Everyone’s favourite giant forward that loves to do puzzles and says the weirdest things, Frederik Gauthier had a breakout year for what was expected of him.
Forgotten as a first-round bust, Gauthier was someone to watch during his time with the Marlies since 2015. A major candidate to prove that player development is a real thing, the 2018-19 season marked his first as a full-time Leaf — mainly because of waiver eligibility, but he was still able to play a total of 70 NHL games this season.
There were no high expectations for the player this season, but even out of necessity for a fourth-line centre, Gauthier performed just like an average defence-first time forward.
Season Recap
Gauthier scored three goals and 14 points in those 70 games he did played, while averaging only 8:22 time-on-ice per game.
Clearly the last option — Tavares, Matthews and Kadri ahead of him in the depth chart does that — but Gauthier was impressive to start the season. One of the better feel-good stories early into this season, he surprised everyone being a capable NHL player.
Sometimes your fourth-line defensive players can ruin your game, taking too many penalties, but Gauthier had only 12 PIMs on the whole season.
As the 12 …

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Author: Thomas Williams / The Leafs Nation