Ottawa Senators Prospect Update - January 15

Happy Tuesday Silver Siven! It’s for your weekly prospect update, with Josh Norris back from the World Juniors, NCAA hockey back in the swing on things, and with the B-Sens having won two of their last three.

Stats Sheet

Biggest Standounts

Todd Burgess

While Todd Burgess has never been someone on my radar as a prospect to potentially sign, especially after missing the entirely of 2016-17, it’s good to see him have a great week every now and again.

On Saturday #GoSensGo prospect Todd Burgess picked up a goal on a semi-breakaway, and later added an assist as his drive to the net ends up leading to a goal. Burgess now has 10pts (4G+6A) in 20 games this season. pic.twitter.com/WH93lUtCnp

— MaxTheLimitSens (@MaxTheLimitinfo) January 14, 2019

He added another assist to the two points above in another game, giving him a three point week. The 22-year-old forward is up to 10 points in 21 games, which is already two away from his 12 points in 34 games last season. The good news is that he’s being used almost exclusively on RPI’s first line. The bad news is that RPI’s roster overall is very weak, with their 6-15-0 record making them one of the weakest teams in one of the NCAA’s weaker divisions If he wants to make the pros, he has one more year to really prove it to Ottawa (or the college free agency market).

Logan Brown

Logan Brown is one of those players that you can’t believe he’s a rookie while he’s playing. 90% is probably due to him being freakishly tall, but his skill has been on full display over Belleville’s past stretch, notching two goals and two assist over his last four games — one point in each for a four-game point streak.

Logan Brown sniped home his seventh goal of the season last night. With points in four straight games, the rookie centreman continues to find his offensive groove in the AHL, tallying 17 points in 26 games after missing 14 games earlier this season with a knee injury. pic.twitter.com/Z6dJJOOnhh

— Joel Vanderlaan (@Joelvanderlaan) January 13, 2019

It’s been a bit of a bumpy road for Brown so far in his rookie season, missing significant time with multiple injuries. Even besides those troubles, he went though a six-game point-less drought in December, and at 1.65 shots on goal per game, you’d hope that number would be a bit higher (just look at that release). But he has the vision, passing ability, puck skills — the tools are mostly there for an NHLer. Now it’s just a matter of applying them consistently at the pro level, and not getting hurt.

Kevin Mandolese

The newest Sens goalie to enter the prospect pipeline (and the Sens’ only CHL player taken in the 2018 draft), Mandolese came up big for Cape Breton in his two starts this week. The first was a 37-save shutout against the Halifax Mooseheads, one of the QMJHL’s highest scoring teams. He followed that up the next day with a 4-1 win over Shawinigan, stopping 21 of 22.

The incredible performance was enough to earn him the title of QMJHL Player of the Week. His full-season numbers are still not much to write home about, with a 89.7% save percentage after 31 games. But he’s a prospect that’s trending up, and at 18 years old, he still has plenty of time to show the Sens what he can do.

Silver Linings

• Injury updates for Alex Formenton: he’ll be back for London in February after missing the World Juniors. Hopefully this isn’t anything that will affect him long-term.
• After being silent for Prince Albert’s first two games of the season, including their fifth loss of the season, Parker Kelly registered three points in Saturday’s 7-3 win over Calgary Hitmen.
• Check out this nice assist from Luke Loheit. He too had a three-point game this past weekend for Penticton.
• Angus Crookshank was another contender for the Biggest Standouts section, also with three points in his two games this week. For a nineteen-year-old college freshman, Crookshank’s 18 points in 21 games is one of the more surprising and less talked about parts of this year. It’s even more impressive considering he leads his team in points in one of the NCAA’s tougher divisions.
• Drake Batherson has zero points in his last seven games. In his worst seven-game stretch prior to that this season, he still had four points. Hopefully things start heating back up for Drake.
• One prospect in, and one prospect out. Gabriel Gagné was swapped with Morgan Klimchuk, and you can read Ary’s breakdown of the trade here.
• If you’ve been keeping up with our prospect updates, you’d know that we’re big fans and advocates for Christian Wolanin being a full-time NHLer. It’s great to see him finally receive his spot!/