i dont love this in that we still have a leshyszyn sized hole on our fourth line.
Gauthier was having himself a pretty good season and seemed to be figuring out how he can use his skillset to be a productive contributor at the nhl level.
Jimmy Vesey is a good example of a guy being able to adapt his playstyle to fill a necessary role. When he first came into the league he was much more skill focused trying to dangle through 4 people and eventually losing the puck. He would occasionaly hit on one of those moves and the 463279 others that didnt work were immediately forgotten. Hes now a defensively responsible grinder with a better shot and vision than most players in that role. Thats a good player to have, and especially at the price we got him.
Gauthier seems to be on a similar trajectory. His speed is all world but he has no scoring touch to speak of. He was finally learning to be more of a grinder and started to make some noticeable impacts this season. If he could add some more physicality to his game, he would be the perfect depth guy.
I wouldve been over the moon if we still had both but alas.
That being said, I do like that we brought motte back.