The Daily Faceoff Show: The lowdown on Jake Sanderson and other big college free agent signings

The first wave of college free agent signings has begun, and that means we get to see some big names finally get their shot at NHL roles, like Jake Sanderson with the Ottawa Senators. But, it also means we get to see some signings that we didn’t expect or that we just don’t even know a lot about.

Tyler Yaremchuk and Chris Gear hosted prospect expert Chris Peters onto The Daily Faceoff Show to talk about Sanderson, as well as some under-the-radar signings more people should know about.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I want to start with a guy who did leave school early, who did sign with an NHL team, and that’s Jake Sanderson in Ottawa. You look at that Senators team, it’s a lot of young guys, both on the forward group and a little on the back end as well. Young players get opportunities. Is Sanderson a guy who’s ready to take that opportunity and become sort of an immediate impact guy at the NHL level?

Chris Peters: Absolutely, I think that he is. Of the college players that are coming out, there are few that I think are more prepared to play a significant role in the NHL. I think over time we’ll probably see him ascend to a top-four role as early as next season with the Senators.

Jake Sanderson had tough luck this year. He got injured at the very end of the season, so he missed the end of the playoffs, he missed the national tournaments. He also had COVID at the start of the Olympics, and then he got hurt at the Olympics, so there were all sorts of different things.

But you look at his numbers there, 26 points in 23 games. This is a guy that a lot of people said, “I don’t know if he has the offensive upside to be worth a top five-pick.” Without him, especially late in the season, North Dakota really missed the offensive element that he has, because he’s an elite skater, he is a very good offensive player, he has good puck skills, he has a good shot, he’s got great instincts. He’s one of the smartest players that I’ve watched in the last couple of years, and he’s just a terrific defender on top of all of that.

I think that for him, it’s going to be all about just getting recovered from this current injury that he has. He may play games at the end of this season as long as he’s healthy enough to. That’ll allow him to burn that year off the contract, which I’m sure was one of the incentives to get him to sign.

But, I think this was a guy that was ready to come out last season. He didn’t feel he was ready, and I really respect that, he wanted to take another shot at it. Unfortunately, injuries kind of piled up, and he wasn’t able to have the season that he had. But, to me, of all the players that I watched in college hockey this year, and that includes Owen Power, Luke Hughes, and Matty Beniers, Jake Sanderson was the best player I saw all season.

Chris Gear: In the last couple of days we’ve seen a flurry of signings of college players who are now finished their college seasons. Who of those do you think might impress us, or is there anyone under the radar that no one’s really paying attention to, but is a sneaky good signing?

Chris Peters: There were a couple guys that were drafted that did sign that weren’t the first-round picks, the high-profile guys.

And the first guy that I’ll talk about is Ronnie Attard, who’s a defenseman from Western Michigan University, and a late-blooming prospect. He was drafted in the second year of eligibility when he really torched the USHL, and over the last three seasons at Western Michigan, Attard really grew into his role as a No. 1 defenseman. He signed with Philadelphia. I think he has the opportunity to be a part of their blueline as early as next season. He’s got good size, good offensive skill, and he defends extremely well, he’s very mobile.

So, Ronnie Attard, that’s a name that you might not be familiar with, but he’s one of the best defensemen in college hockey. I thought he should have been on the Olympic team this year. I really like the way that he played, and thought that he deserved a shot to be on that team. Possibly an All-American this year. There are so many great defensemen in the NCAA, but he’s one of them. He could’ve gone back to Western Michigan, and trigger that scary UFA situation, but instead he signs here, and he’ll have a chance to play a role with Philadelphia in the near future.

Another guy is Jordan Harris. Now, this is a guy who everyone assumed that, at the beginning of the season, was not going to sign with Montreal. He was going to go the free-agent route. However, the change in regime appears to have completely shifted that. Kent Hughes comes in as general manager. Where do his two sons play? Northeastern University. Riley and Jack are both playing for Northeastern, so Kent Hughes has that familiarity with Jordan Harris. And he also coached Jordan Harris as a younger guy, because Jordan is from the Boston area, and they actually worked together prior to that, so he gets that level of comfort.

Harris had a four-year career, really strong at Northeastern. A guy that moves pucks extremely well, he’s very skilled, he’s got decent size, he can make a lot of plays, and he’s just a mature player. Really good footwork in the [defensive] zone, really good hockey intelligence as well. So I think that’s going to be a guy that can filter in, and close some of those gaps for Montreal, and I really like him.

And I did want to touch on one college free agent who wasn’t on my list, and wasn’t really on my radar to be picked, but he did get signed by the Pittsburgh Penguins, and that’s Ty Glover. He’s a 6-foot-3 forward with really good speed. He was a sophomore at Western Michigan this year, which is why I didn’t think he was going to come out, because I thought he was going to play a big role.

I think what the Penguins are doing with this particular signing is trying to beat the rush, because he was the kind of guy that you say, “If he goes next year, everybody’s going to know about him.” He had a really good finish to the end of the season. He’s a guy that can play down the lineup. He’s only 21 years old, same thing with Jordan Harris, only 21. So you’re getting a guy that still has a lot of runway of development left, and I think that’s what the Penguins were doing with Ty Glover, because that’s not a guy that you would expect, but Pittsburgh has gone heavy on undrafted free agents because they don’t have any draft picks, so that’s what they have to do.

You can watch the full episode here…