Toronto Maple Leafs‘ sophomore center Frederik Gauthier(33) had a pretty nice rookie run with 7 games up in the big league, 18 points for affiliate Toronto Marlies and a +18 rating but failed to connect in 9 postseason contests.
The towering, wide forward was one of the last training camp cuts before being reassigned.
He’s off to a nice start scoring a goal and three assists in 16 AHL games with an accountable +6 but still seems to be lacking that offensive touch he had through juniors.
His good play has earned him an early recall up to the parent club.
In 3 games he scored his first NHL goal and added an assist to his totals with 4 shots on net, 6 play breakups, 5 hits, 1 takeaway and was above 50% in the face off dot skating just over 20 shifts for an average of around 11:30 minutes of total ice per appearance.
Frederik Gauthier (23)
Toronto Maple Leafs‘ 1st round pick in the 2013 draft (#21 overall) rookie center Frederik Gauthier(23) is another young player getting his chance with the big squad in a non-playoff berth season.
The huge 6’5″ 238 lbs. power forward has appeared in 7 games scoring his first NHL point, an assist while skating a lot of minutes short-handed time, delivering crushing hits and breaking up plays.
He’s having a good first year with league leading affiliate Toronto Marlies scoring 6 goals and 11 assists for 17 points in 54 AHL contests with a +17 rating in a mostly checking line role.
This comes after three years of junior hockey with Rimouski Oceanic, where he was virtually a point-per-game player and won the 2015 QMJHL Championship.
The soon-to-be 21-year old, signed through 2017/2018 on an entry level deal, will compete hard at the upcoming training camp for a full-time roster spot but may just win the minor league’s highest award, the Calder Cup first.