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Drake Batherson

Ottawa Senators Recall Forward Drake Batherson

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The meteoric rise of Drake Batherson continues. A relative no-name just a few years ago, Batherson is now set to join the Ottawa Senators on his first NHL call-up as a first-year pro. The team announced that they have recalled Batherson from the AHL’s Belleville Senators and he could make his debut when the Sens host the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

Batherson, 20, was a fourth-round pick by Ottawa in 2017, merely the 121st overall pick. Batherson had completed just one full season in the QMJHL prior to being drafted, recording 58 points in 61 games for the Cape Breton Screming Eagles. Yet, Batherson was still included in the initial camp to compete for a spot on the Canadian World Junior roster. Against the odds, Batherson earned a spot and skated with the U-20 team at the World Juniors last January. Seemingly out of nowhere, Batherson tallied seven goals, tied for the second most in the tournament behind only American first-round pick Kieffer Bellows and tied for fourth-best in points for the Canadians. Batherson continued a strong campaign back in the QMJHL, totaling 77 points in 51 games between Cape Breton and the Blainsville-Boisbriand Armada, which was good enough to share eleventh place in league scoring. He then led all QMJHL skaters with an astounding 33 points in 22 postseason games for Blainville-Boisbriand, leading the team to an appearance in the league championship.

Some thought that Batherson may be unable to continue his impressive play after making the jump to the pro level this season. Instead, the rookie has 20 points through 14 games with Belleville, tied for second-best in the entire AHL. His 13 assists are additionally third in the league, while he leads the Senators across the board on offense by a wide margin. Ottawa hopes that Batherson can continue to find success against a new challenge, as he has for the past year or so. The Senators have won just three of their past eleven games and could use all the help they can get, especially if it comes from a young, potential future core piece. At this rate, Batherson is looking like just that.

Atlantic Notes: Senators’ Youth, Walker, Howard, Nelson

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The Ottawa Senators seem to have little go right over the last year or so, whether it was the unhappiness of their star defenseman Erik Karlsson to the Matt Duchene trade in which the team traded away their No. 1 overall pick for next season to Colorado. With the team shipping off players left and right, that pick could be a costly one for the team.

However, the Ottawa Sun’s Ken Warren writes that who the Senators need to look at the success of the New Jersey Devils last season had when they opted to add a struggling team with youth. Just a season ago, the Devils had a 28-40-14 season and just 70 points. However, New Jersey brought in an infusion of youth, including Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Will Butcher, as well as second-year players like Miles Wood and Pavel Zacha. That group altered the makeup of the struggling franchise and turned last season into a 44-29-9 season for 97 points, an increase of 27 points on the year. The team even qualified for the playoffs.

The Senators, who are actually loaded with quality prospects within their system, could get a similar infusion from their prospects. That possibility might start with 2018 first-rounder Brady Tkachuk, who opted to turn pro last week and has a chance to walk right into the Senators lineup. The team has other young players who are ready for full seasons this year, including Colin White, Logan Brown, Thomas Chabot, Filip Chlapik and Drake Batherson. The team also has last year’s second-round pick Alex Formenton, who made the Senators squad out of training camp last year, who could also make the jump this year. Some success from some of those kids could make people forget a little about some of the franchise’s struggles.

  • Former Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Kurt Walker passed away Friday night at the age of 64 after a brief illness, according to the Toronto Sun’s Lance Hornby. Walker, who might have been better known after his short NHL career, was an advocate for retired NHL players. His efforts nearly a decade ago helped retired players and opened doors for affordable health care, concussion research on NHL retired players and stem-cell research. Walker played three seasons in the NHL, all for the Maple Leafs, playing in 71 games, tallying four goals, five assists and 152 penalty minutes.
  • Mlive’s Ansar Khan writes that the Detroit Red Wings need a solid year out of 34-year-old goaltender Jimmy Howard, who has one year remaining on his contract. Howard started the 2017-18 season strong, but struggled in the second-half of the season, finishing the year with a 2.85 GAA and a .910 save percentage in 60 games. The team may have to lighten his workload now that the team added Jonathan Bernier, but if Howard will have to have a better year to earn another contract with the team. Khan writes the team might want to give him a two-year extension as they lack goalie prospects in their system.
  • The Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington writes that Buffalo Sabres defensive prospect Casey Nelson has a good chance at breaking camp with the Sabres this year because he now requires Buffalo to pass him through waivers to send him to the AHL. Nelson, has played 55 games for Buffalo over the past three years and showed some promise last year, putting up three goals and eight assists in 37 games. However, because the team could conceivably lose him if they attempt to pass him through waivers, they may be more likely to hold onto him and send other prospects like Brendan Guhle to the AHL since he doesn’t require waivers.

