Yakemchuk's AHL breakout puts Senators prospect on NHL track

Carter Yakemchuk did something most 20-year-old defensemen do not do: he finished his first pro season with 40 points from the blue line, then forced the Ottawa Senators to keep his name in the NHL conversation. In 54 games with Belleville, the 6-foot-3, 219-pound right shot posted 10 goals and 30 assists, good for 12th among AHL defensemen and second among rookie defensemen.

That production mattered because it was not empty offense. Yakemchuk’s week-to-week rhythm became a feature of Belleville’s season, and the clearest snapshot came in mid-March, when he was named AHL Player of the Week after assisting on six goals in two games during the Senators’ weekend sweep at Hershey. For a defenseman this young, that kind of impact is the difference between a promising season and one that changes the timeline.

The Senators have been watching that timeline closely since they took Yakemchuk seventh overall in the 2024 NHL Draft, after he put up 71 points, including 30 goals, in 66 WHL games for the Calgary Hitmen. Ottawa signed him to an entry-level contract in August 2024, and his AHL season gave the organization the kind of proof it needed that his offense can survive against men, not just in junior. Evaluators around the league have already linked his trajectory to the type of puck-moving defensemen who create value by driving play from the back end, and Yakemchuk’s scoring pace backed up that view.

He also got a taste of the next level in late March, when he made his NHL debut and appeared in four games before an upper-body injury interrupted the run. Ottawa recalled him again on April 19, after Belleville’s season ended with a 4-0 loss at Syracuse, and that sequence left the Senators with a simple question heading into next season: does Yakemchuk belong in the conversation for a real roster spot, or does a limited role risk slowing the progress that made him stand out in the first place?

For now, the answer is less about whether Yakemchuk belongs on the NHL track and more about how quickly Ottawa wants to put him on the ice. The rookie season in Belleville suggested the offense is already there, and for a 20-year-old defenseman drafted in the top 10, that is the kind of indicator teams do not ignore.