There will almost certainly be tears in the Vegas dressing room Thursday.
C Cutter Gauthier - (2022, 5th, PHI; traded to ANA)
- Thread starter Pavel Buchnevich
- Start date
Lafleurs Guy
Guuuuuuuy!
- Jul 20, 2007
- 78,346
- 49,659
Gotta say,
I’m already not a fan of this guy. Maybe it’ll be a lopsided trade but this guy comes across as a jackass.
- Jul 25, 2012
- 42,405
- 39,214
Gotta say,
Cool story
Anyway, excited for when he doesn’t put up a point tomorrow and everyone floods this thread with hot takes explaining how overrated he is.
Rasp
Registered User
- Apr 9, 2019
- 1,332
- 1,929
Already a PPG player in his first season. What a pick up for the Ducks
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Already looks dynamic with Carlsson, they were creating chances all night. Sad to see the season end….ok not really, but there is so much hope for the Ducks future.
Vegas was playing far from their potential (which is like 20% over the cap lol) but Gauthier looked good. His shot is really heavy and he can get it off at this level.
Leo looked amazing and part of that might be that he meshed well with Gauthier. Leo was talking A LOT with Gauthier between the wistles, seems they're off to a good start. Killorn also fits well with that line imo.
A career PPG player already
Leo looked amazing and part of that might be that he meshed well with Gauthier. Leo was talking A LOT with Gauthier between the wistles, seems they're off to a good start. Killorn also fits well with that line imo.
A career PPG player already
Was at his first game. Agree with @Leonardo87 and @Kalv. He looked pretty good in his debut. It's nothing that would normally mention discussing but his first shot on goal really surprised me with how fast the release was. I saw him wind up a bit and never even saw the puck move. I just heard the light boom from the impact with the pad.
My realistic hope was that he'd just show some good chemistry with Carlsson and I was satisfied in that regard. They were finding each other pretty consistently but Cutter had the right sense of when to look for Leo for a pass and when to shoot. Carlsson and Terry virtually never worked that well together outside of the assist on Leo's first NHL goal.
There were some rookie in his first game moments where he looked a little unsure of what to do with the puck against more intense defensive pressure and he had a few flubbed passes, shots, and deke attempts but nothing that most of the veterans on this Ducks team are guilty of on a nightly basis. Overall I think he fit in more than fine in NHL play and I don't see him getting AHL time next year.
My realistic hope was that he'd just show some good chemistry with Carlsson and I was satisfied in that regard. They were finding each other pretty consistently but Cutter had the right sense of when to look for Leo for a pass and when to shoot. Carlsson and Terry virtually never worked that well together outside of the assist on Leo's first NHL goal.
There were some rookie in his first game moments where he looked a little unsure of what to do with the puck against more intense defensive pressure and he had a few flubbed passes, shots, and deke attempts but nothing that most of the veterans on this Ducks team are guilty of on a nightly basis. Overall I think he fit in more than fine in NHL play and I don't see him getting AHL time next year.
EbonyRaptor
Registered User
I agree - much to be excited about coming over the next few years. Since both our teams and SJ are all basically in the same rebuild boat with you guys being a year ahead of us and SJ a year or two behind us - I've been paying attention as a way to measure the Hawks progress versus the other cellar dwellers.
You guys already are well on your way of building your forwards and getting them into the NHL - with Leo, Cutter, Zegras, McTavish. and Terry up front and Mintyukov, Zellweger, and Dostal on the backend - that's 8 future core pieces already playing in the NHL Add in a bunch of other high end prospects over the next few years and you guys are looking good. On the other hand the Hawks have only 3 forwards, 3 d-men and none of the potential future goalies have played in the NHL yet. As for SJ - they still haven't cleaned up the old stuff and have no one currently playing in the NHL that projects to be a core piece of the future rebuilt team.
Yeah I think Terry, was really hurting that top line, and Leo’s production. He needs to figure things out this summer. Both Leo and Zegras look better without Terry, that’s not a good sign.
As per Cutter. Yeah he looked very comfortable for his first NHL game and against a team that is big, defends well, and does not give you much space. Leo and Cutter had no issues creating chances. Felt they deserved more production, but when you don’t get a PP very hard to produce in this league. Disappointed we didn’t see that PP unit.
