Yakemchuk Wins AHL Player of the Week After Eye-Catching Hershey Weekend
Yakemchuk racked up four assists in 11 minutes Saturday, then two more Sunday, sweeping Hershey and earning First Star both nights.
Carter Yakemchuk turned a two-game road trip to Hershey into the kind of weekend that earns hardware. The Belleville Senators rookie defenseman was named the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week for the period ending March 15, with six assists across the Bears' two-game set driving Belleville to a clean sweep.
The damage started Saturday, when Yakemchuk posted four assists, including three in an 11-minute span, to help the Senators pull away for a 6-3 victory. He kept it going Sunday, adding two more assists in a 5-2 Belleville win. The AHL named him First Star of the game for the second consecutive night.
Six assists in 48 hours is the kind of output that reframes a prospect's trajectory. Yakemchuk now has 35 points, nine goals and 26 assists, in 47 games for Belleville this season, ranking second among all AHL rookie defensemen in scoring. He is 20 years old and from Fort McMurray, Alta.
The path to Belleville started last fall, when general manager and president of hockey operations Steve Staios and coach Travis Green finalized Ottawa's Opening Night roster by the league's 5 p.m. deadline. Yakemchuk, the seventh overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft and the club's top prospect, was the final cut. He had participated in the team's skate at the Bell Sensplex that Monday alongside defenseman Jordan Spence, but the Ottawa Citizen noted that Yakemchuk had his ups and downs in camp and the writing was on the wall. Ottawa submitted 22 healthy players and opened its regular season Thursday at the Tampa Bay Lightning.
None of that context diminishes what Yakemchuk has built in Belleville. Selected seventh overall out of a 30-goal WHL season with Calgary in 2023-24, he arrived in the AHL as one of the more decorated junior defensemen in his draft class. His Hershey weekend confirmed he has carried that production into professional hockey, and the scoring rank among rookie blueliners suggests the award reflects sustained performance, not a single breakout night.
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