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Ottawa Senators Prospect Update: North Dakota Are On Top

Alex Formenton, Shane Pinto and Mads Søgaard are this week’s biggest standouts.

2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Championships Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

Ready to sop up some more of that prospect goodness? I sure am, so let’s dive right into this week’s update in the land of Ottawa Senators prospects!

Biggest Standouts

Alex Formenton

Speedy Gonzales himself takes the top spot in this week’s edition, having scored twice and adding three assists in Belleville’s three-game week. As one of the few prospects in Belleville who have yet to receive a call-up, he’s vaulted his scoring total all the way into 6th in the entire AHL, and 2nd amongst rookies behind Josh Norris.

We marvel plenty around these parts about Formenton’s separation speed — the clip below (an OT winner!) shows just how world-class his skating is.

Shane Pinto

It was a massive week for the trio of NoDak prospects, as they clinched the Penrose Cup as regular season NCAA champions. It came in a thrilling overtime game against Western Michigan University. The hero? None other than our very own, Shane Pinto.

Words from the freshman hero:

“I think that’s the best goal I’ve ever scored,” Pinto said. “Just everything about it. Winning it for the seniors. Winning the Penrose Cup. Just the whole moment is something I’ll never forget.

”It was insane. I really can’t gather my thoughts yet.”

The season really couldn’t be going much better for Pinto, who surpassed nearly all expectations placed upon him at the beginning of this season. He’s currently tied for 4th on North Dakota in scoring, with his P/GP ranking 8th in the NCAA amongst freshmen. His shooting is even better, as his 2.81 shots on goal per game ranks 5th amongst NCAA freshmen.

Mads Søgaard

With his fourth shutout of the season, and two goals allowed on 20 shots in his second game, Mads Søgaard was named the WHL goaltender of the week. His performance brings his save percentage of the season up to 90.3%, which is still a ways off from his 92.1% of 2018-19, but slowly improving following a slump in the middle of the season.

Silver Linings

  • He’s been moving up and down between leagues as of late, but Josh Norris still took home the AHL’s Player of the Month honours, with an astounding 16 points in nine games. Oddly enough, though, he didn’t also win Rookie of the Month, although I guess he’s got to leave some of the awards for others.
  • A trio of Sens prospects received game misconducts this week: Michael Carcone (Belleville), Chris Wilkie (Colorado College) and Jakov Novak (Bentley University). For Novak, it was his second game in a row receiving 15 penalty minutes.
  • Troy Mann gave the update yesterday that Erik Brännström will be injured for 4-6 weeks, which lines up to around the start of the AHL playoffs. With Logan Brown already out too, those are two of Belleville’s top players who won’t be around down the stretch.
  • A couple other key prospects not playing right now are Joey Daccord (day-to-day injury) and Marcus Högberg (personal reasons). Filip Gustavsson was given his first sight of NHL action from the bench against Pittsburgh, leaving Belleville’s goalie situation very thin at the moment.
  • Johnny Gruden and Mark Kastelic had identical stat lines this week, each putting up a casual three goals and two assists, with 15/16 shots on goal. They’ve both been remarkably consistent this season.

Pro (NHL, AHL, ECHL)

- - - - - Since the last prospect update - | - T O T A L -
- - - - - Since the last prospect update - | - T O T A L -
PLAYER POS AGE LEAGUE GP G A P PIM SOG SH% | GP G A P PIM SOG SH%
Alex Formenton LW 20 AHL 1 0 0 0 0 3 0% | 61 27 26 53 65 158 17%
Drake Batherson RW 21 AHL 1 0 0 0 0 1 0% | 44 16 38 54 24 134 12%
NHL - - - - - - - | 23 3 7 10 13 32 9%
Filip Chlapik C 22 AHL 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 37 10 12 22 49 81 12%
NHL - - - - - - - | 31 3 3 6 10 27 11%
Jonathan Davidsson RW 23 AHL - - - - - - - | 18 2 3 5 6 19 11%
NHL - - - - - - - | 6 0 1 1 0 3 0%
Josh Norris C 20 AHL 1 0 0 0 0 3 0% | 56 31 30 61 21 160 19%
NHL - - - - - - - | 3 0 0 0 0 9 0%
Logan Brown C 22 AHL - - - - - - - | 25 7 21 28 43 58 12%
NHL - - - - - - - | 23 1 7 8 4 23 4%
Michael Carcone LW 23 AHL 1 0 0 0 0 2 0% | 59 13 14 27 64 142 9%
Morgan Klimchuk LW 25 AHL - - - - - - - | 49 12 14 26 14 61 20%
Parker Kelly C/RW 20 AHL 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 57 10 6 16 18 55 18%
Rudolfs Balcers LW 22 AHL - - - - - - - | 33 16 20 36 14 78 21%
NHL 2 0 0 0 0 5 0% | 15 1 2 3 0 23 4%
Vitaly Abramov RW/LW 21 AHL 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 51 18 23 41 30 126 14%
NHL - - - - - - - | 2 1 0 1 2 3 33%
Christian Jaros RD 23 AHL - - - - - - - | 34 2 13 15 14 37 5%
NHL - - - - - - - | 13 0 3 3 6 5 0%
Maxime Lajoie LD 22 AHL 1 0 0 0 0 1 0% | 48 4 13 17 24 66 6%
NHL - - - - - - - | 6 0 0 0 0 3 0%
Jean-Christophe Beaudin C/RW 22 NHL - - - - - - - | 22 0 1 1 7 18 0%
AHL - - - - - - - | 13 4 2 6 2 19 21%
Andreas Englund LD 24 NHL 2 0 1 1 0 0 0% | 24 0 3 3 12 10 0%
AHL - - - - - - - | 22 0 0 0 32 19 0%
Erik Brännström LD 20 NHL - - - - - - - | 31 0 4 4 16 38 0%
AHL - - - - - - - | 27 3 20 23 22 48 6%

