Carter Yakemchuk

April 2024 – Carter Yakemchuk’s game can be a headache, but his combination of physical assets and standout offensive game are difficult to ignore. Yakemchuk immediately jumps off the page as a 6’3, RHD with a booming point shot and dynamic puckhandling. Yakemchuk possesses a level of supreme confidence with the puck that allows him to create difficult zone-entries, dangle through pressure at the attacking blueline, and fire dangerous shots on net. As a result, Yakemchuk was second among CHL defencemen in goals, behind only Zayne Parekh. While his IQ is not a strength, Yakemchuk is a capable playmaker, though not a quarterback. In transition, Yakemchuk’s hands are his best asset as he is not a particularly adept skater or transition playmaker. He is fast for his size, but his mechanics are poor and lacks acceleration. His difficulty in making timely decisions also prevents Yakemchuk from being a strong breakout or entry creator. Most glaring are Yakemchuk’s issues on defence, stemming from a combination of mentality and awareness. Yakemchuk is physical and overly aggressive, leading to hit-chasing, getting burned and failed entry denials. Yakemchuk also frequently loses his checks, misses coverage, and forgets his responsibilities. The verdict? Yakemchuk has top-pair offensive upside though it will require time, patience and a long leash. (April Rankings: #18) Luke Sweeney

February 2024: It took a while for our scouting team to come around on Yakemchuk. He started off as an honourable mention in our November top-32, despite clicking at over a point-per-game pace pretty consistently since the season began, but has now taken the 24th slot in our February rankings. Currently standing at 21 goals and 49 points in only 44 games on a struggling Calgary Hitmen team, it’s easy to see what makes him show up as high as 12th on some draft boards: the offense.

Whenever he can, he jumps into rushes aggressively, will often try outlandish between-the-legs dekes and one-handed net drives, and shoots religiously from the point. The skating going forwards is great — the lateral and backwards mobility, not so much. Yakemchuk’s habits and decision-making are also inefficient but fun at best, and outright damaging at worst, although the improvement in his baseline defensive game is what led us to come around on him. Trying to make Yakemchuk a defensive ace is likely a waste of a team’s resources, but working on the habits that show up offensively is a great approach. If he learns to put his outstanding offensive tools to better use, there’s a top-power play, perhaps even top-pairing role for Yakemchuk — but it’s a tall task, which keeps him relatively low on our board. Hadi Kalakeche

February rankings: 24th