Frederik Gauthier

[saltming]

does anyone actually believe he can avg 40 pts ?

i'd be thrilled if he could develop into a consistent 20ish point 3rd line c and even that may be wishful thinking on my part .

I was just shooting for the sky, but until he's in the show I will hold on to my optimism haha.

 

[Unbiased]

Steckel's first year in the AHL he had 17 points in 63 games. Gauthier is on pace for 27 points in the same number of games.

Not to mention he was 23 at the time. Goat is 20

 

[Guided by Veseys]

Problem here is that you refer to "these guys" as if all players in a bottom six role are equally good. That's just not true. You can find decent bottom six players for peanuts, sure. That's not really true for the great ones, other than Winnik for some reason.

definitely, and to have a great young bottom six centre on a cheap contract right when you are ready to contend would be huge. Gauthier looks great. I wish he wasn't so passive though, he has the size of young eric lindros out there.

 

[Menzinger]

The GOAT is never going to be an offensive force, and in retrospect likely wasn't a fantastic pick.

However, he's in the Leafs now, and they've got to make the best of him.

It does look like he'll be able to thrive as great utility forward. He's a puck possession beast, in particular is fantastic at shot suppression. So, if the Leafs pair him with a couple offensively inclined wingers he could be incredibly useful in 5v5 situations, and the go to guy on the penalty kill. You just keep him away from the power play with those stone hands.

 

[Trapper]

The GOAT is never going to be an offensive force, and in retrospect likely wasn't a fantastic pick.

However, he's in the Leafs now, and they've got to make the best of him.

It does look like he'll be able to thrive as great utility forward. He's a puck possession beast, in particular is fantastic at shot suppression. So, if the Leafs pair him with a couple offensively inclined wingers he could be incredibly useful in 5v5 situations, and the go to guy on the penalty kill. You just keep him away from the power play with those stone hands.

I think Gauthier will be a solid 4th line center for us by the time we are done building our team. Also one of our key guys on the PK. Low maintenance, coaches will love him.
Add that to the fact of all the skilled wingers we are acquiring, Johnson/Bracco/Timo/Kapanen/Sosh and he should have a skilled linemate chipping in offense and shutting down lines.

 

[zeke]

steckel couldn't skate. if he could, he likely would have been a quality 3rd liner instead of just a useful 4th liner.

freddy can skate.

 

[zeke]

I said it the day he was drafted, he is David Steckel. Big, lanky, defensive 4th line C taken late in the first round. Except Steckel had better numbers in the AHL.

We can't change the fact that he as drafted, so we may as well just hope he becomes something useful on the fourth line.

Nonis and co were just so, so bad.

at 20yrs old, steckel was scoring about the same as gauthier is now....expect steckel was in the ncaa.

it wasn't until 3yrs later that steckel was able to match what gauthier is doing now in the ahl.

 

[exporta]

Sheesh! Why leave a guy in for 9 goals against?

I don't know, ask Mario Tremblay.

 

[Unbiased]

I really think Gauthier has the ability to be as #3C, right now he's playing 3rd/4th line minutes and he's putting up a respectable .5 a game. Give this guy a few years of AHL development and take away some of his shelter, this kid will grow and eventually be what we need.

 

[gabeliscious]

at the end of the day we need a 4th line center moving forward. if the goat can play 10 mins a night plus a few more on the pk it would be a big luxury

 

[HellasLEAF]

The Goat was picked that high because of his rare combination of on ice intelligence and size.

I think he is one of the safest bets we have to make the NHL actually. One day.

 

[ponder]

I just find him to be such a mediocre, unremarkable prospect, likely a 4th liner, maybe a decent 3rd liner at best. I prefer tonnes of our other mid-level forward prospects, like Leivo, Kapanen, Leipsic, Brown, Andreas Johnson, etc., don't really get why this guy gets so much more discussion. He's not a top 10 Leafs project IMO, but seems to get talked about more than any Leafs prospect but Marner and Nylander.

 

[indigobuffalo]

I think he'll thrive in the Babcock/Lemaire/Keefe system.

Could end up being a home-grown Peter Holland.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Still think Hanzal-lite is a good label for him. Hanzal has never put up point totals that look sexy but the guy is a core player. I think the goat can have a similar role.

 

[IBeL34f]

Still think Hanzal-lite is a good label for him. Hanzal has never put up point totals that look sexy but the guy is a core player. I think the goat can have a similar role.

Hanzal has 20 points in 25 games so far this year, and has put up 84 points in the 127 games he's played over the last 3 seasons, good for a 54-point pace over 82 games. From a 6'6 defensive C, that's pretty sexy.

I've got high hopes for Gauthier, and would love to see him become a Diet Hanzal, but that role is even bigger than I think you're giving credit for.

I've never been the type to limit his potential production, and think he can be something special with his combination of smarts and size, but he's a success story even if he becomes a 30-point 3rd-liner with an elite defensive game.

