Ottawa Senators Prospect Update - February 16

I sincerely hope everyone is still buzzing this morning after the Senators absolutely pantsed toronto last night (if only their fans could have been there to see it). Wins so spiteful only occur once in a blue moon so I encourage every Sens fan to savour this feeling thoroughly. Around the rest of Sensland, the B Sens got off to an inauspicious start, showing some rust, while the NoDak Sens continue to roll, and things remained mostly quiet in Europe. So now with a more diverse group to work with that should only grow in the coming weeks as we see more AHL and QMJHL action to complement the NCAA, NHL, and European games we’ve had an abundance of, let’s start with our prospect team of the week:

Forwards

Angus Crookshank

After the dismal effort from the Belleville Senators we saw last weekend, Angus Crookshank can’t sign and go pro soon enough. He probably won’t quite fill the void left by Alex Formenton when number ten graduates to the NHL but, as we’ve said before on this site, Crookshank will surprise a lot of people when he has a deeper supporting cast around him.

Parker Kelly

Perennially the hardest worker at Senators camp each fall, Parker Kelly provides a lot of versatility for the Belleville Senators and occasionally shows off a bit of offensive flair as he did for one of the few bright spots for Belleville last weekend. Expect his role to grow with the B Sens this season as more prospects get the call to Ottawa.

Shane Pinto

No matter how often he shows up, I don’t think we’ll get tired of seeing this name on these lists any time soon. His shooting percentage can’t stay in its current stratosphere forever but for now as long as UND continues to win games then I won’t sweat it. Pinto also continues to provide more than just goals as he shoots the puck a lot, while doing some heavy lifting in the face-off circle, all while staying out of the box. Everyone loves the bean!

Defence

Jonny Tychonick

The former second-rounder continues his redemption tour and has showed up in these articles more and more as of late. He still has a way to go although you wouldn’t know it based on the confidence Tycho displays when he has the puck on his stick. In a lot of ways he still looks like the players the Senators drafted back in 2018. Even if he still needs to round out his game, we can all enjoy watching him produce offence.

Lassi Thomson

Thomson’s quest to prove Spencer right starts now as the Finnish blueliner looks to achieve on North American ice what he just couldn’t quite muster overseas. You have to love that first pass from Thomson on the Parker Kelly goal embedded above. The renaissance of Nikita Zaitsev and revelation of Artem Zub along with the steady development of Jacob Bernard-Docker mean that the Senators can take their time with Thomson and let him really refine all elements of his game without any urgency and that should bode well long term.

Goaltending

Marcus Högberg

Even if Hoggy doesn’t qualify as a prospect anymore, his development arc has been long and the past two wins felt like important steps for the still-young netminder who has had his share of setbacks so far this season in the NHL. Things should only get more interesting now that Joey Daccord, Filip Gustavsson, and Kevin Madolese need to split time in Bellevile three ways and maybe that has added some extra motivation for Marcus.

Silver Linings

• I had another tough call this week between Jakov Novak and Crookshank for our team of the week and I reiterate most of what I said about the latter here. At 22 years of age, Novak would make a great addition to Belleville’s forward corps if he signs after this NCAA season.
• I can’t complain after Josh Norris, Drake Batherson, and Tim Stützle all had points and averaged two shots per game in a week when the Senators actually won multiple games. As much as it sucks watching them try to cook on lines with older, less mobile players, I still have faith it will be worth the wait when the coaching staff finally decides to take the training wheels off this thing.

• Finally, although Belleville had a couple of rough games, we should take this opportunity to celebrate the professional debuts of prospects like Mandolese, Ridly Greig, and Egor Sokolov. We still have plenty of hockey ahead of us and I think any one of these players (and others!) can and will break out before summer rolls around. As weird as it may sound, get stoked Sens fans.

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