NHL draft: Carter Yakemchuk, a scoring blueliner with grit, is on the Flyers’ radar

Second in a seven-part series highlighting players the Flyers might select in the first round of the NHL draft on June 28 in Las Vegas.

BUFFALO — It could be déjà vu all over again.

A tall, lanky, athletic defenseman who plays for the Calgary Hitmen is on the Flyers’ radar at the draft.

In 2014 it was Travis Sanheim, snagged with the 17th overall pick. Ten years later it could be Carter Yakemchuk at No. 12. And, not to be forgotten is Egor Zamula, who was not drafted but signed with the Flyers in 2018 from the Alberta-based team. All are thanks in part to the watchful eye of amateur scout Mark Greig.

But what differentiates Yakemchuk from the pair is his rare combination of high-end offense in a defenseman. He is 6-foot-3 but also has the skill set of a smaller player. This past season he notched 71 points (30 goals, 41 assists) in 66 games after scoring 47 points in 67 games in 2022-23. Those 30 goals were the most by a defenseman in the Western Hockey League.

“He’s extremely talented, like one of the most talented players in the draft,” The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler told The Inquirer. “He scored not just this year, but over the last two years in the Western Hockey League, some highlight-reel goals for a defenseman. He’s got a big shot and he scored 30 goals in the WHL. It’s extremely rare; we’re talking about better production than players like Matt Dumba, Josh Morrissey, and Shea Theodore, some of the best defensemen who have come out of the WHL in the last 10-15 years.”

The shot is something Yakemchuk has been fine-tuning. A right-shot defenseman, he uses a Bauer HyperLite and tapes it from the middle of the blade to the toe. According to Steve Hamilton, who was the coach in Calgary from 2018-24, his shot is NHL-ready. It probably doesn’t hurt that he’s been honing his No. 1 weapon at an NHL rink as the Hitmen play their home games at the Scotiabank Saddledome, home of the Calgary Flames.

“I like to pull it into my feet and shoot,” Yakemchuk told The Inquirer at the NHL Scouting Combine. “I think I have a pretty deceptive shot and it’s something that I’ve put a lot of hours in and worked pretty hard at over the years. So, yeah, I like a snapshot.”

The offensive side of Yakemchuk is there. That’s a given. But, as Wheeler added, questions do arise about his defensive zone play. In three seasons with his hometown Hitmen — he moved to Calgary from Fort McMurray, Alberta, at the age of 6 — he was a whopping minus-33 combined. It is juniors, but ... yikes. The good news is, this past season was his best at minus-6 for a young club.

» READ MORE: Cole Eiserman can flat-out score. Might the Flyers be interested in the first round of the draft?

“I think John [Tortorella] has a reputation of expecting his players to be 200-foot guys and highly competitive, and who doesn’t want that in a coach, in my opinion,” Hamilton told The Inquirer during a recent phone interview. “I think it’s super important to want to be the guy and when you get those opportunities, try to stake in the ground and say this is who I am, this is who I can be. And I think Carter did an awesome job for us at that this year. He wanted to be the guy and wanted the puck on his stick when it mattered.”

According to Yakemchuk, Greig spoke to him a few times across the season and gave him some pointers “on what I need to improve to make that jump to the NHL” on both sides of the puck. The 18-year-old likens his game to Edmonton Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard — yep, he’s an Oilers fan in Calgary — and notes he can both run a power play from the top and make good breakout passes from the defensive zone.

But he also acknowledges that his offensive game is his bread and butter. The good news is Hamilton says Yakemchuk is highly coachable and willing to learn the tools he needs to be a complete player at the NHL level.

And while he’s just a teenager who likes a good Bacon King — his father owns two Burger Kings back in Fort McMurray — and eats grilled chicken and pasta with some butter made by mother before every game, don’t let his laid-back, shy demeanor fool you. He does have a bit of a mean streak.

» READ MORE: The Flyers are weighing their options in the NHL draft. Scout Mark Greig describes the grind.

“He does have some edge to him. He was pretty scrappy this year, which is good. He’s certainly by no means timid at all and he gets his nose dirty,” Hamilton said. “It’s funny, one of the scouts reached out to me and said, ‘We noticed that he wasn’t fighting as much in the second half of the year,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, because I told him not to. We need him on the ice.’ He’s probably our best player and I honestly, never minded the scrappiness from him whatsoever. But I also wanted them to be on the ice for us.

“So it’s quite a thing when you’ve got a player like that, who is as talented and as skilled as he is and certainly has the ability to get his nose dirty, too.”

But if you ask Yakemchuk, he doesn’t really have a mean streak and he’s not a guy who gets his nose dirty. Instead, he’s got something that would fit in quite nicely in Philly, something he said with a big grin: “I’ve got a little bit of grit to my game.”