I feel that it's important to note in this context that for all the dazzling work Gauthier has done, he has exactly one assist in three games. The scoring touch *has* gone cold and he's still been our best player in camp.
Brings up an interesting point. This organization is VERY analytics-driven.
Of course, we don't have access to the more sophisticated stats that the team keeps internally, things like controlled zone entries. There's no telling what kind of statistical profile they have on these guys. But using our very blunt-edged tool, the official stat sheet, here's what it looks like in the race for the last roster spot:
| Player | Shots | Points | Hits | Giveaways | Takeaways | Time | Shots/min | Points/min | PK unit? |
| Gauthier | 6 | 0-1-0 | 6 | | | 46:11 | 0.13 | 0.02 | |
| Necas | 1 | 0-1-1 | 1 | 1 | | 31:38 | 0.03 | 0.03 | |
| Lorentz | 4 | 1-0-1 | 4 | | | 22:31 | 0.18 | 0.04 | |
| Kuokkanen | 2 | 1-0-1 | | | 1 | 29:10 | 0.7 | 0.03 | |
| Suzuki | 0 | 0-0-0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 29:08 | 0 | 0 | |
| Markison | 2 | 1-0-1 | | | 1 | 25:00 | 0.08 | 0.04 | Y |
| Luostarainen | 4 | 0-0-0 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 31:56 | 0.13 | 0 | Y |
| Geekie | 2 | 0-1-1 | | | | 29:09 | 0.07 | 0.03 | Y |
| Gibbons | 2 | 0-1-0 | | | 1 | 31:25 | 0.06 | 0.03 | |
[TBODY]
[/TBODY]
* These are the non-regular roster players who have skated at least 2 games so far
Clearly the most important number here is the "time" column, because it shows you they've given Gauthier 3 games to prove himself. He's the only player on the roster -- including the regulars -- with that distinction. They are clearly giving him the extended tryout for a position.
But, for what it's worth, he actually doesn't stand out from the crowd on a per-minute basis. He's profiling very similarly to Luostarainen and a bit shy of Lorentz... the difference is that Gauthier has played a lot more minutes, which translates to more incidents which establish him in our memories.
This isn't me trying to say Gauthier won't or can't make the roster. But I'd be cautious on drawing conclusions from what we've seen so far.
If the Canes' stat sheet is aligned with this one, then it's going to tell them that his extended tryout isn't actually producing a higher rate of results than you'd expect to get from comparable borderline prospects, if they were given a similar opportunity. This organization is so focused on measurable results over "wow" moments, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this ended up being a lot of buildup to an anticlimactic result.