Rosters Announced For Rookie Showcase, All-American Prospect Game

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The NHLPA hosts a Rookie Showcase every season for the players recognized as the most likely to make an impact at the NHL level in the near future. Some of these names have already played a few games in the league, but many are still waiting for their first opportunity to suit up as professionals. This group is not a ranking of the top prospects in the league and is missing several names that would be included in such a list. Still, it gives a glimpse at the next generation of NHL stars.

The game will be held on August 26th at Mastercard Center in Toronto, and is used mostly as a marketing tool for some of the league’s young stars. The full roster is as follows:

G Carter Hart (PHI)
G Ilya Samsonov (WSH)

D Evan Bouchard (EDM)
D Daniel Brickley (LAK)
D Travis Dermott (TOR)
D Miro Heiskanen (DAL)
D Timothy Liljegren (TOR)
D Juuso Valimaki (CGY)

F Vitaly Abramov (CBJ)
F Rasmus Asplund (BUF)
F Rudolf Balcers (SJS)
F Drake Batherson (OTT)
F Kieffer Bellows (NYI)
F Henrik Borgstrom (FLA)
F Ryan Donato (BOS)
F Dillon Dube (CGY)
F Adam Gaudette (VAN)
F Jordan Greenway (MIN)
F Jordan Kyrou (STL)
F Casey Mittelstadt (BUF)
F Michael Rasmussen (DET)
F Dylan Sikura (CHI)
F Nick Suzuki (VGK)
F Robert Thomas (STL)
F Gabriel Vilardi (LAK)
F Filip Zadina (DET)

In a different event, the seventh USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game will be held on September 19th at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. 42 US-born players that are eligible for the 2019 NHL Entry Draft will face off, with star center Jack Hughes leading the way. The group this year includes an incredible amount of talent though, and likely will include several future first-round picks. The full roster is below:

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Senators Not Likely To See Youth Movement Soon

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The Ottawa Senators finally promoted one of their top prospects in 2015 first-rounder Colin White on Saturday with three games left before their bye week starts. It would be a perfect time for the 20-year-old center to prove himself to head coach Guy Boucher and the organization. However, Boucher is well-known to put little faith in young players as he prefers not to place young players in stressful situations. He proved that in White’s first appearance Saturday by giving the youngster a whopping 7:50 of ice time. At this rate, he’ll be reassigned after the next two games and not seen again for quite a while.

“We’re going to try to manage him as best as we can,” Boucher said before Saturday’s game. “We’re playing the best team in the league. The one thing we have is the last change (as the home team), so we’re going to have him play against players he’ll be able to manage. If we say it like it is, Tampa’s third line can beat most team’s first lines. In that respect, we have to be smart.”

And what makes that so difficult for fans is that the Senators are stockpiled with young talent. If the team continues to struggle, the fans want to see their young players give them hope. It took their other 2015 first-rounder Thomas Chabot a long time to get the confidence of Boucher, assuming he even has it. Chabot was rarely given a chance to prove himself at the NHL level and only now seems to be getting solid minutes with the franchise.

Ken Warren of The Ottawa Citizen writes that the best chance any fans have of seeing some of their top young players such as White, Chabot or Filip Chlapik getting legitimate minutes would be if the Senators completely fell out of the playoff race. Chlapik is another example of a player recently sent down to Belleville. He’s played in six games for Ottawa this year, averaging 9:06 of ice time. Not exactly enough time to learn your way around the NHL. Even 2017 secound-rounder Alex Formenton, who surprised many when he made the team out of training camp, only managed to get into one game for 4:54 before he was eventually returned to his junior team.

