading into their matchup against Calgary, they owned a 4-1 record over their last five games. Kindel opened the scoring for the Hitmen, but McKenna scored twice to put the game squarely in the Tigers’ favour. Yakemchuk’s feed to Kindel allowed Carson Wetsch to pop in the rebound and even the game, but Medicine Hat got two more to finish them off 4-2.
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Things started to get chippy after the buzzer went, with Yakemchuk and Tigers’ veteran Matthew Ward sharing some words until a shove led the Hitmen defender to let him know who he was dealing with, resulting in mild chaos across the ice. In the end, Yakemchuk was assessed a double-minor penalty for roughing and a 10-minute game misconduct, and on top of an earlier roughing penalty, he finished the game with one assist and 16 penalty minutes.
Calgary’s next game took them to Regina where they beat the Regina Pats 3-1. Yakemchuk added a primary assist, this time setting up Kindel on the power play with a great move to open up space, and managed to stay out of the penalty box. Kindel and Yakemchuk connected twice more in their next game against the Brandon Wheat Kings, with Yakemchuk scoring the go-ahead goal early in the third period, but the Wheat Kings charged back to tie it late in the game and managed to sneak the game-winner by in overtime.
Yak Attack from his favourite spot 🚨 pic.twitter.com/6RsrBDQPb4
— Calgary Hitmen (@WHLHitmen) October 27, 2024
Although Yakemchuk finished the week with a minus-3, he was a major part of the Hitmen’s powerplay, which sits at 24.5%, making it one of the best units in the league. His ability to use his size and creativity to create space is a promising development from last season, where he would often try to make the play himself. The Senators definitely have a gem on their hands with Yakemchuk.
Yakemchuk Is on Pace to Make History
Yakemchuk’s four-point week gave him a total of four goals and 10 points on the season. While that ranks outside the top 15 defensive scorers this season, his 1.43 points-per-game sits second in the WHL among defencemen. He’s on pace to eclipse his incredible 30-goal, 71-point campaign he put up last season with 36 goals and 90 points, which would put him among some of the most productive defencemen in league history.
Since the WHL was formed in 1964, 40 defencemen have hit at least 90 points in a single season. However, that list shrinks to just eight since 1989-90, and in the past 25 years, only Luca Cagnoni hit the 90-point mark. Combining that with 36 goals brings down the list to just six, with Paul Buczkowski the last player to do so in 1994-95. Then there are the penalty minutes. Currently, Yakemchuk leads the Hitmen with 14 penalty minutes (PIM), putting him on pace for 126 PIMs this season, also an upgrade from his 2023-24 season. Only four other players have put up a better stat line in a single season, putting the Senators’ prospect in rare company.
Honourable Mentions & Updates
Last week’s Prospect of the Week, Cole Reinhardt, picked up his first NHL point in his first game this season, assisting on Adam Gaudette’s opening goal against the Vegas Golden Knights. He had three shots and one hit in just under seven minutes of ice time, and although he went pointless in his second game, he put up four hits and blocked two shots. With an undisclosed injury to Shane Pinto, it looks like Reinhardt will remain with the big club for the next few games.
Lucas Ellinas continued his strong start to the season, scoring two more goals in two more games to give him eight total this season. He sits just one goal away from leading the Kitchener Rangers and is tied for 12th in the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) scoring race. His ability to score from anywhere has helped the Rangers climb to the top of the league.
After missing some time with an injury, Tomas Hamara returned to the ice with the Brantford Bulldogs last week and, like Yakemchuk, wasted no time returning to his old self, putting up an assist in each of his first two appearances. He also sits at eight total shots in those two games, which is right where he finished last season. He’s struggled with consistency throughout his junior career, but as one of the Bulldogs’ 20-year-olds, he’ll be relied on much more heavily this season, which should give him more opportunities to thrive and prepare him for joining the Belleville Senators next season.
Tune in next week to see which prospect stood above the rest!
