Continuing on with the Minnesota Wild report cards, next up is Frédérick Gaudreau with his interesting season. He contributed a lot more than people realized and like Joel Eriksson Ek, his work typically went unnoticed. He also became quite the shootout specialist throughout this season and it made an impact.
Gaudreau was also one of the few players who tallied points and gave hope in what was a very bleak postseason. He did set a career high in goals plus he helped out on both the penalty kill and power play. His regular season may have started out slowly but grew from there, and that’s where we’ll start.
Gaudreau’s Silent But Lethal
Again, like Eriksson Ek, Gaudreau is a player that goes unnoticed because of the way he plays. He’s good at handling the puck but he didn’t always score and that’s what frustrated most fans. He’s typically more defensive with the puck and only forces offense when he sees a good chance. He was one of the Wild’s “iron men” in the fact that he played all 82 games and didn’t miss a beat.
He scored 19 goals which set a new career high over his 14 from the season before. He added 19 assists for a total of 38 points just six points shy of his career-high 44 from last season. Where he really stood out was his eight shootout goals out of 13 chances that led the team throughout the season. He also channeled his inner Jared Spurgeon with just 10 penalty minutes total and really helped his team in terms of being on the penalty kill and not causing it.
Where there’s offense there’s also defense and Gaudreau was right behind Eriksson Ek in blocked shots with 52. He wasn’t big on physicality with just 42 hits and kept his giveaways to a minimum with 21, but he also contributed big with 42 takeaways. While he was mostly overlooked for much of the season, he did help out in more ways than one that included having four goals and five points while shorthanded. On the power play, he had just four points and hopefully, he will find a way to make more of an impact in the future in that department.
Gaudreau Gave Hope
When there’s not much scoring going on in the postseason, the players that do score inject the team with a lot of hope and Gaudreau was one of those players. He played in all six games and scored three goals for three points and they weren’t all in one game. He scored in Games 2, 4, and 6, all of which were losses but he gave his team a chance.
He did struggle a bit more in terms of penalties with four minutes in six games but he made up for it with six blocked shots and two takeaways. However, he also had one giveaway and nine hits which were too many for him. He’s not a hitter and it took away from his game, despite him finding a way to score when no one else could. If he’d laid off a little on the hits maybe he could’ve added more offensively.
The Wild’s special teams struggled greatly and Gaudreau couldn’t find a way to make an impact. If they make the playoffs next season, they’ll need him to find a way to be better and translate his game from the regular season to the postseason.
Gaudreau’s Grade
Many may not be that impressed with Gaudreau’s impact this season but he did well. He found ways to register points and keep his penalty minutes low plus he helped on the special teams. As far as the regular season goes, he earned a B+. It could’ve been higher but there’s room for improvement and he needed to find a way to contribute more, especially with being on a line with Matt Boldy for part of the season. The two of them had chemistry and could’ve contributed more points had they pushed harder. However, his grade couldn’t go lower because of all that he did to help out the lineup.
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In regards to the postseason, he did score three goals when hardly anyone else could get any offense going and he blocked shots. On the downside, he did become more physical which didn’t help his game and he had more penalty minutes. Overall he earned a B for the postseason because the Wild needed him to produce more offense, but not any lower because he was one of the few to score when others didn’t.
For an overall season grade, he earned a high B/low B+ because again, there’s always room to improve but he did produce both offensively and defensively. Hopefully, he can hone his game for next season and make an even bigger impact than this season.