The Ottawa Senators sign prospect Jake Sanderson to a three-year entry-level contract. The contract starts this year.
News Release: The #Sens have signed defenceman Jake Sanderson to a three-year, entry-level contract: https://t.co/NRSNgzvj7N pic.twitter.com/2z6WqVBDEO
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) March 27, 2022
Jake Sanderson Signed To Entry-Level Contract
The Senators drafted Sanderson fifth overall in the 2020 NHL Entry draft from the United States National Team Development Program. Sanderson was the team’s captain and led the defence in scoring with 29 points in 47 games. Ben Kerr of Last Word on Sports wrote in his draft report that Sanderson was a great skater, with good offensive instincts and excellent defensively. Kerr noted that Sanderson’s game is reminiscent of Ryan Suter stylistically. But that is a style comparison and not one based on talent.
After being drafted, Sanderson played two seasons at the University of North Dakota. Playing alongside fellow Senators prospects Jacob Bernard-Docker, Shane Pinto and Tyler Kleven. In his first season, he scored 15 points in 22 games and in his second season, he scored 26 points in 23 games, for third in team scoring.
Sanderson has lots of experience playing for Team USA the past two seasons. In 2021, he helped Team USA win the World Junior gold medal. Sanderson played the most minutes for the Americans in the gold medal game. He captained the team the following year, but the tournament was cancelled because of COVID-19.
This year, Sanderson made Team USA’s Olympic team, but he had COVID before the games started and arrived in Beijing a week later. In his first game against Canada, he suffered an injury where he played 16:59 and got an assist and didn’t play for the rest of the tournament.
Here are some highlights of Sanderson.
A glimpse of what’s to come with Sanderson❗️👀#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/zmSrq4TEyi
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) March 27, 2022
What This Means For the Senators
Ottawa is ready to insert their top prospect into the line-up. When is unclear. The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch reports Sanderson is dealing with a hand injury. But in the press release attached in the above tweet, Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said, “while he still has progress to make in overcoming a current injury, we are hopeful of seeing him in our line-up before the end of the season.”
Long-term, Sanderson will hopefully help the Senators shore up their defence. They have allowed the 12th most goals and seventh-most shots this season. He is a piece of a hopefully bright future on defence in Ottawa. Thomas Chabot, Jacob Bernard-Docker, Erik Brannstrom, Lassi Thomson and Sanderson are all young defencemen who will have played for Ottawa this season.
Main Photo:
