There is always a Beckett Sennecke in every draft. Not the player, necessarily, but the typical trajectory of hype surrounding one of these teenaged players.
When the coverage surrounding the 2024 NHL Draft began, the Oshawa Generals winger was found towards the end of the first round — the typical first 32 players type of rankings or mock drafts would throw him in as a player to watch out for as the season progressed. And, well, they were right. Sennecke has quickly found himself, with more coverage surrounding this next crop of prospects, among the top names to be taken on June 28.
Much like our former friend Cutter Gauthier, Sennecke has gone from solid prospect that a playoff team would love to take with their first-round pick, to a player that can potentially become a cornerstone for a team hoping to complete after 82 games in the future. He might not reach the top-five pick potential like Gauthier did, but Sennecke has been quickly seen as a guy who, if everything breaks right, can be a top-line player on a good team due to the toolkit that he already has established in the OHL.
It also helps, according to some scouts, that Sennecke recently went through a growth spurt the past season. Going from a scrawny and streaky player to someone that has the frame to be a potential professional. Now all the front offices can project their own vision for what Sennecke can become, instead of someone who he is not.
Pre-Draft Rankings
No. 19 by Elite Prospeccts
No. 20 by FC Hockey
No. 14 by Sportsnet
No. 19 by Bob McKenzie (TSN)
Statistics
What’s there to like?
Sennecke’s stats don’t jump off the page. He didn’t lead the Generals in points and he wasn’t among the draft-eligible scoring leaders, either — he finished eighth in points among all Under-18 players in the OHL. But beyond the numbers we see on the page, some scouts still believe that Sennecke has all the tools in the world to wiggle his way into being one of the best players to come from this draft class — like our pals over at Elite Prospects:
And the reason why some believe he is justifiably among the best is some literal growth. As mentioned, Sennecke grew roughly four inches in height between his first and second OHL seasons — that is a rapid increase in height and clearly, it took some time for the winger to get used to his new frame. Through the first half of the season, Sennecke was seen as someone playing more on the perimeter and getting just familiar with seeing the ice from a different angle and new things he could do on the ice.
Suddenly having a whole new body to play the game you have played your entire life no doubt takes some getting used to, and that is why the overall production doesn’t really match the hype. But when it came playoff time in the OHL this season, Sennecke was clearly, according to some scouts, the best player in the entire tournament. His season is over, but his impression clearly made a mark.
What does he do well? Well, according to people who have tirelessly watched him play for the Gens this past season, a whole damn lot. He is a threat to score from anywhere in the slot, and can make plays just as well as most centermen in this draft class. He is a full offensive package and if he is able to fill out and even get more used to his frame, he can be such a dangerous player.
The main attraction for a player like Sennecke is teams committing to his growth. He was supposed to be a mid-to-late first-round pick at 5-foot-10 with the skills he had. But suddenly, now that he is a 6-foot-2 winger that has gotten even better at utilizing his toolkit, the sky is truly the limit. Now, teams with double-digit selections in the first round might be licking their chops at potentially getting a top-10 or even top-eight talent from this draft class several picks later.
If Sennecke was performing like he did in the second half, throughout the entire year, he would probably be battling with other CHL forwards like Cayden Lindstrom and Tij Iginla for top-five projections.
What’s not to like?
Frankly, from reading scouting reports and looking at some analysis, Sennecke just needs to increase his give-a-shit metric. Like Scott Wheeler from The Athletic says later in this post, the Generals forward just really needs to work on his play off the puck — when a play can be made easily or is in pursuit of the puck, he does it very well, but when he has to really play positional hockey and control the spacing, that performance sinks to not-so-great. If he can work on that, then he would feel like a much more complete prospects.
The main thing to take away from the criticisms of Sennecke is if this is for real. Players can go on hot streaks all the time, so is a team really willing to use that top-10 or even top-15 pick on a player who just scraped by with over a point-per-game in the OHL, and fully commit to him being the player that scouts saw him be in the last few months? That’s the question.
How would he fit in the Flyers’ system?
Positionally, some might not like where Sennecke can slot in. Being a right winger, and considering that that is a position where the Flyers are pretty locked-in with Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny (if they keep him around), letting Sennecke flourish to just become third fiddle might not be the best strategy. But no one can know what your need is when the prospect you draft this year is ready to make the NHL, so positional need is just a little bit silly.
