The Belleville Senators announced Tuesday the signing of Landen Hookey to a two-year American Hockey League contract.

The 21-year-old will make his pro debut this season after leading the Ontario Hockey League’s Owen Sound Attack in scoring in 2024-25. Hookey finished the season as the club's captain and put up 70 points (34 goals, 36 assists) in 68 games with the team. He also had 3 points in 4 playoff games last spring as the Attack got manhandled in four straight by the eventual Memorial Cup Champion London Knights.

The first thing you notice about Hookey is his size, as the big winger checks in at 6-foot-5 and 222 pounds. He also doesn't mind the odd bout. According to HockeyFights.com, he's been 15 OHL fights in his career. But with the offense kicking in, he tried to make it a point to fight less last season.

While this isn't an NHL signing, Hookey's size fits in well with the organizational desire for bigger players that started at last year's NHL Draft.

It has to be noted that Hookey's offence didn't really arrive until this year as an overager. In 2023-24, he had 29 points in 64 games, which was his career-high at the time. He spent a season and a half with the Soo Greyhounds before finishing in the OHL with two and a half seasons in Owen Sound, where he tallied 137 points, including 65 goals and 72 assists. 

Hookey's plans for the summer are simple.

"I think the main thing is I'm just going to work on my skating every day," Hookey said in an interview on the Attack's Facebook page. "I think just getting stronger and bigger in the gym, just going to be playing against men next year, hopefully. So I've got to be as big and tough as them. So I think those are the two biggest things. And I think everything else, just work on that every day and everything will come together."

Ottawa native Scott Wray is the Attack's head coach, and when he named Hookey as the team's new captain in January, he spoke glowingly of the player.

“Landen has been nothing but a leader for us all season," Wray told the CHL website. "He continues to help work with the young guys to develop into everyday OHL players. He takes pride in both ends of the rink and has really become a true power forward in this league. When Hooks speaks, everyone listens and follows.”

Belleville's new GM, Matt Turek, who was Hamilton's OHL GM for several years, would have seen plenty of Hookey along the way and obviously liked what he saw as well.

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa
Image credit: CHL.ca Website