Canadian Hockey League

- - - - - - Since the last prospect update - | - T O T A L -
- - - - - - Since the last prospect update - | - T O T A L -
PLAYER POS AGE TEAM LEAGUE GP G A P PIM SOG SH% | GP G A P PIM SOG SH%
Johnny Gruden LW 19 London Knights OHL - - - - - - - | 59 30 36 66 23 152 20%
Maxence Guénette RD 18 Val-d'Or Foreurs QMJHL 1 0 2 2 0 5 0% | 62 11 29 40 22 130 8%
Mark Kastelic C 21 Calgary Hitmen WHL - - - - - - - | 58 38 30 68 83 227 17%

NCAA

- - - - - Since the last prospect update - | - T O T A L -
- - - - - Since the last prospect update - | - T O T A L -
PLAYER POS AGE TEAM GP G A P PIM SOG SH% | GP G A P PIM SOG SH%
Angus Crookshank LW 20 Univ. of New Hampshire - - - - - - - | 34 16 6 22 39 137 12%
Chris Wilkie RW 23 Colorado College - - - - - - - | 34 23 8 31 36 175 13%
Jakov Novak LW/C 21 Bentley Univ. - - - - - - - | 35 16 14 30 84 100 16%
Luke Loheit RW 19 Univ. of Minnesota-Duluth - - - - - - - | 33 5 1 6 8 27 19%
Shane Pinto C 19 Univ. of North Dakota - - - - - - - | 33 16 12 28 46 91 18%
Todd Burgess C/RW 23 RPI - - - - - - - | 32 14 6 20 20 79 18%
Jacob Bernard-Docker RD 19 Univ. of North Dakota - - - - - - - | 32 7 18 25 12 55 13%
Jonny Tychonick LD 20 Univ. of North Dakota - - - - - - - | 24 4 7 11 14 12 33%

European Leagues

- - - - - - Since the last prospect update - | - T O T A L -
- - - - - - Since the last prospect update - | - T O T A L -
PLAYER POS AGE TEAM LEAGUE GP G A P PIM SOG SH% | GP G A P PIM SOG SH%
Markus Nurmi RW/LW 21 TPS Liiga - - - - - - - | 57 14 14 28 28 132 11%
Lassi Thomson RD 19 Ilves Liiga - - - - - - - | 39 7 6 13 12 131 5%
Viktor Lodin C/LW 20 Örebro HK SHL - - - - - - - | 22 0 4 4 2 20 0%
HC Vita Hästen Allsvenskan - - - - - - - | 18 3 5 8 4 27 11%
Olle Alsing LD 23 Djurgårdens IF SHL - - - - - - - | 36 4 16 20 20 55 7%

Goalies

- - - - - Since the last prospect update - - | - T O T A L - -
- - - - - Since the last prospect update - - | - T O T A L - -
PLAYER AGE TEAM LEAGUE GP W L OTL SOL SA GA SV% | GP W L OTL SOL SA GA SV%
Filip Gustavsson 21 Belleville Senators AHL 1 0 1 0 0 37 2 94.6% | 24 15 6 3 0 673 75 88.9%
Joey Daccord 23 Belleville Senators AHL - - - - - - - - | 24 15 6 2 1 721 61 91.5%
Brampton Beast ECHL - - - - - - - - | 12 7 5 0 0 342 34 90.1%
Marcus Högberg 25 Ottawa Senators NHL 1 0 1 0 0 15 5 66.7% | 24 5 8 6 2 728 70 90.4%
Belleville Senators AHL - - - - - - - - | 15 7 6 0 0 408 42 89.7%
Kevin Mandolese 19 Cape Breton Eagles QMJHL 1 0 1 0 0 47 3 93.6% | 37 26 8 1 0 1090 82 92.5%
Mads Søgaard 19 Medicine Hat Tigers WHL - - - - - - - - | 37 21 13 1 1 967 89 90.8%