Traded from last-place to the top QMJHL team, Sens prospect Lucas Beckman is building confidence and moving up the organizational depth chart.
Ottawa Senators goalie prospect Lucas Beckman could get used to this.
Beckman, Ottawa's fourth-round pick, #97 overall at last summer's NHL Draft, has spent the past month or so tending goal for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, the top-ranked team in the QMJHL.
From a winning perspective, it's been a far cry from his former team, the last-place Baie-Comeau Drakkar, and it's also led to a big improvement in Beckman's individual stats.
Image: Ottawa Senators prospects reportThe quality of his stats from Baie-Comeau to Chicoutimi is clearly night and day. With the Drakkar, Beckman was the starter on a bad team, but still put up a save percentage of .905 before the deal. With the Sagueneens, he's thriving.
The 18-year-old has only started in seven of the team's 21 games since the December 27th trade. But it should be noted that he was injured at the time of the deal and didn't make his Chicoutimi debut until January 16th.
Chicoutimi already had a very good starter in Raphael Precourt, who's played in 35 of 48 games. But the team wanted to shore up their depth in goal for the long run this spring, so they acquired Beckman for overager Xavier Daigle, 18-year-old goalie Mathias Hernandez, a first-round pick in the 2028 QMJHL draft, and Shawinigan's second-rounder next year.
Since making his debut, it's been a platoon situation in goal with Beckman playing seven games to Precourt's six, but if his recent usage is any indication, Beckman may be starting to turn heads. Beckman has started in three of the past four games, and the stats so far speak for themselves.
Beckman: 7 GP, 1.73 GAA, .934 save percentage
Precourt: 35 GP, 2.40 GAA, .902 save percentage
From a development standpoint, Beckman would have continued to be a much busier goalie in Baie-Comeau, facing a greater volume of high-danger chances.
But there's a lot to be said for the confidence that comes from winning, or facing the pressure of going deep in the playoffs against top teams, not to mention positioning yourself on Team Canada's radar for World Junior consideration.
All of that is now within reach for Beckman.
At the Sens development camp last summer, Beckman was excited to experience the higher level, which he expected would help him this season.
"The shots here are coming a lot quicker, the speed is better, and I think it means that when I go back to junior, it's going to feel a bit more slow motion (by comparison), and I'm going to be able to kind of be ahead of the play more," Beckman said.
Beckman also told The Hockey News that he had a specific goal for this season.
"My personal goal would be to be the best goalie in the Q," Beckman said. "That might sound a little overconfident, but I think I'm able to. We'll see."
The Senators are long overdue to have one of their drafted goalies emerge as a star for them, and a case can be made that they never really have. It goes without saying that no one is labelling Beckman as a future NHL star just yet, but the Sens have to be thrilled with his progression as he continues to trend upward on their organizational depth chart.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News
This article is from The Hockey News' Ottawa Senators site. Read more at THN Ottawa at the links below:
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