Gauthier Re-Signed & Some New Scouts Are Here

In what will count as busy day for the Leafs in comparison to next two months, the Leafs took care of a couple of pieces of business today, by signing Freddie Gauthier and by bringing in two established front office folks as pro scouts

The Gauthier contract is nothing to fret about if you’re not a fan of Gauthier, but a nice two year opportunity for him if you are a fan of The Goat. He’s either going to be a bottom six forward on the Marlies for the next couple of seasons providing reliable performance and hopefully still developing and improving to earn his shot, or he’s a cheap fourth line center for the Leafs who can handle the six minutes a night that will be available for that role. Both of these outcomes are pretty underwhelming for a former first round pick, but we can’t go back and change that, so let’s celebrate affordable depth.

I guess you could say there is a lot left to be desired at the NHL level, though he has been steady in the AHL. It’s worth noting that Gauthier is now eligible for waivers. I can’t imagine that there is a team that would put in a claim at this point, but he is a 6’6 Quebecois, and that’s probably good enough for the Habs. Much more likely, he’s a Marlie next year, and one that is firmly behind Par Lindholm and Josh Jooris in the Leafs 4th line center pecking order.

Rick Olczyk and Blair MacKasey are certainly noteworthy given the previous roles that they’ve held. Olczyk is coming off an assistant-GM gig in Carolina after being an AGM in Edmonton previous to that. The pro scout role is a bit of a holding pattern to see if something better comes available, but in the meantime the Leafs should have someone quite capable operating in a scouting capacity.

A similar story is true of Blair MacKasey who has been a head scout for the Coyotes, Hockey Canada, and most recently the Director of Player Personnel for the Wild.

Interesting hires, and certainly Kyle Dubas is making sure that plenty of hockey men still exist within the Leafs organization.