Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Ottawa Senators decided to have it their way when they used the No. 7 selection in the first round of Friday’s National Hockey League draft to take defenceman Carter Yakemchuk of the Calgary Hitmen.
Though he’d been projected on several lists to be taken a few picks later, Don Boyd, the club’s chief scout, and Steve Staios, the president of hockey operations and general manager, couldn’t resist taking a right shot blueliner that has offensive ability and will get involved physically. Yakemchuk, 18, who has good size at 6-foot-3 scored 30 goals and 71 points in 66 games with the Western Hockey League’s Hitmen last season and finished second on Calgary in scoring. Boyd noted the Senators had every intention of taking Yakemchuk and there was no discussion when it reached No.
7. “The obvious is his offence, but he’s got the size, skating ability, the shot from the blueline and his ability to move in to use the full depth of the offensive zone,” Boyd said. “He’s got a little bit of an edge to his game on the back side.
I felt that he had a presence that a lot of other people don’t. “He’s a right-handed shot, and he was sitting right in front of us, and we didn’t have chase it so that makes you feel good.” The Senators had plenty of options to choose from when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman informed the audience at The Sphere that Ottawa was on the clock.
There were five forwards selected in the six picks ahead .