Ottawa Senators Prospect Update - February 21st

Despite a relatively quiet week outside of Belleville for Ottawa Senators skater prospects, goaltenders seem to perform their best literally everywhere else, whether it’s in the NHL, Finland, or Sweden.

Forwards:

Angus Crookshank & Roby Järventie

These two have been Belleville’s top forwards of late, with four goals and two assists each in the last four games. In particular, Järventie has had a strong start after a long-term injury. 13 points in 18 games is a nice total for a D+3 AHL season. Whereas Crookshank has been on a heater during this time as well, with 6 goals and 3 assists in his last 7 games, becoming the team’s leading scorer this season. We’re starting to see a return to the form we saw in 2021, prior to his season-long ACL injury. Currently, he’s the forward most deserving of a callup in my opinion.

Zack Ostapchuk

Continuing to find his form with one of the CHL’s top teams, Ostapchuk added 3 goals and 2 assists in 4 games to bring his total with the Winnipeg Ice to 21 points in 18 games. The improvement he’s shown from this time last year has been staggering — from a player we weren’t sure would play an NHL game to a strong bet to be a third-line center.

Defensemen:

Lassi Thomson & Maxence Guenette

On the back end, we’ve got two defensemen of the same handedness, same draft year, same stat line this past week, and very different draft pedigrees. Thomson hasn’t had a bad season by any means, adding three assists in four games to a total of 20 points in 34 games, but the seventh-round pick Guenette has been keeping up, with 25 points in 50 games. With Jacob Bernard-Docker in the mix as well, it’s nice to see three prospects with a chance of making it to the NHL full-time, at what’s currently the Senators’ weakest position.

Goalie Bonus Round

• The concerns about the Senators’ ability to draft goaltenders have been temporarily suspended, as all four of the organization’s prospects stood out in one way or another. Kevin Mandolese was the most impressive, stopping 75 out of 80 shots and going 2-for-2 in the shootout against the Islanders. He won his first NHL start damn near by himself and has now been re-assigned to Belleville where he’ll look to keep the momentum going. Cam Talbot is ready to return but there has been interest around the league from teams lacking a quality backup, so we could see Mandolese back up with the big club down the stretch.

• It appears the Senators will proceed with Mads Søgaard as their backup for the next few games. He’s shown he can be relied upon by the Senators for adequate goaltending — he won’t stop them from getting the result they deserve. The loss to Chicago wasn’t his fault, and he didn’t need to do all that much against the Blues, allowing 6 goals on 64 shots across the two games.
• Regarding save percentage alone, Leevi Meriläinen was the top goalie this week, posting back-to-back shutouts for Karpat. He only faced a combined 34 shots, but it’s great that he can do his defense justice. He has a 17-9-5 record and leads the Liiga with a .927 save percentage.
• Ottawa’s newest goalie prospect, 6’3 Kevin Reidler has done an admirable job on a weaker U20 team in Sweden. Despite an 11-14-0 record with AIK, he has a .915 save percentage and stopped 68 of 73 in back-to-back wins this past week.

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