Adam Gaudette checks in as the 13th ranked prospect in our consensus rankings.

When one considers the tepid fanfare Adam Gaudette’s draft selection engendered and the meteoric rise that’s followed, it’s fair to wonder how many prospects in the Canucks’ system have enjoyed a more successful calendar year. The list has to be a short one.

Playing largely in a middle six role with Northeastern of the NCAA, Gaudette potted 30 points in 41 games as a freshman. That near point per game pace was enough to buttress Gaudette’s statistical and stature based comparable success projection rate of %1.6 of similar players making the NHL (when viewed through the lens of the Prospect Cohort Success system) to near 20% this season (using the since developed Prospect Graduation Probabilities System).

Finding that success didn’t come easy, though. For Gaudette, who’s modest junior boxcars followed him to his first forays into NCAA hockey, this season wasn’t without its fair share of adversity. Northeastern lost 13 of their first 15 games and Gaudette had just five points to show for playing in them.

Having featured on the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders a season prior and finishing first in the USHL that season, struggling early couldn’t have been easy. “It was frustrating for the team, but we stuck together and grounded our way through it,” Gaudette told Canucks Army. “It wasn’t that we were playing bad hockey the first half of the year. It was that we weren’t getting bounces. We would lose almost every game by one” he continued.

Those unaccommodating circumstances were every bit as frequent and likely frustrating as Gaudette indicates. Of Northeastern’s first 13 losses, seven of them were by one goal. Their massively positive shot differential on the season suggests they were doing all the little things right and just not getting rewarded. That’s a fact not lost on Gaudette; a player scouts have often remarked upon as a great thinker of the game.

“We just needed a break or something to go our way.” the personable Gaudette felt. “We stuck with our game plan and continued to battle and play hard knowing that something was gonna happen for us.”.

Hockey players know all too well that this is a results driven business. So that kind of appreciation for the process is refreshing, to say the least. Too often players — especially young ones — are caught up in a bad swing driven by percentages, and vice versa when things are going exceedingly well. Gaudette suffered no such ills in this most trying, then rewarding of freshmen seasons.

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“I didn’t really make any changes.” Gaudette said. “I just gained more confidence. I became comfortable with my linemates and once I started to produce my confidence went through the roof. Once you’re hot and your confidence is high it’s tough to break.”

That was clearly the case for Gaudette, who went on to pot 25 points (9 goals 16 assists) in his final 25 games — good for seventh among college freshmen in that span.

The Canucks aren’t in any rush to sign Gaudette, and I don’t imagine Gaudette is in any rush to leave college. He’ll have the time to prove that those final 25 games are a more accurate reflection of his offensive bona fides than the 16 games that preceded it.

That won’t come easy, though. The Cinderella story is over. Northeastern isn’t going to catch anyone taking them lightly after winning the Hockey East Championship with a 3-2 win over UMass-Lowell. That’s an experience Gaudette gained a lot from; some lessons he’s hoping to carry with him for the rest of his career.

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“I think I gained a lot but mostly to never give up.” a proud Gaudette remarked. “It taught a lot of people never to quit and battle through and if you put the time and effort in something good is bound to happen.”

The idea that a player like Gaudette never quits isn’t difficult to believe. He’s a spark plug. I don’t know how else to describe the way he plays. He battles, gets engaged physically and makes his presence felt at both ends of the rink. It’s not the most refined game, and ideally you’d like a player with so late a birth date to make an even larger mark offensively, but there’s plenty to like all the same.

“I think I play a complete, all-around game. I play a strong offensive and defensive game. I play 200ft.” a confident Gaudette told Canucks Army. “I can produce points and can be used in any situation whether power play, penalty kill or late in the game to win a face off. I play a hard-nosed game, and I will battle and compete my hardest, and I’m not afraid to get into the dirty areas.”

Gaudette’s fearlessness is evident on many occasions in the highlight video included above. A large portion of those goals are coming from the high-danger area, which almost belies his slight 6’1″ 170 lb. frame. Whether he can hold up playing that kind of a game is an issue that will follow Gaudette as he progresses towards a career in professional hockey. Physical development will be every bit as important as refining hockey skills.

He’s in a good position to get those opportunities, though. That’s one of the added benefits afforded the players in NCAA hockey: an opportunity to bulk up physically. Northeastern played just 41 games last season, and that included playoff hockey and the aforementioned Hockey East title. That’s a lot more “time off” than most developmental leagues can offer.

That’s going to put Gaudette in a good position to build on the success of his rookie season and set a foundation for one day developing into a professional player. Based on his comments, that’s the plan for next season, too.

“I expect to be more of a leader and a guy that sets an example for the rest of the team.” Gaudette said. “I put a lot on myself, as do my coaches, so I expect to be a top guy to play in any situation and one of the top producers on the team.”

Comments like these drive home why exactly the Canucks were happy to have Gaudette available to them when he was. This is a franchise that places a premium on character individuals. That’s a quality they seek out at the professional and developmental levels alike.

Whether Gaudette can reward their faith remains to be seen. As with any fifth-round selection, Gaudette remains a relative long shot to develop into an NHL player, much less an impactful one. That’s just how the draft works.

Still, one would like to think that in Gaudette the Canucks could have one of the first steals that having a master scout running the franchise is supposed to procure. There’s reason for optimism now that at one time just wasn’t present, and that’s highly encouraging in and of itself. How optimistic is another question entirely, though.

At this stage, I would like to think that pencilling in a faint spot on the third line of Canucks teams in years to come isn’t all that unreasonable. And that, my friends, would be another check in the ‘w column’ at the draft table.





