It’s January, which means that the hockey season is half over. For the Ottawa Senators, 2024 saw them turn over a new leaf. With a 19-17-2 record and just two points back of the top wild card spot, the team is finally performing to expectations. Linus Ullmark has been the biggest story. After a slow start, he finally found his Vezina-winning form, posting a .952 save percentage over his last 10 games. Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, and Brady Tkachuk have been scoring at nearly or over a point-per-game pace, Josh Norris is back to his goal-scoring self, and Thomas Chabot finally has the perfect defence partner in Nick Jensen. Things are good in Canada’s capital.
The Senators’ prospects have also been a bright spot. After years of watching the team’s prospects flounder, several players are now thriving in the minor and junior ranks. So, with the new year a time for reflection, let’s look back at some of the best performances in the Senators systems and hand out some mid-season awards.
Most Wins: Carter Yakemchuk
To no one’s surprise, Carter Yakemchuk has been the most successful prospect in the Senators’ system. After being picked seventh overall last June, he nearly made Ottawa’s lineup out of training camp while leading the team in scoring in the preseason, making him the easy choice for the first Senators’ Prospect of the Week recipient. However, he was sent back to the Calgary Hitmen without seeing a regular season game, which was where he hit the ground running, scoring three goals in his first four games back in the Western Hockey League (WHL).
Since then, he’s earned the Prospect of the Week honours twice more while putting up 14 goals and 34 points in 30 games and setting a Hitmen franchise record for most goals by a defenceman. He’s on pace to hit 71 points, and if he continues to score at his current rate this season, he could become one of the most effective blueliners in WHL history. There’s reason to believe he could do it, too; over the first half of the season, he’s only gone more than a single game without a point twice. The Senators were none too happy to see he was left off Canada’s World Junior roster – one of the reasons he was sent down to junior in the first place – but with Calgary looking to make a playoff push, he’ll have plenty of opportunities to make a big impact over the next few months.
Most Dominant: Blake Montgomery
Blake Montgomery always had the tools to be a dominant player; he was big, fast, and could score with the best of them. But during his time in the United States Hockey League (USHL) with the Lincoln Stars, he never ascended beyond “good.” In his first 10 games this season, he had 10 points – a strong start, but he still was just third on the team in scoring behind Jack Pechar and Daniel Shlaine.
So, when the NCAA announced that players could retain their college eligibility and play in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), Montgomery jumped ship and headed for the London Knights. It took him three games to get his first point and five games to score his first goal, but since then, he’s never let off the gas. In his last 14 games, he’s put up 12 goals and 25 points for an average of 1.79 points per game. Only Porter Martone, Michael Misa, Cal Ritchie, Quentin Musty, Liam Greentree, and Beckett Sennecke have averaged a higher pace over the season, and Montgomery has shown no signs of slowing down. He had an eight-point week at the beginning of December and closed out the month with five points in two games. That’s dominance.
Most Surprising: Cole Reinhardt
I’ve never been entirely sure what Cole Reinhardt is as a player. After he was drafted in 2020 as an overage prospect, I placed him in Tier Five in the Senators Prospect Pyramid, since I couldn’t see him becoming anything more than a minor-leaguer who got the occasional NHL call-up. His first four seasons with the franchise went that way, too, with him posting a high of 34 points in 2022-23 and getting just a single call-up in 2021-22. Yet he erupted out of the gate this season, scoring two goals and putting up five points in his first three games, earning a call-up to the Senators on Oct. 20 and on Oct. 25, he scored his first NHL point.
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Since then, Reinhardt has been a regular replacement player for the Senators, playing in 10 games so far. He scored his first goal on Nov. 25 and has been a solid energy guy for Ottawa in the bottom six, playing a reliable defensive game while in the NHL. In the American Hockey League (AHL) however, he’s been one of Belleville’s top producers. In his 13 games in the minors this season, he’s already recorded 16 points. The Senators may have found another hidden gem in the seventh round here, and I didn’t see this breakout coming at all.
