Player Discussion Cutter Gauthier

[AngelDuck]

6th on the team in scoring as an age 20 season 1st year pro.

Pretty impressive

 

[LuGBuG]

He’s going to be a perennial 40 goal guy. Not a doubt in my mind.

 

[HanSolo]

Another guy I'll give some roses to the dev staff for. Cutter is really starting to look legit. He was so mistake prone when he started and I'd say he still doesn't have the best decision making but his shot and speed will serve him so well in his career and the mistakes will still come down with more experience. He's looked great since the 4 Nations break.

One of Verbeek's better pick ups.

 

[AngelDuck]

Out of our young players, he’s definitely the most naturally gifted in terms of athleticism IMO. He has the quick twitch stuff that other guys don’t have

I’m very impressed by him. Battling through this adversity and bad coaching as a 1st year pro and still producing consistently is really impressive

 

[Hey234]

From Cavanagh on The Sporting Tribune:

Cutter

“Definitely worked my way back up,” Gauthier said. “I've always been comfortable playing with Leo, and we have a good chemistry off the ice, so it's pretty fun to play with him. I feel like we read each other really well, both similar, really good skaters and crafty.

“And Killer, obviously, with all the experience he has, he just tells us to go skate and he'll find us."

“You never want to play in the bottom six minutes, but I think it was something that was needed for my game,” Gauthier said. “Never kind of seen that perspective before… you have to fight for pucks a little bit more. You gotta be a bit more physical. You gotta set up the ground game instead of making everything look pretty and cute.”

“I’ve always been a volume shooter,” Gauthier said. “I've been able to score every single level shooting from anywhere in the O-zone, especially last year in college. I would score from pretty much about everywhere. At the start of the year, I didn't really change that too much, but now, I'm not gonna score on NHL goalies from the blue (line). Once in a blue moon I might, but just trying to pick my spots better, and if there's a better play to be made, I'm willing to make it.”

“I thought coming into it, it’s the NHL, it is the hardest league in the world. I thought it was gonna be a smooth transition, but it's not always like that,” Gauthier said. “It was a nice wake up call that you gotta put your work boots on and come to work every single day and I got a lot more to prove, and it'll be a fun summer going into the next year.”

Killorn

“(Gauthier) has a little bit of confidence,” Killorn said. “He's always been a great skater, great shot, but I think his ability to hold onto the puck and make plays is what's really gonna make him a great player. I think he's improved in that sense.”

Cronin

“What I've learned in my relationship with him is that there's certain parts of the game that the NHL guys do naturally well,” Cronin said, “and you can rely on them as a coach being really good at it. Part of it’s (defensive) zone arrivals. They'll shoulder check, they'll look around, they'll get a sense of what's going on behind them before they make a decision. He wasn't doing any of that, like zero.”

“I was like, what the hell?” Cronin continued with a laugh. “You come down to the D zone and just stare at the puck and he's got attackers right behind him. Just that awareness of what's going on around him, both defensively and offensively was very absent. And I think, as he started to look, he started to slow the game down defensively, and offensively, ironically, it has come later for him.”

"He was just taking pucks and chucking them to the net. But to me, they weren't purposeful shots.” Cronin said, again pointing to the rookie awareness factor. “They were reactionary shots that were tied to his natural DNA, which was I’m a shooter. I'm a shooter, I’m a shooter. Well, you turn on the puck over in the NHL, because if you don't hit the net, it's going out the other side, and they're coming out on a breakout.”

 

[ScarTroy]

When we got him most of the reports seemed like he was just a pure sniper, but he’s actually a very high IQ passer as well. He makes some great plays.

 

[HanSolo]

When we got him most of the reports seemed like he was just a pure sniper, but he’s actually a very high IQ passer as well. He makes some great plays.

See this is what drove me nuts about the belly aching about him being one dimensional and low IQ. Anyone who actually watched him in BC could tell this was a possibility. Like, he wasn't strictly this otherworldly playmaker but he executed more than a fair share of passes thst left me thinking "okay he's not JUST a shooter"

 

[Mr Rogers]

I agree the scouting reports were off it seems. Not just off but literally kind of *** backwards. His IQ was stated to be not particularly strong but if anything it’s been a strength this year.

Some rival fans were trying to undersell him earlier in the year as well. I think myself and a few others called them out on it, but they’ll probably be pretty quiet from now on.

Rakell was like this too I think. He was sold as being a strong defensive forward with questionable offense when he was drafted and during juniors, but he developed into a solid top 6 forward who hasn’t been particularly good defensively.

 

[JAHV]

I don't think Gauthier is high IQ, but it's not low, either. I think he thrives on that line because Leo's speed/playmaking and Killorn's defensive acumen give him space and time that he didn't have on other lines. When he has that extra split second, he can make plays.

The criticism I heard a lot of him in college was that he wasn't a play-driver. I think that was overblown, but there's a little something to it. He's not going to be a possession monster, but he'll work really well alongside players who can get him the puck in space or with speed through the neutral zone.

Gauthier's ability to get a shot off with speed and accuracy in tight spaces is something this team hasn't had since prime Perry.