The American Hockey League announced today that Belleville Senators defenseman Carter Yakemchuk has been selected as the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week for the period ending March 15, 2026.
Yakemchuk assisted on six goals in two games last week, helping the Senators to a sweep of their weekend visit to Hershey.
On Saturday evening, Yakemchuk recorded four assists – including three in an 11-minute span – to lift Belleville to a 6-3 victory. Then on Sunday, he added two more assists in a 5-2 Belleville win over the Bears, earning selection as First Star of the game for the second night in a row.
Yakemchuk has recorded 35 points (nine goals, 26 assists) in 47 games for Belleville this season, good for second among all AHL rookie defensemen in scoring. A 20-year-old native of Fort McMurray, Alta., Yakemchuk was selected by Ottawa in the first round (seventh overall) of the 2024 NHL Draft and starred with Calgary in the Western Hockey League, including a 30-goal season in 2023-24.
Yakemchuk is the seventh Belleville Sens player to earn player of the week honours, joining current Ottawa Senator Drake Batherson (October 28, 2019), and former Sens Logan Brown (November 4, 2019), Josh Norris (April 19, 2021), Michael Carcone (December 6, 2021), Egor Sokolov (February 7, 2022), and Angus Crookshank (January 22, 2024).