It's awesome to see him garnering praise from management. I really do believe he's one of those players coaches will rely heavily on, and I think with his intelligence, he'll only continue to get better as he grows into the more structured game of the pros. Working with Babcock in a couple of years will be a lot of fun to watch.

 

[Nithoniniel]

I just find him to be such a mediocre, unremarkable prospect, likely a 4th liner, maybe a decent 3rd liner at best. I prefer tonnes of our other mid-level forward prospects, like Leivo, Kapanen, Leipsic, Brown, Andreas Johnson, etc., don't really get why this guy gets so much more discussion. He's not a top 10 Leafs project IMO, but seems to get talked about more than any Leafs prospect but Marner and Nylander.

As usual, it's a product of rather extreme views. Everybody likes Brown, so there's not much to discuss. With Gauthier you've had people who already label him a bust and people that really like him. Add an interesting and unusual skill set, and you have a hotter topic.

 

[Daisy Jane]

I think Babcock is going to adore our Freddy.

when i saw him yesterday, I didn't really see any issues with him. it does take him awhile to get started - but once he goes...he just catches up with everyone so quickly. and his reach is amazing, like he just rubbed out a Moose player every time they had a puck like he just reached out and the player had NO where to go.

I don't think we should be too dismissive on him.

 

[Johny Drama]

The GOAT is never going to be an offensive force, and in retrospect likely wasn't a fantastic pick.

However, he's in the Leafs now, and they've got to make the best of him.

It does look like he'll be able to thrive as great utility forward. He's a puck possession beast, in particular is fantastic at shot suppression. So, if the Leafs pair him with a couple offensively inclined wingers he could be incredibly useful in 5v5 situations, and the go to guy on the penalty kill. You just keep him away from the power play with those stone hands.

Agreed. We are going to look back and see players picked after him who will have more impact, but by the same token, he probably makes the NHL while some picked ahead of him don't.

He will probably be like a faster Steckel and all the time I watched Steckel in the NHL I always thought if he was a better skater he would be far more useful.
The one thing I do wish with Freddie, is that he played with a bit more of a nasty streak.

 

[Sypher04]

I think he'll thrive in the Babcock/Lemaire/Keefe system.

Could end up being a home-grown Peter Holland.

So, not really good at anything? I don't see the comparison at all

Gauthier should become a very good defensive center in the NHL. His offensive contribution will be a subject of much debate for some time until we figure out exactly what his ceiling is, but Gauthier is a far better defensive player now than Holland has ever shown and he hasn't even been pro for very long.

Holland has at best an average defensive game.

 

[Warden of the North]

Gauthier went pretty much where he was slotted to go in most pre-draft rankings. It wasnt a reach to take him at all.

 

[Daisy Jane]

Gauthier went pretty much where he was slotted to go in most pre-draft rankings. It wasnt a reach to take him at all.

that's the thing. like.

yes, those after Gauthier look to be more talented but they could have easily been just a reach as Freddy was.

I do believe if was the Shanagement, we probably don't draft him. but at the same token i'm not going to flog Nonis + Co for drafting him either. and it's not even because i like him, i just think in this case in the draft he went in it would have been a reach.

 

[Gallagbi]

The issue wasn't where Freddy was taken, it was that his production leveled off and he never grew in what is largely considered a scoring league (rightly or wrongly).

From there some went back to say he was a "reach" at that spot, but it was never the case.

 

[deletethis]

I don't think anyone is hugely making up the positive attributes they're attaching to Gauthier. Many of us love size mixed with some hockey skills because it can nullify seemingly better skill in the right schemes. Gauthier has some of that and he looks like he'll be able to skate at an NHL level in a few seasons. But his game is so passive and reactive, and it always has been, that I still have difficulty seeing him playing his shifts like anything other than a perpetual penalty killer at the NHL level.

As for draft position, I'm 100% confident that the Leafs thought his offensive production would have taken off from around a PPG in his draft year to something much more significant in Canada's weakest junior league. It's spin to consider no offensive maturation post-draft as anything other than a big disappointment. This is what dropped expectations from maybe a big defensively minded 2nd line center to hopes for a bottom of the lineup role player. At this point we should ignore the draft position and consider him a middling replacement level type of prospect and let him develop in peace.

 

[leafsfuture]

I think part of the hate on Gauthier was due to struggles by two other Leaf prospects - Brad Ross, and Tyler Biggs. Neither guy came close to making the NHL.

The good news is Gauthier has shown he can hang in the AHL and contribute right away at age 20... more than either of those guys could say

 

[Stats01]

Gauthier went pretty much where he was slotted to go in most pre-draft rankings. It wasnt a reach to take him at all.

^this. If the Leafs got the pick wrong then the whole scouting world got it wrong, because he was ranked around 20th-21st and he went exactly where he was slotted to be taken.