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The Senators received some good news yesterday, as they were able to sign 23-year-old Princeton Tigers right-winger Max Veronneau to a two-year entry-level contract. Veronneau, as has been well documented by now, is an Ottawa native, which I’m sure only enhanced his profile for the Senators. He was also sought after by as many as 25 teams around the league, so Ottawa must be thrilled to get him. He is turning 24 in December, so it’s not as if he has tons of time to prove himself. For comparison, he is 13 months older than Thomas Chabot and Colin White, and they have already played in parts of three NHL seasons.
Veronneau is measured at 6’1”, 181 lbs, and has spent the past four seasons at Princeton in Division I of the NCAA. He has been over a point per game player over the past three seasons, with 2017-18 being his best with 55 points in 36 games:
Amassing that many points over his NCAA career is quite impressive, although there’s also the caveat that he began his college career in his draft +2 season, and he didn’t really start producing until his draft+3 season in 2016-17. There are always players who develop later than others, and you always hope your newest NCAA signing is that guy. It would have been neat if Ottawa could have also scooped up his teammate (and Ottawa resident) Ryan Kuffner, who he has played with for the past six seasons, but then again, there are only so many spots available.
Here is what Pierre Dorion had to say about Veronneau:
Due to his age, Ottawa will be giving him a shot in the NHL right away and they might as well, especially with Belleville making a playoff push. In fact, he is ineligible to play in the AHL playoffs if the BSens make it anyway since he was a post-deadline acquisition. Realistically, he needs to show something at least at the AHL level by next season or else his stock will drop quite rapidly as an aging prospect. Therefore, there's no time to waste with his development. At practice today, he was playing with Zack Smith and Colin White, which isn’t a bad introduction into the NHL:
It looks like he will play tomorrow against St. Louis, and I’m sure he will be playing in all of the remaining 12 games in the season. I’m excited to see what he can do because if he turns heads early on, he’ll have the inside track to make the team next season.
As with any of these college signings, the likelihood that he becomes an impact player is very small. In fact, it’s unlikely that he will even become an effective third or fourth line player. There are plenty of NCAA players that turn into NHL players, but most of them were originally drafted as 18-year olds. Some of the
best undrafted NCAA free agents have been Torey Krug, Danny DeKeyser, Troy Stecher, and Tyler Bozak, so it’s not as if there is a massive track record of players like Veronneau turning out well, with Krug being the best of the bunch by far. If we look at previous signings by the Senators out of college, it's not the most impressive group:
However, there is zero downside to collecting lottery tickets like this, as even if you turn one out of every ten of these players into an NHLer, it’s worth your time. Just don’t expect too much from Veronneau like I had with Bobby Butler and Stephane Da Costa.
Here are some highlights courtesy of @SensProspects:
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