The hockey season is nicely underway and the Ottawa Senators have gotten off to a stable begin, going 2-1-0 of their first three video games and seeing some massive performances from their prime gamers. Most of the workforce’s prospects have additionally hit the bottom working, but it surely’s honest to say that not many followers had their eye on defenceman Eerik Wallenius.
But the 6-foot-4, 212-pound defenceman has been probably the greatest junior gamers in Finland this season, and with a objective and an help in two video games, he’s your Senators’ Prospect of the Week for the week of Oct. 7-13.
Wallenius Dominant in Finland’s Junior League
When Wallenius was chosen within the fifth spherical of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, he was principally an unknown in lots of scouting circles. Those that did know him cited a powerful defensive sport, and the Senators’ European scout Mikko Ruutu talked about his spectacular improvement throughout final season. “He took an enormous step ahead this season,” mentioned Ruutu. “He began with the under-18 workforce, then performed on the under-20 workforce and completed the season with a professional workforce. He’s an attention-grabbing child, an enormous boy.” (from “GOING BIG: The inside track on every Ottawa Senators decide in 2024 NHL Draft,” Ottawa Citizen – 29/06/2024).
Though the SM-sarja, Finland’s U20 league, isn’t identified for it’s scoring, Wallenius carried out decently nicely for a 17-year-old defenceman final season, placing up three targets and eight factors in 14 video games. This season, he’s already handed that. In 10 video games, he already has three targets and 9 factors, two of which had been scored this previous week. On Oct. 11, he scored the sport winner in an 8-4 drubbing of KalPa, and on the next evening, he supplied the first help on the second objective in a 3-2 shootout loss to Jokerit. With these two factors, he now leads all U19 defenceman in scoring within the SM-sarja and leads all NHL prospects within the league.
Wallenius’ Sturdy Begin to the Season
This season might be a breakout one for Wallenius, who has been outperforming expectations since again in July, when he went toe-to-toe with Senators’ prime prospect Carter Yakemchuk in numerous drills, showcasing some shocking pace and fast decision-making expertise. Then he went off to make his nationwide workforce debut, enjoying 4 video games with Finland’s U20 workforce earlier than making HPK’s Liiga roster to begin the season as their seventh defenceman. To this point, solely 26 youngsters have suited up within the Liiga in 2024-25, making him one of many prime few prospects popping out of Finland this season.
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Wallenius’ solely Liiga sport this season wasn’t all that spectacular – he performed simply 5:16 and didn’t register a degree – but it surely’s attention-grabbing to match his influence to those that had related deployments. Kalle Kangas, a 19-year-old defender who was picked by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2023, performed roughly six minutes in HPK’s season opener but completed with a minus-2, and the workforce’s assistant captain, Juuso Hietanen, completed with a minus-1 and only a minute and a half of ice time. Wallenius additionally travelled the shortest distance of any defender on HPK, in line with the official sport sheet, implying that he spent most of his time within the defensive finish. Even with restricted ice time, to complete with a fair ranking whereas enjoying principally in his personal finish in a 7-4 loss is important.
Since then, Wallenius has been within the SM-sarja, however HPK is certainly watching him with curiosity. His offensive sport is creating rapidly and, when mixed along with his dimension and physicality, he may have the same rise to Alexander Nikishin, who out of the blue emerged as probably the greatest offensive defencemen outdoors the NHL in 2022-23. Few noticed his meteoric rise when he was chosen by the Carolina Hurricanes within the third spherical of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, as he regarded like simply one other massive defender with some uncooked expertise who bounced between the professionals and juniors in Russia. Nevertheless, with that little additional time to develop, he turned a sport breaker. To this point, Wallenius’ profession has adopted the same path and it’s attainable he may observe in Nikishin’s footsteps over the subsequent few seasons.
Honourable Mentions
After being returned to the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) Calgary Hitmen, Yakemchuk scored his first objective of the season in his first second sport. He stays a participant to look at this season as he’ll have quite a lot of alternatives to be one in all Calgary’s prime play drivers. Over within the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Lucas Ellinas has two factors in his final two video games with the Kitchener Rangers. He now sits only one objective away from the workforce lead and is on tempo to hit a career-high 34 targets. Blake Montgomery, nonetheless, lead all Senators prospects final week, scoring three help in his final two video games and was named the third star on Oct. 12 for his function within the Lincoln Stars’ 3-0 win. He now has a degree in his final 4 video games.
Associated: Ottawa Senators Prospect of the Week: Carter Yakemchuk
Over within the American Hockey League (AHL), Cole Reinhardt has remained one of many workforce’s best forwards, sitting tied with Jan Jenik and Xavier Bourgault for the lead with a objective and an help in two video games. After his robust preseason, it wouldn’t be shocking to see him get no less than a number of call-ups to Ottawa this season. Philippe Daoust has additionally regarded like his outdated self after enjoying simply 13 video games over the previous two seasons, scoring a objective in his first sport again this season. It’s been a powerful begin for Belleville, who are actually 1-0-1 and sit third within the North Division.
It was one other robust week for the Senators’ prospects. Virtually the entire Senators prospects have performed no less than a few video games this season. We’re nonetheless ready for Djibril Toure, Tomas Hamara, Jake Chiasson, and Jorion Donovan to make their season debuts, and within the NCAA, solely Hoyt Stanley and Kevin Reidler have but to play a sport. Except for a handful of AHLers, solely Matthew Andonovski, Filip Nordberg, and Cam O’Neill stay pointless to begin 2024-25, however all three needs to be anticipated to seem on the scoresheet earlier than too lengthy. Tune in subsequent week to see which prospect stood above the remainder!