Most Consistent: Tomas Hamara
Like Reinhardt, Tomas Hamara found his stride this season. So far, he has 32 points in 29 games with the Brantford Bulldogs and has taken control of the team’s top pairing, especially in Adam Jiricek’s absence. But what’s stuck out is how consistently Hamara is producing this season. Since returning from an injury in late October, he’s only had two weeks where he put up less than an average of a point per game, and only gone more than a game between points on just two occasions this season. He’s only been named the Senators Prospect of the Week once, but there have been several times when he was just shy of claiming it. As a defenceman who was criticized for having some consistency issues when he was drafted in 2022, it’s great to see him become a more well-rounded two-way presence in his final season of junior eligibility.
Best Sniper: Lucas Ellinas
The Senators 2024 Draft Class is shaping up to be a pretty strong group thanks to three fourth-round picks. Montgomery, taken 117th, has already captured the attention of fans eager to see how high he can climb before he goes off to the University of Wisconsin next season, and 112th overall selection Javon Moore won Prospect of the Week in December with three points in two games. But the first player picked from that group was Lucas Ellinas, and while he hasn’t hit the same lofty point totals or produced at as high of a pace as others already on this list, he’s emerged as one of the best goal-scorers in the Senators system. Midway through the season, he leads all Senators’ prospects with 18 goals and won Prospect of the Week after scoring three times in just two games.
Special teams strike first for Kitchener 🚨@Senators prospect Luke Ellinas scores his 18th goal of the year, finishing off a shorthanded 2 on 0 break to put the @OHLRangers up 1-0 in the first!#OHL | @CHLHockey pic.twitter.com/bGKA2LQzvq
— Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey) January 5, 2025
Ellinas’ 18 goals aren’t just impressive by Ottawa’s standards. He’s tied for 22nd in the league, and among U18s in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), he sits 12th and above Sam O’Reilly and Cole Beaudoin, both of whom were selected in the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft. While he still projects to be a depth player in the NHL, his goal-scoring ability is truly shining this season.
Best Goalie: Leevi Merilainen
The Senators have had some rough luck with goalies this season. Not only has Ullmark gone down with an injury, but Mads Sogaard, Leevi Merilainen, and Anton Forsberg have also dealt with injuries, limiting their ice time and forcing them to play catchup to get back into their groove. Kevin Reidler has performed well enough in his freshman season at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, but he’s averaging about one game a month. The same goes for Vladimir Nikitin, who is now back in his homeland of Kazakhstan but has been one of the most inconsistent goalies in the MHL.
That being said, the best goalies will step up when the occasion calls, and that’s exactly what Merilainen did when Ullmark went down, stepping into the starting role against the Vancouver Canucks on Dec. 21. With just 13 AHL games under his belt so far, he wasn’t coming into his first NHL start this season warmed up, but he held it together and grabbed his first career win with the Senators beating the Canucks 5-4 in overtime. He was back between the pipes against the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 22, allowing two goals on 14 shots, prompting the Senators to turn to Sogaard on Dec. 28, but he did about as well as his fellow rookie netminder. So, without any better options, Merilainen returned as the starter on Dec. 29, and he turned away 30 of 31 shots to earn his second career win. He struggled again on Jan. 2 with another tough loss, but he may have found his rhythm in the NHL.
Plenty of Prospects to Cheer For in 2025
The Senators may not have the strongest farm system in the NHL, but they continue to find value in their lower picks. Just take Stephen Halliday, who has 20 points in 29 games and earned Prospect of the Week honours in November. He still needs to work on his defensive presence, but with size and skill, he’s easily one of the Senators’ most interesting prospects. Angus Crookshank hasn’t had the strongest season, but his speed and tenacity continue to make him a threat on the ice, and his 13 goals with Belleville rank first on the team. There’s also Matthew Andonovski, a tough defender who’s shown some solid offensive skill and great leadership with Kitchener, and Djibril Toure, a free-agent signing, has shown some flashes of potential in his call-ups to the AHL.
There’s lots to look forward to for the rest of the hockey season. Tune in next time to see which prospect stood above the rest.