However, Warren says its about time to start taking time away from the veterans who haven’t produced enough for the team to enjoy the same success they had a year ago. Players like Alexandre Burrows and Gabriel Dumont might have to give way for progress, and find out if some of their youngsters can handle the pressure of life in the NHL. Neither has produced much as fourth-line players.

And there is even more talent on the way. The Athletic’s Ary Maharaj breaks down (subscription required) that many top Senator performers in the World Junior Championships, including Drake Batherson, Formenton, Markus Nurmi and 2016 first-rounder Logan Brown. Along with the likelihood that the Senators could end up with a top-ten pick (or none at all) in the upcoming 2018 NHL Draft, talent is definitely not their problem. Getting them on the ice will be.

2018 World Juniors Recap

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The 2018 World Junior Hockey Championships came to an end last night with a 3-1 Canada win over Sweden. Tyler Steenbergen was the unlikely hero, the only Canadian forward without a goal in the tournament to that point broke the tie with under two minutes left in the game. It was the perfect way to close out a memorable World Juniors, complete with the tournament’s first ever outdoor game, the most goals ever scored by an American player (Kieffer Bellows’ 7), and the first player to ever toss his medal away into the stands (Sweden’s Lias Andersson). While the bulk of the WJC coverage is generally just the results of the games, let’s take a closer look at the standouts of the tournament:

Canada – Gold

Top Performers: While Jordan Kyrou (STL) led the Canadians with ten points and had a fantastic tournament, the undisputed top player was the fourth overall pick this past June, defenseman Cale Makar (COL). The UMass product posted three goals and five assists to finish third in scoring for Canada. Tied for first among all defenseman in points at the WJC, Makar showed his next-level offensive ability for the first time on the international stage. Sam Steel (ANA) impressed as well with nine points and the second-best face-off percentage in the tournament. Victor Mete (MTL) showed his NHL experience has already had an impact on his defensive game; he finished +11 without a single goal scored while he was on the ice. Carter Hart (PHI) finished with the best save percentage, .930, and goals against average, 1.81, in the tournament.

Biggest Surprise: Probably the surprise of the whole tournament was Drake Batherson (OTT), a fourth-round pick who was not even invited to Canada’s camp, who led Canada in goal-scoring with seven tallies. Canada had faced criticism of including Batherson on the roster over several recent top picks who were skipped over, but decision paid off in a major way.

Sweden – Silver

Top Performers: If Rasmus Dahlin (2018) wasn’t the presumptive #1 overall pick in 2018 already, he is after the WJC. With a team-high six assists and +7 rating in major ice time, Dahlin proved that his draft stock is legitimate. While polarizing during the medal ceremony, the only opinion of Lias Andersson’s (NYR) play was that it was strong. The Swedish captain tied for the team lead with seven points, six of which were his team-high six goals. Elias Petterson (VAN) and Alexander Nylander (BUF) were also impressive with seven points apiece. Filip Gustavsson (PIT) was rivaled only by Canada’s Hart in terms of the tourney’s top goaltender.

Biggest Surprise: The Swedes were top-heavy in terms of scoring, with the aforementioned four standouts contributing much of the offense, but that didn’t stop Axel Jonsson Fjallby (WAS) from making his presence felt. The 2016 fifth-rounder had four points, including two shorthanded goals, and was third on the team in shots.

United States – Bronze

Top Performers: Kieffer Bellows (NYI) led the WJC with nine goals and his teammate, Casey Mittelstadt (BUF), shared the tournament lead in points with eleven. So, while the U.S. fell short of their goal of being repeat champions, they arguably showcased the two best players of the World Juniors. Bellows passed up Jeremy Roenick as the highest goal-scoring American player in WJC history and finished one point behind Mittelstadt for the total points lead in a strong effort, while Mittelstadt was not only a top scorer, but a top a well-rounded presence as well, with a +8 rating. Mittelstadt’s rating was only bested on the team by defenseman Dylan Samberg (WPG), whose +10 was third-best at the WJC. The nine points for Brady Tkachuk (2018) will only serve to help his draft stock this June.

