Ottawa Senators Prospect Update: December 18th

It’s been a quiet week in the land of Sens prospects, between the NCAA starting their holiday break and others attending World Juniors camps. Belleville’s losing streak doesn’t help either, although there were still a few players with standout performances.

Stats Sheet

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Biggest Standouts

Joel Daccord

What a season it’s been for the Sens’ goalie prospect. Arizona State University has gone from underdogs to one of the NCAA’s top teams, in massive part thanks to Daccord’s stellar play. He’s in a similar situation to Craig Anderson in that he faces a lot of rubber, although he’s been keeping the door shut, with an incredible .930 save percentage.

Daccord picked up his fifth shutout of the season (in only 20 games!), which leads the entire NCAA.

Joey Daccord picked up his NCAA-leading 5th shutout and 14th win of the season on Saturday night, stopping all 31 shots 🔥

Daccord has a .930 SV% and 2.15GAA in 20GP. Definitely in the mix for the Mike Richter Award. pic.twitter.com/cCp5zV2zNd

— Sens Prospects (@SensProspects) December 16, 2018

Hopefully he can rest up over the break, as the Sun Devils have been relying on him as their sole goalie, having started him every game this year. They’ve now climbed up to 15th in the NCAA power rankings, after only becoming a ranked team this season for the first time in franchise history. Arizona and Daccord are currently on a four-game winning streak.

Parker Kelly

With the amount of goals the Prince Albert Raiders are scoring this season, Parker Kelly has been a solid contributor to the CHL’s best team, who are now 32-2-1. He picked up two goals and six points in three games this week, to keep him above point-per-game pace. His GF% of 68.89% is also incredible, although in the context of Prince Albert’s dominance, that only comes out to +0.67 relative to when he’s off the ice.

#GoSensGo prospect Parker Kelly had 1G + 1A last night. He now sits at 30 points on the year. Starts off the cycle play leading to a goal & later he buries a cross ice pass over the sprawling goalie. pic.twitter.com/CsTu1xMDhi

— MaxTheLimitSens (@MaxTheLimitinfo) December 13, 2018

He also threw this massive hit against Swift Current:

Parker Kelly completely blows up Garrett Sambrook and that draws the ire of every Bronco on the ice. Raiders end up shorthanded to Kelly's check to the head minor. pic.twitter.com/fIbeVJtwJ2

— Jeff D'Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) December 15, 2018

Kelly doesn’t have to worry about getting a contract with Ottawa — he was signed already as a free agent prospect a year ago. He’s been able to significantly build on his scoring rates every season he’s played in the WHL, as the 19-year-old will look to turn pro next year. Hopefully he can gain some extra playoff experience — maybe even a Memorial Cup title — with the Raiders. The coming weeks will be their toughest yet, with star players Ian Scott and Brett Leason both at the World Juniors.

Silver Linings

• There’s been a couple updates to the World Juniors since last week. The amount of representing Senators has gone from three to one, as Jacob Bernard-Docker was one of Canada’s final cuts, and Alex Formenton will unfortunately be out with an injury for the tournament’s duration. He hurt his leg during pre-tournament training, and there’s no timeline for his return. He was set to be one of only two returning players for Canada.
• That leaves Josh Norris as Ottawa’s lone rep, playing for Team USA.
• It appears that the lone Finnish prospect, Markus Nurmi, will be delaying his arrival to North America for at least another year. He signed a one-year extension with his current club, TPS Turku, where he currently has seven assists in 30 games. Ottawa has until June 1st 2020 to sign him before they lose his rights.
• Tobias Lindberg was held off the scoresheet in his first three games with Belleville, although he appears to have the faith of coach Troy Mann./

“He’s got real good speed, a good skill set and shot. I know from an offensive perspective his numbers maybe aren’t where he liked them, there’s going to plenty of opportunities here this week, especially to make a good impression.”

• For a player who’s crutch with the Penguins was simply that he wasn’t given enough ice time, this seems to make the most sense for Lindberg’s development. He’s running out of time at 23 years old, although the potential is still there.
• Christian Wolanin returned from injury this week, and picked up two assists. He was handily Belleville’s best defenceman before he was out, so maybe a call-up to the NHL will be in store shortly.
• An update on Chlapik’s recent injury: he’ll be out 4-6 weeks with a fracture in his foot, not good news for the B-Sens’ first line centre. Julius Bergman is also dealing with a less major upper-body injury./