After participating in his first NHL Development Camp earlier this month, Sens first-rounder Carter Yakemchuk heads into the summer with plans to work on his skating.
For young players, the experience of being selected in the NHL Draft is a whirlwind.
Every year, they barely have time to fully absorb the fact that their childhood dream just came true. Within a few days, they're jumping on a plane to development camps scattered across North America.
That's how it was for Calgary Hitmen defenceman Carter Yakemchuk.
The Senators wanted more size and right-shot presence on defence, and Yakemchuk fit that bill perfectly. So on June 28th in Vegas, the Sens drafted Yakemchuk seventh overall. By July 2nd, the Calgary native suddenly found himself on the ice in Kanata, Ontario, one of 33 players participating in the Sens' annual development camp.
As most fans know, the camp is a checkup to see what the kids in the organization need to work on to become NHL players someday. As a seventh-overall pick who's 6-foot-4, Yakemchuk has a chance to get to the NHL faster than most of the others at the camp. But he's still just a kid at 18, and despite his draft pedigree, he has things to work on.
"Yeah, I think for me this week was to get better at skating," Yakemchuk told a media scrum at the camp. "I think I need to improve my foot speed and just kind of my overall skating. So that's something I'm going to be working on."
As one of the best skaters in Sens history, development coach Shean Donovan can probably help with that. Donovan ran the camp and was impressed with Yakemchuk.
"Oh, he's a good player, had a great camp and a fun kid to be around," Donovan said. And now the work starts. We kind of know what he needs to work on. So now we get to work with him, and that's the whole point of this camp. You bring him in and see the little details and things he needs to work on. And so we're excited to work with him because he's a great kid. It'll be a fun career for him."
Yakemchuk looked solid at development camp, and his five-man squad, Team Red, won the three-on-three tournament to close out the camp.
Yakemchuk, poised beyond his years yet a man of few words, outlined his plans now for summer.
"I mean, go back to Calgary and keep training. I want to keep getting better, keep improving my game, and be ready for main camp."
Yakemchuk will turn 19 during Ottawa's training camp, and he could probably compete for the bottom-pairing, right-defence job with Jacob Bernard-Docker and Travis Hamonic next season. But could and should are two different things. Unless he really stands out in pre-season, throwing him right into the NHL fire would be sketchy.
Yakemchuk will probably be well served with at least one more season of development. That might be terrible news for Western Hockey League opponents, who Yakemchuk torched for 30 goals and 71 points as an 18-year-old last season.
What will he do for an encore at 19?
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