The annual NHL Draft will take place in three weeks on June 28 and 29 live at La Sphère in Las Vegas.

This week, a hundred of the best prospects will meet in Buffalo for the famous Combinedwhere they will undergo physical tests and have the opportunity to meet the leaders of the 32 teams at the Bettman Circuit who are finalizing their respective lists for the highly anticipated auction.

Also on this occasion the journalist Anthony Martineau from VAT Sports is on site to report on the event and spoke yesterday with the Calgary Hitmen defender, Carter Yakemchuk.

The great Canadian defenseman immediately confirmed that he had met with 23 organizations, including the management of the Montreal Canadiens, and made a clear statement during his meeting with Martineau.

In fact, Yakemchuk stated that he would see himself at the Habs and that he would make a choice Arber Xhekaj as a defense partner!

Yakemchuk is known for being a defenseman who doesn’t take pressure. Last WHL season, he scored 30 goals and 41 assists in 66 games, along with 120 penalty minutes.

After this statement from the main interested party, Martineau did not hesitate to express his opinion on a possible Xhekaj-Yakemchuk duo:

That would be bad!

– Anthony MartineauTwitter/X

Compared to the Edmonton Oilers defender Evan BouchardAs for his playstyle, the Calgary, Alberta native sees himself as a future first-pair and first-wave power play defenseman. He currently weighs 200 pounds and would like to enter the NHL at around 210 pounds, but is aware that he will need to improve his skating to compensate for that potential weight gain.

It will be interesting to see if the Montreal Canadiens will be interested in getting their hands on the defenseman by using their 2nd first pick or making a transaction to improve their draft ranking!