In regard to the prospect pool, if Sennecke’s skill stays afloat, he would definitely be the player with the highest ceiling not named Matvei Michkov. The Flyers obviously need players like him now and in the future, so it should be overall a win and if he is able to fill out that frame and play with just a little more grime in addition to scoring from just anywhere in the offensive zone, he should easily become a fan favorite.
He might not make the most sense for the Flyers when it comes to the position he plays, and maybe this team would prefer to take center Barkly Catton if he is still available, or one of the high-end blueliners potentially available at 12th overall, but Sennecke would be deserving of the pick.
Can the Flyers actually get him?
Most likely, but it all depends on where the Flyers themselves have Sennecke on their internal draft board. If they, like some others, view him as a very good talent, and there are not players like Barkly Catton available or they don’t want to take the big swing on someone like Carter Yakemchuk; then the Flyers could feasibly take the forward with their 12th overall pick.
But that could also just be recency bias as his stock has risen rapidly. If original projections and rankings and mock drafts were more relevant, then Sennecke should fall somewhere in the middle of the first round — like we have him — and the Flyers wouldn’t select him. He would be a reach with their first first-rounder and then will surely be gone by the time Philadelphia takes their second trip to the podium on June 28.
What scouts are saying
When watching Sennecke this season, the flashes of high-end offensive potential popped out at you. The problem was that these were just flashes and not the norm. As the season went along, the flashes became more frequent as Sennecke found more consistency in his game. By season’s end, he was playing his best hockey. Sennecke is a supremely talented player who’ll try anything to gain an advantage or generate offence. He might not always succeed with the things he attempts, but he’s really testing out what works and doesn’t all while expanding his creativity. Sennecke can make game breaking plays splitting the defenders en route to the net where he’ll deke a goalie and bury it for a highlight reel goal.
The main issue with Sennecke is consistency and his play off the puck. When in pursuit of the puck, he competes well and has shown impressive forecheck ability. Unfortunately, if he’s not in pursuit of the puck, he doesn’t seem to impact the play. He’s not that effective in his own end, which can lead to extended offensive zone time for his opponents. There is some awkwardness to his game, sometimes the way he stickhandles and the way he skates, but this could be a product of being a late bloomer who’s had a recent growth spurt he might not be fully used to yet.
Jordan Harris, DobberProspects
Sennecke is a high-skill individual player with size who, after an up-and-down start to his draft season, became a game-changer from the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game on and finished on an emphatic note with an excellent playoff performance with the Gens, regularly pulling people out of their seats. He’s got one of the most exciting pure skill sets in the draft. One of the more productive rookies in the OHL last year, Sennecke was a standout on a young Oshawa team, earning Second All-Rookie Team honors and playing both wings successfully (he’s a right-handed shot but often played the left wing with would-be Avalanche draft pick Calum Ritchie, although he played mostly right wing this year). He looked a little skinny when I first went to see him play last year, and he has still looked that way in repeat viewings in Oshawa and also Moncton (where I know scouts were keen to watch him closely at the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game and where I thought he was one of White’s most noticeable players with the puck and worked hard, which was the start of a positive trend in his game), but his stride and shot, which both lacked power a year ago, have made clear progress. His release, which has always been naturally quick, now has some oomph, and his skating has really smoothed out and looks like a borderline strength, which has helped his dynamic rush game.
Scott Wheeler, The Athletic
Welcome to the poll…
Next on our poll is a winger coming from the WHL who performed well on a very bad team — Ryder Ritchie, welcome to the poll!
Ritchie’s a shifty playmaking winger who can make highlight-reel skill plays with the puck. He can play at multiple paces and adjust his tempo between them. He protects extremely well and will commonly shake past or around opposing players, building speed through his crossovers to hang onto the puck inside the offensive zone until a play presents itself. There’s also some real creativity to his game as an equal opportunity facilitator and finisher (he’s got a really nifty curl-and-drag and snap release that can cleanly beat goalies from midrange). He’s a crafty, talented winger who looks like he’s got top-six upside to me, even if the points haven’t popped this year. I could see him, with good health, becoming a 90-to-100-point player next season.
Scott Wheeler, The Athletic
