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Ottawa Senators Prospect Update - February 21st

Goaltending stole the show this week.

Ottawa Senators v Boston Bruins Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images

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.

Stats:

Pro (NHL, AHL)

- - - - - 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%
Jonathan Aspirot LD 23 AHL 4 1 0 1 4 3 33% | 23 4 5 9 22 44 9%
Jacob Bernard-Docker RD 22 AHL 4 1 0 1 6 6 17% | 24 1 2 3 25 27 4%
Jacob Bernard-Docker RD 22 NHL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 13 0 1 1 9 15 0%
Angus Crookshank LW/C 23 AHL 4 4 2 6 2 12 33% | 50 19 13 32 19 131 15%
Philippe Daoust C 21 AHL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 9 2 5 7 0 10 20%
Ridly Greig C/LW 20 AHL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 28 12 11 23 38 56 21%
Ridly Greig C/LW 20 NHL 2 0 1 1 2 1 0% | 6 0 3 3 2 12 0%
Maxence Guénette RD 21 AHL 4 0 3 3 0 3 0% | 50 2 23 25 17 90 2%
Roby Järventie C/LW 20 AHL 4 4 2 6 0 13 31% | 18 7 6 13 12 40 18%
Viktor Lodin LW 23 AHL 3 0 0 0 2 1 0% | 28 6 9 15 34 43 14%
Cole Reinhardt LW 23 AHL 4 0 2 2 7 8 0% | 50 6 17 23 67 94 6%
Egor Sokolov RW/LW 22 AHL 4 2 0 2 8 10 20% | 50 14 28 42 44 112 13%
Lassi Thomson RD 22 AHL 4 0 3 3 0 12 0% | 34 3 17 20 18 68 4%
Lassi Thomson RD 22 NHL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 2 0 0 0 4 1 0%

USA

- - - - - 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%
Tyson Dyck C/LW 19 UMass 2 0 0 0 2 1 0% | 26 5 4 9 8 25 20%
Stephen Halliday C 20 Ohio State Univ. 2 1 1 2 0 2 50% | 32 8 25 33 11 80 10%
Tyler Kleven LD 21 Univ. of North Dakota 1 0 1 1 0 2 0% | 27 6 9 15 82 63 10%
Luke Loheit RW 22 Univ. of Minnesota-Duluth 2 0 1 1 2 5 0% | 28 5 9 14 34 59 8%
Jakov Novak LW/C 24 Northeastern Univ. 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 30 7 2 9 24 36 19%
Cameron O'Neill RW 19 Tri-City (USHL) 2 0 0 0 0 1 0% | 35 6 14 20 16 68 9%
Jonny Tychonick LD 22 Univ. of Omaha 2 1 2 3 0 9 11% | 28 8 16 24 14 63 13%
Theo Wallberg LD 19 Dubuque (USHL) 3 0 0 0 4 2 0% | 40 3 9 12 16 38 8%

CHL

- - - - - - 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%
Tyler Boucher RW 20 Ottawa OHL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 17 9 6 15 28 66 14%
Jorian Donovan LD 19 Hamilton OHL 3 0 0 0 4 8 0% | 51 11 32 43 45 123 9%
Tomas Hamara LD 18 Kitchener OHL 4 0 0 0 12 4 0% | 43 2 11 13 31 62 3%
Carson Latimer RW 20 Prince Albert/Winnipeg WHL 4 1 1 2 0 9 11% | 50 14 25 39 28 97 14%
Zach Ostapchuk C 19 Vancouver/Winnipeg WHL 4 3 2 5 9 9 33% | 39 20 30 50 35 128 16%
Ben Roger RD 20 Kingston OHL 3 0 0 0 0 7 0% | 42 2 9 11 26 68 3%
Chandler Romeo LD 19 Sarnia/Guelph OHL 4 0 0 0 0 6 0% | 41 5 4 9 43 43 12%

Europe

- - - - - - 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%
Vitaly Abramov LW/RW 24 Moscow KHL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 49 11 5 16 18 78 14%
Oliver Johansson C/LW 19 Timrå IK J20 Nationell 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 4 2 3 5 0 13 15%
Oliver Johansson C/LW 19 IF Björklöven Allsvenskan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 27 6 3 9 6 40 15%
Oliver Johansson C/LW 19 Timrå IK SHL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 6 0 0 0 0 3 0%
Filip Nordberg LD 18 Södertälje SK J20 Nationell 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 18 3 8 11 14 46 7%
Filip Nordberg LD 18 Södertälje SK Allsvenskan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 25 2 2 4 6 13 15%
Filip Nordberg LD 18 Tingsyrds AIF Allsvenskan 3 0 0 0 0 2 0% | 3 0 0 0 0 2 0%
Filip Nordberg LD 18 Växjö HC SHL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 9 0 1 1 2 1 0%
Oskar Pettersson RW 19 Rögle BK J20 Nationell 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% | 20 16 10 26 33 77 21%
Oskar Pettersson RW 18 Rögle BK SHL 3 0 0 0 0 1 0% | 24 1 1 2 33 17 6%

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%
Kevin Mandolese 22 Belleville AHL 0 0 1 0 0 30 6 80.0% | 13 4 7 2 0 380 46 87.9%
Kevin Mandolese 22 Allen ECHL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0% | 6 4 2 0 0 188 14 92.6%
Kevin Mandolese 22 Ottawa NHL 2 1 1 0 0 80 5 93.8% | 2 1 1 0 0 80 5 93.8%
Leevi Meriläinen 20 Kärpät Liiga 2 2 0 0 0 34 0 100.0% | 34 17 9 5 0 731 53 92.7%
Kevin Reidler 18 AIK J20 Nationell 2 2 0 0 0 72 5 93.1% | 26 11 14 0 0 850 72 91.5%
Mads Søgaard 22 Belleville AHL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0% | 21 6 9 2 0 571 58 89.8%
Mads Søgaard 22 Ottawa NHL 2 1 0 1 0 64 6 90.6% | 4 2 0 1 0 104 9 91.3%