By S Michael
Leafs Picks: The Goat! Scoop on Hockey is taking a look back at ten years of Toronto Maple Leafs draft picks to see where it went right and also where it went wrong.
WE FOUND THE GOAT!
Ok, Frederik Gauthier is hard to lose. He is a big two-way centre and in 2013, during a particularly brutal period for Leafs fans (but aren’t they all?) he was a sign of hope for the future.
Drafted in 2013: 1st round, 21st overall
I remember this era of Leafs were so bad that after he was drafted TSN radio would regularly update Toronto listeners (complete with a goat sound effect) whenever he got a point for his junior team Rimouski Oceanic.
He also represented Canada at two World Junior Championships, including the gold medal winning 2015 team with Connor McDavid among others. He was never really a big scorer. In those two tournaments he only had two points, but in the Quebec league he was putting up about a point a game.
NHL
But like the desperate Leaf fans many of us are, we put too much hope and pressure on Freddie. I always liked him, but he bounced around between the Leafs and Marlies and was at best a solid bottom six guy, which is not great for a first rounder.
Now
After putting up 32 pts in 51 games for the Utica Comets in the AHL last year which is the farm team for the New Jersey Devils, Freddie has gone overseas and is playing in the Swiss League. He is with Ajoie HC and has a solid 22 pts in 47 games. Unfortunately Ajoie are in last place right now and don’t seem likely to make the play-offs, but trivia point for Toronto fans, he plays with former Marlies player T.J. Brennan.
We here at Scoop on Hockey wish Freddie the best of luck, and while a lot of players don’t work out in every draft, just want to note that Andre Burakovsky, Shea Theadore, J.T. Compher, and (gasp) Tristan Jarry were all picked shortly after him. Dreams of Leafs that could have been…
One response to “Scoop on Hockey: Leafs Picks”
[…] Yes this was the draft where we took Freddie Gauthier in the first round who we recently profiled as playing for a struggling squad in the Swiss League. […]