(Nashville) Ethan Gauthier became the first QMJHL player to hear his name in the NHL Draft. The Sherbrooke Phoenix forward was selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Gauthier was seen as a candidate for the first round. However, he did not hear his name among the top 32 on Wednesday night. Thursday morning, in the second round, he did not have to wait long. He was called fifth, 37th overall.
In his second season in Sherbrooke, Gauthier scored 69 points in 66 season games, and added 11 points in 11 playoff games.
In a recent interview with La Presse, Stéphane Julien, then Phoenix head coach, pointed out that the young man “scores the majority of his goals inside the face-off points”.
“It’s not trivial, it’s not luck. His sense of hockey in the offensive zone in possession of the puck is very high, ”continued Julien. According to him, his colt practices “a North American style, a good player on 200 feet, physical, who rushes to the net”.
Ethan is the son of Denis Gauthier, a former NHL defender now an analyst at RDS.
Moments after the Lightning were selected, the Calgary Flames selected defenseman Étienne Morin of the Moncton Wildcats, also in the second round (48th overall).
In the third round (77th overall), Mathieu Catafort of the Halifax Mooseheads became a member of the Vegas Golden Knights.