I do not see him going to the AHL either. He has the mental and physical readiness for the NHL, imo. Again this is one thing that makes the season ending unfortunate. Can’t see more of Gautheir and Carlsson for another few games. Part of me was hoping that BC would have lost to Quinnipiac, and see more games with this duo, but funny it was Cutter who kept that BC team alive to get it to OT, lol.
There are probably about 8 teams that you perpetually hear are a year away or "are going to be really good soon!"
The Ducks might be the only team where I actually buy it. Its more than just hitting on high picks (or picks in general) they have a nice variety of everything in the system and already contributing on the roster.
FiveTacos
Registered User
The Ducks crapped out once they shipped out the last of the old core, but the restocking began with the Zegras and Drysdale drafts. At that point the system was pretty devoid of high end talent, it was pretty much starting from zero. So truthfully this is like year 4-5 of the actual rebuild.
Since then they seem to have nailed every high first round pick, mixed in with a few later finds. Usually in any 5 year stretch you expect at least a bust or two even picking in the top 5-10. Still could happen but the early signs on each player are good.
Some of it is luck ... Zegras slid, Mintyukov was probably underrated, and they bottomed out in the right draft year to land a 1c. They were fortunate that a Gauthier became available for the weakest of their high picks. But they also get credit for getting guys like Zellweger, Luneau, Lacombe, Colangelo, etc. later.
Ducks have the skill and Verbeek is expecting to add a Top 6 RW’er and another D. They just need the coaching and execution. Fully expect Cronin to get new assistants since both special teams have not been good.
EbonyRaptor
Registered User
Yeah, on the Hawks boards there is different opinions when the Hawks rebuild really started. Most of us think it was when Kyle Davidson took over for Stan Bowman as GM and traded Hagel, DeBrincat and Dach before the 2022 draft - making the 2024 draft the 3rd draft for him and therefore the 2024/25 season would be Year-3 of the rebuild. BUT - there were prospect in the pipeline from the previous regime who will be key pieces of the rebuild - most notably on the backend with Vlassic, Kaiser, del Mastro and Allan but also with Reichel and Kurashev.
So - maybe you're more than 1 year ahead of us - in any case you're ahead of us and you don't have to squint as much as we still do to see your future.
I think a rebuild starts before a team even knows it's happening, but that's just my opinion. I would say that CHI rebuild started with missing the playoffs in the 2017-18 season, and the ANA rebuild started with missing the playoffs in the 2018-19 season. CHI rebuild was extended because of making the playoffs via the play-in during the COVID season, regardless, I think CHI has been rebuilding for 6 seasons now, and ANA have been rebuilding for 5. CHI trading Dach and DeBrincat also extended the rebuilding process, which is part of why ANA is further along their rebuild than CHI.
FiveTacos
Registered User
It's not always a singular point where the rebuild starts.
Usually an aging core still has some younger pieces around. The question then is can you reload, build around the younger parts of the core, and bring in some new players without falling apart? Sometimes yes. Detroit was able to transition from the Yzerman/Fedorov era into the Datsyuk/Zett one without blowing everything up.
But often the way it works out is that they try to transition but it crumbles before retooling can happen or the younger core just isn't at that level. You might already have drafted a future core piece or two, but it's time to tear down the rest. To me when you give up on a core's Cup chances, that's the start of the rebuild, but that realization usually comes over a span of more than one season. And sometimes it takes more than a year to tear it down.
What a through and through scumbag. You can tell his family and teammates despise him. Shame the Ducks signed him for three years
William H Bonney
Registered User
He's clearly a monster. Philadelphia got lucky to find a taker for him.
JabbaJabba
Registered User
Cutter also clearly wants to switch families. That's not where he wants to be.
EbonyRaptor
Registered User
That could be, although I don't think a conscious decision to rebuild happened as early as you suggest. I think that's when it should have happened but not when it did happen. I'm basing my opinion on the moves Bowman did and didn't do in the intervening years between getting unceremoniously bounced out of the playoffs by Nashville in 2017/18 until he was relieved of his GM duties in the 2021/22 season - most notably the Seth Jones trade in the summer of 2021 and then extending him for 8 years. That is a "let's try to squeeze out another Cup run with Toews and Kane" move - especially after the fool's gold of the 1st round victory over Edmonton 2020 playoffs.