Biggest Surprise: Despite being assigned a crucial two-way, defensive role for the U.S., Trent Frederic (BOS) still managed to pot five goals, second-most on the team behind Bellows and tied for fifth in the tournament. He was also the only American player to score goals at even strength, on the power play, and on the penalty kill.

Czech Republic – 4th

Top Performers: Perhaps the player that helped his draft stock the most at the World Juniors was Filip Zadina (2018), who tied for second in the tournament with seven goals and helped lead his team to a semifinal appearance. The man assisting on many of Zadina’s goals was Martin Necas (CAR), who tied the U.S.’ Mittelstadt as the WJC’s points leader and led the tournament with eight assists. Necas looked like the most pro-ready prospect in the entire tournament. On the back end, Libor Hajek (TBL) tied only Canada’s Makar for the most points by a defenseman.

Biggest Surprise: The Czech’s scored more goals, 22, than any other team in the tournament. While Necas and Zadina, arguably the tournament’s most dynamic duo, had a lot of input, the whole roster stepped up and helped the team finish higher than other teams considered to be contenders, such as Finland and Russia.

Finland – 5th

Top Performer: Eeli Tolvanen (NSH) – 1 goal, 5 assists, 6 points. Led team in assists, points, shots, and +/-.

Biggest Surprise: Joona Koppanen (BOS, 5th-round in 2016) – 3 goals, 1 assist, 4 points. Second on team in goals.

Russia – 6th

Top Performer: Klim Kostin (STL) – 5 goals, 3 assists, 8 points. Led team in goals, points, and +/-.

Biggest Surprise: Artur Kayumov (undrafted) – 3 goals, 2 assists, 5 points. Second on team in goals and points.

Slovakia – 7th

Switzerland – 8th

Denmark – 9th

Belarus – 10th (relegated)

Snapshots: Edmonton Coaching, Escrow, Hoffman, Batherson

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There has yet to be a coaching change this season which is quite rare considering the last time there hadn’t been a change by the holiday break was back in 1998.  Matt Larkin of The Hockey News suggests that it may be time for Edmonton to change that, advocating that they could benefit from more of a disciplinarian behind the bench than Todd McLellan is.  While history suggests those types of bench bosses wear thin on a team fairly quickly, the short-term benefits of a change like that might be enough to get the Oilers at least closer to the form they were expected to be at this season.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The final escrow numbers for 2015-16 are in and the results aren’t pretty for the players. BSN Denver’s Adrian Dater reports that the players received just 3% back out of the 17% that had been withheld from each pay.  Unsurprisingly, the NHLPA hasn’t used the full 5% cap inflator each year since then in an effort to get the withholdings lower.  Escrow is currently set at 11.9% this season, Dater adds.  Even at that, it’s safe to suggest that this will be a big topic in the next round of CBA negotiations.
  • Marcus White of NBC Sports Bay Area believes that Senators winger Mike Hoffman could be a good fit with the Sharks. San Jose never replaced Patrick Marleau when he signed with Toronto which has left a void in their top-six since then.  Youngsters such as Kevin Labanc and Timo Meier have taken strides this season but they’re best served to be more as complementary pieces at this stage of their careers.  San Jose also has the room to absorb Hoffman’s $5.1875MM cap charge for not only this season but beyond, something that can’t be said for a lot of teams that are looking to buy right now.
  • With the World Juniors now over, CHL players that were participating in the tournament are now eligible to have their junior rights officially traded. With the trade deadlines in each league less than a week away, some prominent prospects are about to have a new home.  Winger Drake Batherson, who finished tied for second in goals in the tourney with seven, is one of them.  His former team in Cape Breton announced that the Senators prospect has been dealt to Blainville-Boisbriand of the QMJHL in exchange for three younger players and a 2020 second-round pick.

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