After a painful 7-2 loss to the Florida Panthers, the Ottawa Senators’ season is again set to end on the outside of the playoff picture. Thankfully, fans are still fairly optimistic about the team’s future. Tim Stutzle has emerged as an NHL star, Claude Giroux looks five years younger, and the defence finally has a legitimate top-four.
That last point is largely thanks to the fantastic development done at the University of North Dakota, which now has three alumni who have appeared on Ottawa’s blue line: Jacob Bernard-Docker, Jake Sanderson, and as of March 30, 2023, Tyler Kleven, who inked his entry-level deal just days before his debut. All three have been excellent this season in the roles they’ve been given, and along with center Shane Pinto, the quartet looks to be a big part of the Senators’ future.
But there is a fifth member of the group who has fallen through the cracks. Jonny Tychonick, drafted 48th overall in 2018, started with Bernard-Docker in North Dakota in 2018-19 but never really found his footing in the program. Now, with his college career over, he’s looking to take the next big step in his hockey career, but does he still have a place with the Senators, or does the organization move on as he struggled to find his game?
Tychonick’s Scouting Report
When Tychonick was selected early in the second round of 2018, he was described as an undersized, playmaking defenceman with elite skating that could be a second-pairing, two-way defender in the NHL. With the British Columbia Hockey League’s (BCHL) Penticton Vees, he finished second on the team in scoring with 47 points in 48 games. He drew comparisons to former NHL All-Star Brian Rafalski due to his smaller size and ability to quarterback a power play.
Although Tychonick’s junior rights were owned by the Calgary Hitmen in the Western Hockey League (WHL), he chose to commit to the University of North Dakota for a couple of reasons. Firstly, playing in college would force him to face much tougher competition right away, which hopefully would help round out his game and help him build some much-needed strength. But another contributing factor was that longtime friend Bernard-Docker was also going the college route, and the pair would continue to play together on the same pair in North Dakota. The two were perfect complements to each other’s style, with Tychonick being the fast puck mover and Bernard-Docker playing a more defensive role.
Unfortunately, while Bernard-Docker got off to a great start, Tychonick had a tough freshman season, putting up just four assists in 28 games. The following season, he made some improvements, scoring four goals and 11 points in 24 games, but he continued to struggle for playing time and was a frequent scratch. There were even times that the team asked him to play forward, which didn’t help his development at all. It was clear that if something didn’t change, his hockey career would be in jeopardy.
A Fresh Start in Omaha
By the end of the 2019-20 season, it was clear to Tychonick that he wasn’t going to make any progress with North Dakota; he was already playing limited minutes, and those were only set to decrease with top prospects Sanderson and Kleven set to join the program in 2020-21. So he took his opportunity to transfer to the University of Nebraska-Omaha in his third year of eligibility. Normally, a student-athlete who transfers programs has to sit out a full season to accommodate the transfer, but North Dakota worked with the NCAA to help get him an exemption so he could hit the ground running in Nebraska.
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But once again, things didn’t go as planned for Tychonick as he was a minimal offensive presence with Omaha, finishing his first season with the team with eight points in 23 games and following it up with the same output in 24 games in 2021-22. Sure, it didn’t help that the University of Nebraska-Omaha had a pretty average program when he joined. But even after the team boosted their goal output by nearly 40 goals, Tychonick remained static in his development.
It wasn’t until his final season in the NCAA that Tychonick finally found his groove. In 35 games, he scored eight goals and 26 points, leading the team’s defence in scoring and finishing second on the team in assists. He posted career highs in every offensive area as well as in games played — he’d never skated more than 30 games before this season — and penalty minutes. It was also the first time since leaving North Dakota that his team finished ahead of his former program in the standings, although he would lose to them in the first round of the Conference playoffs.
Tychonick’s Future With Ottawa
With his college career over, the assumption was that Tychonick would sign a professional deal with the Senators. After all, why wouldn’t he? The organization was more than happy to sign Kleven to an entry-level deal following North Dakota’s final game this season and has since given several prospects a shot at playing an NHL game as 2022-23 draws to a close. But then the news dropped that Tychonick would join the Toronto Marlies after a two-year American Hockey League (AHL) deal.
While that doesn’t necessarily mean that Tychonick can no longer sign with the Senators, it does put a wrinkle in his future with the team. For starters, it’s a clear indication that Ottawa had no intention of signing him out of college. Had they expressed interest, fans wouldn’t have seen news of the deal drop three days before announcing Kleven’s contract.
But what’s even more telling is that Tychonick is currently playing with the Marlies’ farm team, the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers. The Marlies sit first in their division and are expected to make a deep playoff run, which would be a fantastic experience for the young defender. But instead, the team has assigned him to the Growlers, who also lead their division as their season winds down. The competition will be far less intense than if he were in the AHL. All in all, he’s done well in his first few games with the team, scoring two goals and five points in seven appearances, but it’s certainly not where he expected to be at this point in his career.
There is a chance that Tychonick makes the NHL still, even with the Senators. He’s continued to refine his two-way game and become a minute-munching defender with Omaha. But that’s likely not going to happen in Ottawa. Currently, he projects to be little more than a depth defenceman, but more likely, a career AHLer. Even if the Senators wanted to add him, he would have to surpass Maxime Guenette, Lassi Thomson, Jonathan Aspirot, and Dillon Heatherington to secure a spot in the top four with the Belleville Senators, and that’s if Bernard-Docker and Kleven aren’t NHL regulars next season. It looks like fans will have to settle for just four University of North Dakota alumni.
