Ottawa Senators Prospect of the Week – Lucas Ellinas – Hockey Writers – Senators Prospects

The Ottawa Senators’ Prospect of the Week of Nov. 11-17 is Lucas Ellinas, who joins Carter Yakemchuk as the second player to earn the honor. After I mentioned his goalscoring drought last week, Ellinas finally found a goal, scoring three goals in just two games, two of which he did not play. While he had tough competition from some of the unexpected, the 2024 fourth round pick of the Senators stood above them with two great efforts to help the Kitchener Rangers remain the top team in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL).

Ellinas Returns to Early Season Form

Although Michael Misa quickly dominated the OHL’s scoring race, Ellinas began the 2024-25 season as one of the league’s hottest shooters. In his first 13 games, he already had eight goals and one assist, which ranked him second in scoring on the team. Unfortunately, he hit the mark after that, in the next six games he failed to score a single goal. However, the hard-working center wasn’t down and out, and following the addition of Jack Pridham to the lineup after two road losses, things finally clicked back into place.

Ellinas’ first goal of the game in the dying seconds of the first half on Nov. 15 against the Peterborough Petes when he caught a loose puck off the stick of Tanner Lam, 17, and fired it past the Peterborough Petes goalie. put the Rangers up 2-1. That ended up being the game-winning goal, as the Petes never scored another as Kitchener rolled to a 4-1 victory. Then on November 17, the Rangers took on the Sarnia Sting, and the first half came and went without a goal. But midway through the second, Ellinas took a puck in the far corner and, despite looking like he didn’t have a shot, easily put it behind the keeper to put the Rangers on the board.

Just as the power play expires, Luke Ellinas gets the first goal of the game 🎯#RTtown | #The War Was Built | @The Senators pic.twitter.com/FZelYnTntm

– Kitchener Rangers (@OHLRangers) November 17, 2024

However, his next goal was arguably even better. After Pridham’s shot was stopped by the Sting goalie, Ellinas grabbed the rebound and, from another difficult angle, took the puck between his legs and into the net. The Guardians offense went up in flames after that, and Sting struggled. At the buzzer, Kitchener was up 5-0, meaning Ellinas had both the game-winning and insurance goals.

Related: Ottawa Senators Prospect of the Week – Stephen Halliday

When Ellinas was selected by the Senators in the fourth round, most scouting reports commented on his dual skills and high-level performance, with Kyle Flanagan, one of Ottawa’s rookie scouts, noting, “He works like a dog, he doesn’t lose battles.” However, there was always the possibility that he would develop into a skilled shooter, too; last season he had 16 goals in 67 games. Now that he has so much talent around him, he’s emerging as another hidden gem within Ottawa’s farm system.

Senators Prospects for Honorable Mention and Entry

Yakemchuk continued to impress last week, scoring two goals and five points in four games with the Calgary Hitmen, including a stunning layup against the Wenatchee Wild on the power play to open the scoring. The only thing that kept him from earning Prospect of the Week honors for the third time was that two of his assists were second assists, and against the Wild, he was also minus-2, forcing the Hitmen to pull out a 4-3 overtime victory. However, he now has the highest point-per-game pace of any Senators prospect not in the American Hockey League (AHL).

Speaking of the AHL, Wyatt Bongiovanni finally returned to the lineup last week and made an immediate impact. After missing 10 games due to injury, he returned against the Syracuse Crunch on November 13. Although that game was quiet for the 25-year-old, he was determined to enter the next game, where he scored two goals against the Toronto Marlies. and another in a shot, earning him the game’s first star. While he’s technically no longer a prospect, he’s been a valuable depth player for the Senators and could get called up if the team continues to struggle defensively. Team-mate Angus Crookshank could also be hearing his name called soon after another two-goal performance last week, taking him to six goals in his last five games.

Across the NCAA, Tyson Dyck scored his first goal of the season and debuted as a Wisconsin Badger on November 16, where he also added an assist en route to the University of Wisconsin beating Penn State 6-3. While the 2022 seventh-round pick doesn’t have a ton of NHL talent, he’s starting to emerge as a reliable NCAA player. So far this season, he has four points in 12 games, putting him on pace to surpass his previous career high of five goals and nine points set with Mass back in 2022-23.

Tune in next week to see which of my hopes are above the rest.