Ottawa Senators Prospect Update - January 18th

While the Ottawa Senators swept through Alberta, plenty of the team’s prospects returned to action over the last few days. Games are still being postponed here and there, but that hasn’t stopped a few underdogs from coming into their own as legitimate prospects. These are their stories.

Forwards

Ridly Greig

Continuing his terrifying run since the premature end of the World Juniors, Greig scored at a goal-a-game pace and added three assists in four games with the Brandon Wheat Kings. What’s more, he underwent some character development by taking only a single minor penalty. Greig’s style of play will obviously see him among the team lead in PIMs, but given how much of an impact he has while he’s on the ice, making those minor adjustments and limiting how often he goes full Tom Wilson will make him a better player in the long run.

⭐️Ridly Greig had 4 points in a 4-1 win on Friday night and was the game’s 1st star

Greig has 7 multi-point outings in his last 10GP, including three (!) 4-point games, good for a total of 22 points (11G, 11A) during that stretch #GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/TtNSoOBb0U

— Sens Prospects (@SensProspects) January 15, 2022

Egor Sokolov

Prior to Belleville’s 2-1 loss to Syracuse yesterday, Sokolov was riding a hot streak — 5 goals in 4 games and is now up to 21 points in 27 games. That’s not the biggest improvement on his 25 in 35 last season, but he’s still second on the team in scoring, with veteran Jake Lucchini being the only other regular who has produced like a legitimate top-six player. The team hasn’t really been great offensively since Josh Norris and Drake Batherson’s time, but Sokolov will definitely be counted upon to be that kind of player next season, assuming he’s still in the minors. Notably, he scored an OT-winning goal against Rochester on Saturday and recently celebrated his day. No, not his birthday, his official day as decreed by the city of Cape Breton. Seriously, look at this:

Happy “Egor Sokolov” Day @sokol2926 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/pufz3UxYau

— Ashley Ryan (@ashleyellenryan) January 13, 2022

Carson Latimer

Latimer is beginning to stand out from Ottawa’s 2021 draft class, and it’s not just because the rest of them have been somewhat pedestrian. In Prince Albert’s demanding 7-3 win over Red Deer yesterday, the fourth-rounder had three assists, bringing him up to 14 points in 11 games as a Raider. Another season in the WHL could see him improve on that production and become a decent depth prospect in Ottawa’s system, especially since they’re quite low on right-wingers.

🍎Carson Latimer picked up his 20th point of the season on Monday night

Latimer has 9G, 11A in 29GP split between Edmonton and Prince Albert#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/OMf98VpJwe

— Sens Prospects (@SensProspects) January 18, 2022

Now that I think about it, Trent Mann’s amateur scouting success goes beyond just the University of North Dakota — between the Fighting Hawks (Jake Sanderson & co.), Prince Albert (Parker Kelly & Latimer), and Ilves (Lassi Thomson & Roby Järventie), any development team sporting a green jersey will do the trick.

Defensemen

Jonathan Aspirot

Aspirot’s one of those players whose stat line will surprise you upon your first look, partly because it might be the first time you’ve ever heard of him. Then you’ll see he led all B-Sens defensemen in goals and points (tied with Lassi Thomson) last year, and has followed up with 6 points in 10 games this season, and assume he’s one of those career veterans teams bring in to pair up with their young blueliners. But he’s actually an undrafted forward-turned-defenseman from the 2017 class, who’s quietly managed to find a decent amount of success in the AHL. Returning from injury this week, he tallied 1 goal and 2 assists in 4 games, along with 12 shots on goal.

The @BellevilleSens strike first in #BELvsROC with a shot from Jonathan Aspirot, his first of the season. pic.twitter.com/lmyFuAy7WD

— American Hockey League (@TheAHL) January 15, 2022

Maxence Guenette

A seventh-round pick from the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, Guenette continued his strong campaign with a two-assist performance on Friday against Rochester. With 10 points in 22 games, Guenette is beginning to enter the conversation alongside Jacob Bernard-Docker and Lassi Thomson regarding who will figure into Ottawa’s defense corps long-term.

🍎Maxence Guenette had a pair of assists for Belleville on Friday night, including this beauty on the PK

Guenette has 6A in his last 6GP and is now up to 10 points (2G, 8A) in 20GP as an AHL rookie. The RHD will be battling for playing time with Ottawa soon enough #GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/B8viiz2gXF

— Sens Prospects (@SensProspects) January 15, 2022

Goaltending

Mads Søgaard

It was a pretty rough night for the Sens’ young goalies this week, as Filip Gustavsson and Leevi Meriläinen were both well under .900 in the two games they played for Belleville and Kingston respectively. With Kevin Mandolese stuck in goalie purgatory, Søgaard easily takes the title with a 1-1 record and a .907 save percentage across two games. With him and Mandolese continuing their entry-level deals next season, it’ll be interesting to see how they’ll share the workload with Meriläinen. I’m thinking he’d prefer suiting up for Karpat’s men’s team in the Liiga as opposed to the ECHL.

Silver Linings

• Cole Reinhardt was another late-round pick who had a strong week, with two goals and one assist in four games with Belleville, now up to 13 points in 30 games.
• Ben Roger, a second-rounder from 2021, had one of his better offensive stretches as well — of his eight assists on the year, three of them came in his last four games with Kingston.
• With two goals in his last four AHL games, Thomson continues to flourish since returning from his earlier stint with the big club.
• For those of you eagerly awaiting Tyler Boucher’s Ottawa 67s debut, he’s currently day-to-day with a minor injury. Here’s hoping he can follow Latimer’s example and thrive with his new team./

Stats

Pro (NHL, AHL, ECHL)

NCAA

CHL

Europe

Goalies