Goalie of the future?
Gauthier set to show his stuff at Cougars camp
Acollection of highly-touted prospects will hit the ice on Friday at CN Centre for the start of Prince George Cougars training camp. The camp officially begins with player registration at noon but the first real action won’t happen until 4 p.m. when the puck drops between Team Betts and Team Connolly in the Young Guns game. The contest will provide fans with their first look at goaltender Taylor Gauthier, whom the Cougars selected in the first round (ninth overall) in the 2016 Western Hockey League bantam draft.
Cougars general manager Todd Harkins has said Gauthier is one of the best goaltending prospects he has seen. Harkins likes Gauthier’s size (listed at six feet, 172 pounds), athletic ability and high level of competitiveness.
In the fall of 2015, in an independent assessment of Gauthier, Western Elite Hockey Prospects gave him the following review: “Gauthier has great agility and reflexes. Not only is he able to read and react quickly but he is able to steer rebounds into the corners. Gauthier is able to take away the lower part of the net effectively and is able to cover the upper portion with quick trapper and blocker. He is the No. 1 goalie from Alberta and has a chance to be selected in the first round of the bantam draft if he continues his progress.”
In their Prince George history, the Cougars had never chosen a goalie in the first round of the draft. In taking Gauthier ninth overall, they made him the highest goaltending pick since 2002, when the Tri-City Americans got Carey Price with the seventh selection.
Gauthier, from Calgary, posted gaudy numbers the past two seasons and, both years, was named top goaltender in the South Division of the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League. Last season, as a member of the Calgary CBHA Bisons, he had a 15-1-3 record, with a goals-against average of 1.22 and a .948 save percentage. Along the way, he had seven shutouts. Two years ago, Gauthier was equally impressive between the pipes. In 2014-15, he went 16-0-1 with a 1.21 goalsagainst average, a .950 save percentage and five shutouts.
This past May, Gauthier bumped his personal stock even higher when he backstopped Calgary South to the Alberta Cup championship. In the tournament final, he stopped 35 shots in a 9-3 win against Northeast.
The Alberta Cup is considered the centrepiece of Hockey Alberta’s high performance program. Some of its graduates include current NHLers Braden Holtby, Devan Dubnyk, Jordan Eberle, Scott Hartnell, Jay Bouwmeester, Dion Phaneuf and Matt Dumba.
The Cougars inked Gauthier to a standard WHL player agreement in June.
“We couldn’t be happier to have Taylor signed,” Harkins said at the time. “He’s an integral part of our future success and we can’t wait to watch him develop into a franchise goaltender with the Prince George Cougars.”
Other top prospects who will be at training camp include 2016 draftees Cole Beamin (second round, 32nd overall) and Jack Michell (third round, 54th overall). Both are defencemen who will be counted on in the coming years to be cornerstones on the team’s back end. Both already have good size – Beamin is listed at six-foot-three and 189 pounds, while Michell stands six-foot-one and weighs 170 pounds. Beamin is the more offensive-minded of the two, as he put up 10 goals and 22 points in 30 games with the Saskatoon Outlaws last season.
Gauthier, Beamin and Michell won’t be eligible to play full-time in the WHL until 2017-18. This season, as per league rules, they will each be permitted a maximum of five games with the Cougars until their midget clubs have wrapped up their own seasons.
Meanwhile, forward Jackson Leppard, blueliner Jonas Harkins and forward Tyler Ho – picked respectively by the Cats in the first, second and third rounds of the 2015 bantam draft – will be back for their second training camps and will be looking to land jobs. Leppard, the eighthoverall pick in 2015, earned an invitation to Hockey Canada’s Under-17 development camp, held in late July and early August in Calgary. The North Vancouver product is now in the mix for a spot in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, Oct. 28 to Nov. 5 in Sault
Jonas Harkins practices during Ste. Marie, Ont.
the 2015 Cougars training camp Last season,
at CN Centre on Sept. 2, 2015. Leppard had 14 goals and 31 points in 34 games with the majormidget Vancouver Northwest Giants. He also skated in two games for the Cougars and was held off the scoresheet.
As for Jonas Harkins and Ho, both played for the Cariboo Cougars in 2015-16. Harkins showed himself a reliable defender and also chipped in offensively with nine points (one goal, eight assists) in 37 games, while Ho contributed eight goals and 24 points in 40 games. If they don’t crack the roster of the WHL Cougars, they will have the chance to play for a Cariboo club that is hosting the 2017 Telus Cup national midget championship tournament.
Youth is just part of the equation for the Cougars. The team’s 2016-17 roster is loaded with veterans who have already had tastes of hockey at the NHL level. Six drafted players are eligible to skate for the Cats, while five more have attended NHL camps. The drafted players are: defenceman Josh Anderson (Colorado Avalanche, third round, 2016); forward Jansen Harkins (Winnipeg Jets, second round, 2015); forward Jesse Gabrielle (Boston Bruins, fourth round, 2015); forward Brad Morrison (New York Rangers, fourth round, 2015); defenceman Sam Ruopp (Columbus Blue Jackets, fifth round, 2015); and defenceman Tate Olson (Vancouver Canucks, seventh round, 2015).
During the summer, Cougars players who showed their skills at NHL camps were Kody McDonald (Montreal Canadiens), Brogan O’Brien (Colorado Avalanche) and Ty Edmonds (San Jose Sharks). Others who have previous experience at camps are Jared Bethune (Minnesota Wild) and Nick McBride (Los Angeles Kings).
Given their level of talent, the Cougars are poised to have their most successful season in years.
“We’ve come a very long way over the past two seasons to put ourselves in this position,” said GM Harkins. “Through the draft, our 50-man protected list and some timely trades we’ve assembled a team that we know can compete with the very best in the WHL and make our fans and our city proud. We expect our veterans to lead the way and set the right example for our younger prospects who are all here to try and make a strong first impression.”
Without question, the biggest off-season move by the Cougars was the hiring of Richard Matvichuk as head coach. Matvichuk, a Stanley Cup-winning defenceman for the Dallas Stars in 1999, left his job as head coach and director of hockey operations with the ECHL’s Missouri Mavericks to join the Cats, who parted ways with former head coach Mark Holick in April. Matvichuk signed a three-year contract with the Cougars and is looking forward to getting down to business.
“The summer is coming to an end and we’re ready to get back onto the ice,” he said. “We’re very confident and excited with the group of older and younger players that we have coming back this season. Our goals and expectations from Day 1 will be to compete every night to win. We feel that with the group of players that we have that we will be a very competitive team.”
Training camp continues on Saturday with ice sessions at 10 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 5:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Times on Sunday are the same, with the exception of the last one, which starts at 7:45 p.m.
On Monday, the White vs. Black intrasquad game will be held (7 p.m., CN Centre). The game, and all training camp sessions, are open to the public.