Ethan Gauthier Drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks (Fan Mock)

During last night's game 3 in Sunrise, FL the Blackhawk Up readers finally reached pick #19. After going through all the prior picks and debates we reached the Blackhawks' second 1st round selection. The list of available players that were worthy of the 19th spot was a long one. Some of the players that had to be paired to just 4 choices included:

Gavin Brindley, Andrew Cristall, Riley Heidt, Daniil But, Michael Hrabel, Tom Willander, Lukas Dragicevic, Alex Ciernik, Mikhail Gulyayev, Oliver Bonk, Quentin Musty, David Edstrom, Koehn Ziemmer, Tanner Molendyk, Ethan Gauthier, Bradley Nadeau, Eduard Sale, Calum Ritchie, Danny Nelson, Etienne Morin, Charlie Stramel, Liam Dower-Nilsson, and Otto Stenberg.

The reason I orginally listed so many guys was because this was the tier list I have for the 17-42 range. After much debate with the readers we came to a shorter list to pick from of Heidt, But, Brindley, Musty, Bonk, and Gauthier. The list was then decided on with 4 forwards: Heidt, But, Gauthier, and Brindley and here are the results:

With over 500 votes, readers were definitely split:

Ethan Gauthier: (drafted to the Blackhawks) 36%

Gavin Brindley: 23%

Daniil But: 21%

Riley Heidt: 20%

This was a close vote until the final 100 votes came in and it swayed to the winger out of the QMJHL.

Here is a very in-depth scouting report from Hadi Kalakeche - NHL Draft Scouting. He is the QMJHL scout for Dobber Prospects at www.dobberprospects.com. As you can see the 5'11 RW isn't shy in getting into the "dirty" areas on the ice. He uses his quickness in tight areas to get off shots both with his above average wrister and his deceptively good back hand. Gauthier is best as a high motor wing that produced 69 points in 66 games this season for Sherbrooke.

Gauthier provides goal scoring ability around the net as well as between the dots on a rush. 48 goals in 131 QMJHL games is great production and he is likely to continue playing for Sherbrooke next season with his brother Kaylen (undrafted D). I believe Ethan is a player that will likely take 3 seasons to get to where he needs to be to reach the NHL. That could mean 2 more seasons in junior before reaching the AHL at age 20.

Listed at 5'11 and 176 pounds with a 21 year old brother that is the same size, it appears unlikely that Ethan will grow his frame more than what it currently is. My projection for Gauthier's NHL future is as a high motor middle 6 winger. One that could find his way into a power play bumper role as well as he has shown great timing for re-directions and annoying the opposition.

I'll list all the results for picks 11-20 in a seperate article once the percentages for the Kraken's pick are in.

Are we happy with Gauthier at #19? List in the twitter feed if there was someone else that you'd prefer from that list in the second paragraph above.