With injuries sidelining defensemen, top prospect Carter Yakemchuk shines in the AHL, earning Player of the Week honours and making a strong case for a call-up.
With the Ottawa Senators down two of their regular defensemen due to injury, Carter Yakemchuk is making a loud statement in the AHL about what he'd like to see happen next.
The American Hockey League announced on Monday that Yakemchuk has been selected as the AHL Player of the Week for the period ending March 15, 2026. In his past three games for Belleville, Yakemchuk has a goal, eight points and a plus-8.
Yakemchuk assisted on six goals in his two games last week, helping the Senators to a sweep of their weekend visit to Hershey.
He becomes only the seventh Belleville Sens player to earn the player of the week honours. The others are Drake Batherson (October 28, 2019), Logan Brown (November 4, 2019), Josh Norris (April 19, 2021), Michael Carcone (December 6, 2021), Egor Sokolov (February 7, 2022), and Angus Crookshank (January 22, 2024).
Yakemchuk, the seventh overall selection in the 2024 NHL Draft, is still waiting to make his NHL debut for Ottawa, even though both Jake Sanderson and Nick Jensen are out with injuries. Their spots on the everyday roster have been taken by Yakemchuk's Belleville teammate, Dennis Gilbert, and Ottawa's seventh defenseman, Nik Matinpalo.
But that still left a need for a seventh defenseman in Ottawa, and the Sens also chose to bypass Yakemchuk for that role, calling up Lassi Thomson.
At the start of the season, if you told a Sens fan that the club would need nine defensemen in Ottawa at some point, they probably would have assumed Yakemchuk would be one of them.
But the fact of the matter is that the Senators want Yakemchuk to keep developing, keep playing big minutes, and come up to the NHL only when the time is right.
So far, so good.
On Saturday, Yakemchuk recorded four assists to help Belleville to a 6-3 victory. Then on Sunday, he added two more helpers in another three-goal Belleville win, this time, 5-2. Yakemchuk was named the First Star in both games.
On the season, Yakemchuk has recorded 35 points in 47 games, good for second among all AHL rookie defensemen.
When the Sens drafted him, he had just come off a 30-goal season with the Calgary Hitmen in 2023-24. But when he returned to the WHL last season to work on skating and his defensive game, his offensive numbers took a hit, but it looks like things are starting to trend back in a positive direction.
He did get a recent NHL taste, which he loved, coming up to practice with Ottawa during the Olympic break last month. Based on his recent performances, the kid looks like he's hungry for a lot more.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News
This article was originally published at The Hockey News. For more Senators news, analysis, and features, visit the Ottawa Senators site at The Hockey News.
More from The Hockey News:
- Linus Ullmark's Post-Game Media Availability Lasts 25 Seconds
- League Announces Senators Will Get A First-Round Pick In 2026 After All
- There’s No Replacing Jake Sanderson, But Senators Must Step Up In His Absence
- Were the Senators Chasing Robert Thomas At The Trade Deadline?
- Senators Acquire Former 67s Star At Trade Deadline