Freddy "The Goat" Gauthier

[Gallagbi]

I see. Mart-goat-brown should be the best 4th line in the league at a glance. Not sure how goat had such a bad night

What glance? Brown's great for a 4th liner, but Martin is a 13th forward at this point and Gauthier is a fringe NHLer (at best).

 

[Menzinger]

Goat's game is WAYYY too passive. He could be something if he had some jam to his game, but he just doesn't. Reminds me of Peter Holland in that way except Holland has better skill set.
Altonnen might be somebody they can go with next season.

That’s what gets me about him - he doesn’t have the puck skills to play the type of passive game he does.

He has a large frame - which could be used effectively if he played more aggressively.

 

[stickty111]

All I can say is that Gauthier is the type of draft pick in the first round that Mark Hunter and Shanahan would dislike and never make.

 

[Mess]

Babcock loves Freddy and what he brings to the table. he open claims "he is a big fan" ..

He loves players with size that can win puck battles and strong defensively, and I can see Freddy G replacing Moore next season permanently going forward as Leafs 4th line C and PKer.

That said I personally didn't like the pick at all because the goat has so limited an offensive upside to use on a 1st round pick on. I was hoping for Shea Theodore at the time of the pick as that was my BPA when the Leafs selection was up.. My first choice would have been Anthony Mantha (but he got scooped off the board 1 pick prior to Leafs taking Freddy G.

 

[RoadWarrior]

The goat struggles to keep up with the play. At his size he just doesn’t have the agility to keep up with most smaller faster forwards and even when he does he plays very soft for his size. His only real asset is his ability to win faceoffs.

Very similar to former leaf David Steckel.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

What glance? Brown's great for a 4th liner, but Martin is a 13th forward at this point and Gauthier is a fringe NHLer (at best).

A very quick glance. I should have said one of the best. Either way, he shouldn't be getting overwhelmed by other team's 4th lines

 

[Menzinger]

The goat struggles to keep up with the play. At his size he just doesn’t have the agility to keep up with most smaller faster forwards and even when he does he plays very soft for his size. His only real asset is his ability to win faceoffs.

Very similar to former leaf David Steckel.

His slow skating is a big hindrance - one reason why I have trouble seeing him be an effective forechecker like Leo or Hyman.

 

[Battle Lin]

man 1 bad game and look at this...kadri has bad games, marner and nylander too, hyman, sometimes leo and bozak flat out sucks

nhl stars and regulars have bad games, young 22 year old raw players can have a bad game

 

[deletethis]

Gauthier remains such a strange player: he can actually skate with the puck, take a pass, complete a pass, skate decently for his size yet is close to a zero in the offensive zone. His eye test meter scores way above his actual effectiveness meter. He looked good in two games then okay in the Vancouver game with a couple very poor shifts. Superficially he looks NHL level.

I've been calling him passive since we drafted him. He does seems considerably less passive these days but there's a long way to go. I doubt he'll ever embrace the type of physicality necessary to cement him as an NHLer. I really think he's being showcased right now. I wouldn't be surprised that a hockey man would fall in love with the giant center as a project.

 

[Mugzy97]

I still dislike the pick but I think he will hit his potential if we’re patient with him.

I dislike the pick as well and it certainly wasn't the best one at the time, but even in hindsight there isn't much for talent after Goat was picked. That is shaping up to be a very bad draft after the first half of the first round.

 

[ErnieLeafs]

Almost 5 years removed from the collapse/draft, and people are STILL griping about the Gauthier pick. Get the !@#$ over it, and support the kid. He's one of our's, and he's worked his ass off to develop and improve.

 

[BlueForever75]

Gauthier has looked better then Moore has!!!

So what he had a bad game, hes a kid and if you want him to develop this is how its going to happen. Let him learn from his mistakes with Babcock and staff teaching him along the way.

 

[deletethis]

I dislike the pick as well and it certainly wasn't the best one at the time, but even in hindsight there isn't much for talent after Goat was picked. That is shaping up to be a very bad draft after the first half of the first round.

Whether the people handling that draft for the Leafs had any other better players on their radar is an unknown but I can count at least 15 players chosen before the end of the 2nd round that I would easily exchange Gauthier for in hindsight. I liked the pick at the time btw. It appeared that he had more offensive upside as an 17 year old coupled with the big body and conscientious defensive play.

 

[zeke]

Gauthier has looked better then Moore has!!!

you misspelled "bigger".

 

[Mugzy97]

Whether the people handling that draft for the Leafs had any other better players on their radar is an unknown but I can count at least 15 players chosen before the end of the 2nd round that I would easily exchange Gauthier for in hindsight. I liked the pick at the time btw. It appeared that he had more offensive upside as an 17 year old coupled with the big body and conscientious defensive play.

I agree with you and like I said in my post, I know it wasn't the best pick at the time. My point is there is nobody jumping off the page as an obvious better option except for Burakovsky. The rest is pretty bland along with Gauthier, so it's not like we missed out on some superstar by picking him.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Gauthier has looked better then Moore has!!!

So what he had a bad game, hes a kid and if you want him to develop this is how its going to happen. Let him learn from his mistakes with Babcock and staff teaching him along the way.

Ketby Rychel was picked 2 picks before Goat in the 2013 draft and doesn't get any recognition.A good prospect that just needed more time too like goat.

Rychel can do Komarov's style of work.

 

[Menzinger]

Almost 5 years removed from the collapse/draft, and people are STILL griping about the Gauthier pick. Get the !@#$ over it, and support the kid. He's one of our's, and he's worked his ass off to develop and improve.

I think everyone here would be happy if he turned out to be an impact player for the Leafs. But hope isn’t the same thing as tangible results, and so far while I hope he’s pulls things together I wouldn’t exactly bet on it happening

 

[Joey Hoser]

Babcock loves Freddy and what he brings to the table. he open claims "he is a big fan" ..

He loves players with size that can win puck battles and strong defensively, and I can see Freddy G replacing Moore next season permanently going forward as Leafs 4th line C and PKer.

That said I personally didn't like the pick at all because the goat has so limited an offensive upside to use on a 1st round pick on. I was hoping for Shea Theodore at the time of the pick as that was my BPA when the Leafs selection was up.. My first choice would have been Anthony Mantha (but he got scooped off the board 1 pick prior to Leafs taking Freddy G.

He was never very talented offensively, but he was around a PPG in the Q in his pre-draft year. That part of his game just didn't progress at all, which is slightly strange.

 

[Legion34]

Looked good tonight

 

[supermann_98]

He looks a lot lighter on his skates lately. He’s not lumbering around anymore like his skates are made of lead

 

[Nithoniniel]

Yeah that was a pretty solid outing for him.

 

[Gallagbi]

Best game of the year by him tonight.

 

[Stephen]

It sounds rather insane, but I would be interested to see how Goat can do in limited assignments on Matthews wing in specific scenarios where there's heavy physical play that you want to get clear of. He's just a lot bigger than Hyman, but also can motor and he can be used to clear a lot of debris out there for Matthews and Nylander. Say we're playing against Boston and they've got Carlo and Chara out there trying to shut down the big guns... Well, you send Goat out there to basically tie one of them up, or batter them on the forecheck and you see where that loose puck goes!

 

[Battle Lin]

you know what i think gauthier should play the Dman role on the PK and be the man down low, hes gonna help A LOT with that size and reach, hes gonna be disruptive and get his stick on pucks, hes gonna win puck battles behind net and along boards, hes gonna clear people infront of net

 

[pgk]

Holy goat fingers sample size and recency bias. He's been decent so far boys give it time. You can spot the bandwagoners right off because anyone that says he is slow never saw him two years ago!