I think it's more than fair to consider the point when your team starts seriously declining and it's fairly clear that there's no retooling around the existing core to be the start of a rebuild. For me, a lot of Ducks fans consider the year Verbeek started trading off veterans for futures the true starting block of the rebuild but in my mind the rebuild started in the conclusion of the 2017 playoffs. And it was clear to that the team was headed to a point where they would no longer before be a competitive playoff team in the months leading up to that embarassing sweep at the hands of the Sharks.
Behind Getzlaf starting to show signs of age decline and Perry who had fallen off to less than 50 points and looked objectively lethargic and ineffective as a top line winger, the Ducks core comprised off Rakell who was never going to be more than a 60 point player, Silverberg, Henrique, and Cogliano who were at that time decent second liners at best who weren't getting any younger, Kesler who was already struggling to stay healthy and produce, a defense of some solid young guys but no one who stood out as potentially being an elite offensive guy to account for weaknesses in the forward core (by the playoffs that group had Fowler, an aging Beauchemin, a way past his prime Bieksa, Montour who had years before he'd break out for Florida, a very good Hampus Lindholm who was not good enough to carry the team through its early decline, and Manson who was a good defensive player but wasn't going to cover for the offensive decay of the forward group). Past those guys it was a grab bag of average line fillers like Nick Ritchie who very clearly wasn't going to be a productive player in the NHL. Oh and they still had Gibson and Miller.
To me, I felt like that core wasn't good enough to retool around because the Ducks' long run of competitive playoff hockey essentially lived and died on Getzlaf and Perry's performance and they were clearly already on the decline or starting to. I can't tell if Bob Murray wasn't able to realize this or if he had directives to try to keep the team as competitive as possible for as long as he could but he kept making bargain bin pick up which didn't help the team return to the playoffs and he kept lying to fans acting like the acquisitions would help the team compete as the team's results kept getting worse.
So for me, it's a difference of when a team intentionally starts making moves to build a new core and culture and when a team has no choice but to do so because their current core has no chance of competing. I tend to perceive a team to be rebuilding whether they're actively trying to or not.
I know this post is already long but LA is a good example they rebuilt so fast that their aging veteran core is still around so you could look at it and say it was a quick youth based retool, but the objective fact is unless guys like Byfield, Clarke, Kempe, Turcotte, Laferriere and Kaliyev can seriously take off (Kempe is probably fine where he's currently at), then the Kings have a serious problem of still depending on a lot of aging vets and an arguably incomplete youth core. So for me. I think even though they made the playoffs this year, they're still rebuilding and they set the the rebuild back by trading good assets for a busted Dubois in the hopes that they could convert the rebuild into a retool to capitalize on what Kopitar and Doughty can still do.
EbonyRaptor
Registered User
Hawks fans wonder the same with the Hawks front office in the post Cup seasons. There was no doubt the President (John McDonough) ruled the roost so it was generally thought Stan Bowman didn't have near the autonomy that other GM's throughout the league had. Bowman took the slings and arrows of unpopular moves and while I certainly think there is enough blame for them both to share - I wonder if Bowman was directed to keep the parade going for as long as possible.
McDonough was a non-hockey sports executive whose main specialty was marketing as he demonstrated by being the Cubs president and selling that losing franchise into a marketing bonanza. So there is ample history that his modus operandi was to squeeze every last bit of marketing good will as possible from the Cup winning team.
FiveTacos
Registered User
The Ducks a few years earlier were also an example of retooling instead of rebuilding. On the 07 team Getzlaf and Perry were good players, but not yet superstars. Yet the team was able to transition to a contending team built around them because they developed into stars just as the other big guns aged or retired.
Had Lindholm, Rakell, etc been better, or if Zegras and such had arrived earlier, maybe the team charts a different path. But they had too big a gap between drafting their high end talented players ...they found a lot of good players who have had solid careers, but there was a dry stretch where they weren't able to find star players (at forward especially).
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