The future of Fredrick Gauthier with the Toronto Maple Leafs might have looked bleak just ten days ago. But things can change in a hurry.
After the Maple Leafs first preseason game — a 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators — head coach Mike Babcock was asked if anyone stood out. He was direct in his response.
“I liked Goat (Gauthier),” the coach said.
And he had reason to. Gauthier was noticeable in that game, looking like he had added a step of speed over the offseason while collecting three shots on goal. The coach’s validation went a long way for the forward in reassuring him he was not out of the mix just yet.
“It’s nice that he liked the way I played, so I just have to keep doing that and doing the little things I did in that game that got me the compliments,” Gauthier told Sporting News on Monday. “I’m just trying to improve my game every year and it’s looking promising so far.”
The former first-round pick of the Maple Leafs (21st overall in 2015) appeared to be in a tough spot when Jason Spezza signed as a free agent on July 1. It seemed like there would not be room on the roster for both of them and that the odds of Gauthier beating out Spezza, a veteran of 1,065 NHL games and 915 points, were slim.
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But then last Friday the two were put together on a line. Who was going to play centre? Who cares, was essentially the message from Babcock. They were told when the faceoff was on the left, Gauthier would take it; on the right, it would be Spezza. Whoever was the first man back in the defensive zone would take care of down-low responsibilities; the other would worry about the wing. In other words, the coach was confident in relying on the hockey sense of the two players to work it out on the fly.
Gauthier responded with another strong effort against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, earning an assist on Trevor Moore’s shorthanded goal. He also turned in two minutes and 22 seconds of scoreless penalty-killing time and went 8-for-13 (62%) on faceoffs.
Listening to Babcock now, it’s clear he sees a role for the 6-5, 235-pound forward, who has a QMJHL championship, a World Junior gold medal and a Calder Cup Championship to his credit during his still-young career.
“It’s just confidence, it’s being in the league, it’s understanding things. 'The Goat,' everywhere he goes, he wins,” Babcock said. “He’s a big strong guy and I guarantee when other teams watch him, they’re thinking ‘there’s a big strong fourth line guy who can penalty kill and take faceoffs and start in the defensive zone.’ That’s what we’re really hoping here, for Goat to keep taking these steps so we can put him out in the defensive zone instead of John Tavares or Auston Matthews and we can have them always starting in the offensive zone. That makes us a better hockey team.”
Great chance for the GOAT early on.#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/mJIMgH7XP3
— Leafs ALL Day (@LeafsAllDayy) September 17, 2019
Where there once seemed like a competition between Gauthier and Spezza, now there seems like there could be a burgeoning partnership.
“It’s been great. We went to dinner a few times in St. John’s [Newfoundland] at the start of training camp, just chatting,” the 24-year-old noted. “Spezza is a great guy, knows the game well and has been around for a long time. He’s always pointing out a few things that happen during the game and giving me a few tips. He’s been great to play with.”
Spezza was also impressed with what he saw from Gauthier during their first game together.
“Goat’s got really good hockey sense. We were able to talk in a short period of time about how we were going to make things work with switches on Saturday and I thought it was fairly seamless for the first night,” Spezza told Sporting News on Monday. “He definitely shows a great sense of wanting to be a good player. He’s obviously had a good summer and played well in the start of camp. He realizes there’s competition right now and that we have to establish ourselves to be a good fourth line for the team. I think there’s potential for that.”
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For the first time since the summer of 2016, the summer after he made his professional debut, Gauthier was able to spend a full offseason focused on training, developing and improving his game. The 2017 offseason was spent recovering from leg surgery and the 2018 offseason was abbreviated after he was a part of the Toronto Marlies Calder Cup-winning team, a run that carried into late June.
This past summer, Gauthier was finally free to upgrade his skill set.
“My skating is something I work on every year and being in the gym was a big part, getting my legs bigger,” Gauthier said. “I worked out in the gym with a long summer, it was my first one in a while so I got to work on a lot of little details that I might not have had time for in years before. But overall it’s been hard work in the gym.”
The additional strength, along with spending time with Maple Leafs skating consultant Barb Underhill, who made three separate visits to Gauthier’s offseason home in Montreal, has paid off so far in camp.
“Since I started, if you go back [to] when I was drafted, I think I’ve improved my skating drastically,” Gauthier indicated to Sporting News. “Upper body, the way I’m moving and keeping my legs under me with proper weight transfer.”
A full season spent with the Maple Leafs last season in which he had 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) in 70 games, has left him feeling more confident in himself and the role in which he knows he has to fill.
“You know what you have to do now to stay up here and what your role is. Once you understand that, you just have to focus on that and keep trying to get better,” Gauthier said. “It’s a little bit of adaptation throughout the time you get drafted but you learn your role pretty easily, where you stand and what you have to do. If you don’t do your role well, you are not going to be here so you have to accept it and try to be the best at it.”
Spezza is also being asked to embrace a different role this season with the Maple Leafs. A scorer for most of his career, Spezza was brought in to play lower in the Maple Leafs lineup in more of a checking role. At 36-years old, a willingness to adapt his game is Spezza’s ticket to continuing his NHL career. For Gauthier, who put up close to point-per-game numbers with Rimouski of the QMJHL, embracing his role as a strong fourth line player, capable of being relied on defensively, penalty killing and winning faceoffs, is his ticket to a long NHL career.
“It’s tough but the quicker you realize it, the better career you can have,” Spezza said. “Most guys who play a checking role in the NHL, if you look back, they were phenomenal junior scorers. To be a scorer in the NHL, you have to be at the elite, elite level in order to do that. I think the guys who struggle with that have a hard time breaking in and playing in the NHL. The guys who figure that out quickly become really good NHL players for a long time.”
Frederik Gauthier appears to have improved his speed this offseason. Here he beats out a defender to gain puck control and slow things down. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/i0X5BYMni4
— Maple Leafs Hotstove (@LeafsNews) September 21, 2019
But while Gauthier knows he is not destined to be an offensive dynamo in the NHL, with his summer of hard work he feels there is more for him to give offensively this season.
“This year I came to camp more confident than I was last year and I think overall my game has been better,” Gauthier said. “This year I hope to contribute more offensively than I did last year. Playing with Jason, he’s been in the league so long and put up a lot of points, he’s a guy who knows how to do that and he’s been helping.”