Senators prospect staying in school
Team not shocked, supports his choice
The Ottawa Senators weren’t surprised by Jacob Bernard-Docker’s decision to stay in school.
And, as reported in this space on the weekend, general manager Pierre Dorion, assistant GM Peter MacTavish and player development director Shean Donovan have no issue with Bernard-Docker’s desire to return to the University of North Dakota next season.
The 19-year-old Docker, a firstround pick at No. 26 overall in the 2018 NHL draft, informed the Senators of his decision in a phone call Friday, but he’d been thinking about it for some time.
“He had really good discussions with Shean Donovan and Jesse Winchester (of the player development department) and he was able to have a really good talk with Shean, Jesse, Peter and myself,” Dorion said in an interview on TSN 1200 Tuesday. “The player has a lot of character and he says, ‘I’ve got some unfinished business here.’
“They felt they were the best team in the country, he feels he can bring his game up a notch and he doesn’t want to leave his team short-handed in a year where they feel they can win. We respect that. A lot of good college players play three years and then step right into the NHL. He wasn’t afraid to go to Belleville if that was the case. We know we have a solid, blue-chip allaround defenceman.”
The Senators also had 2018 second-round selection Jonny Tychonick at UND the last two seasons, but Tychonick decided to transfer to the Omaha program because he wasn’t getting enough playing time.
“Jonny’s development didn’t really grow as much as we wanted at North Dakota,” Dorion said. “With the transfer portal being open with new rules, we feel he can step into a contending team in college next year.”
Tychonick, from Penticton, B.C., told the Grand Forks Herald the decision wasn’t easy.
“It was honestly the hardest thing I’ve been through,” Tychonick told the newspaper Tuesday. “We did Zoom calls, so I saw everyone face-to-face. Everything about every school was so positive. There was nothing negative that I noticed. It was so hard to come to a decision. It took me like two days to come to this decision, but that’s a good thing. You want it to be hard. Then, you know every decision would have been the right decision.” bgarrioch@postmedia.com
Twitter: @sungarrioch