Flyers prospect season review: Jacob Gaucher joins the mix

What a season it\'s been for Jacob Gaucher. He began the season with a clear task ahead of him to work to solidify his place as a lineup regular for the Phantoms in his second season with the team, and while we might have expected this to be a slower chipping away towards that status, Gaucher came in for this season and absolutely took off running. Building on his solid defensive game, which was a hallmark for him from the start, and seeing his scoring game snap into place suddenly, Gaucher got off to a start to the season so hot that he not only earned himself a place playing at the top of the Phantoms\' lineup, but earned himself an entry level contract with the Flyers as well, moving him also into the legitimate prospect group -- albeit as a slightly older one.

Gaucher made his proper introduction to Flyers fans this season, with this new role (and a couple of cups of coffee earned up with the big club over the season, to boot) and showed some intriguing potential.

Games played Goals Assists Points PIM Shots on goal Shooting percentage 70 20 18 38 47 138 14.5

We alluded to Gaucher coming alive on the scoresheet this season to a pretty significant degree already, and while scoring certainly isn\'t everything, this was a major development for Gaucher. Because, in his rookie season, though he saw his role more limited, playing in just 59 games, he only managed to score eight goals and 16 points over that span of time. This season, Gaucher was able to surpass that goal output by December 10, and pass the points output by the 14th, just two games later.

Now, he did come back down to earth some through the back half of the season, scoring 16 points in the final 39 games of the season once the calendar turned to 2025 -- a respectable enough total, given the struggles the team found over a good portion of that same span, and probably more or less marks the low end of what one might actually reasonably expect as an output from Gaucher. All the same, even if the lower end of this season\'s productivity level is what Gaucher brings going forward, that\'s still a notable step forward, and speaks well to the work that he put in over the offseason -- it was a pretty complete reframing of his approach to the game, recognizing that he can allow himself to be more engaged on the offensive side without losing his effectiveness defensively, which he\'s prided himself on so much.

Games Tracked Corsi-For % Scoring Chances-For % High Danger Attempts-For % Primary Shot Assists Secondary Shot Assists 20 56.41 58.90 60.23 13 6

That big step forward as far as the counting stats go is supported by a very solid underlying process. The Phantoms did well on the whole to drive play well as a collective, but even with that baseline set, when Gaucher was on the ice, they were still consistently in even more favorable positions. That is, across those 20 games tracked, the Phantoms were getting around three percent higher than their average of the share of shot attempts, scoring chances, and high danger chances when Gaucher was out there, had the ice tilting even more significantly in their favor. The fact that they were so dominant in his minutes is even more impressive, too, when we take into account the difficulty of the minutes he was being given -- a higher volume of minutes in general, but particularly in situations like going up against their opponents\' top lines, in defensive zone starts, and so on. Gaucher served as something of a workhorse for the Phantoms in those difficult minutes across the whole of the season, and it\'s a role that he clearly not just held his own in, but flourished in.

Three Questions

Did he live up to expectations?

Coming into this season, the expectations weren\'t especially high for him. After all, his rookie season with the team was fine, if somewhat unspectacular, and marked by periods when the coaching staff couldn\'t really find a good fit for him in the lineup. Gaucher spent a majority of that season toiling away in the bottom-6, or up in the press box, while working to get a handle on the league. It\'s a tremendous credit to him, then, that he was able to come in for this season with a changed approach, and got himself to the point where there was no way that he could be taken out of the lineup. As we saw, it wasn\'t the most consistent of production that he brought this season, but it was still a huge step forward, and it went a long way to giving his game a real extra dimension, and solidifying him as a true and good pro.

What would we like to see him improve on next season?

As we sort of acknowledged earlier, the Gaucher that we saw down the stretch into the playoffs is more the Gaucher that we expect to see going forward, at least as far as the offense is concerned. There might well still be some room for him to continue to build in this area, to find some more consistency, but his toolkit and his resume up to this point suggest that he\'s probably closer to a 30-point scorer at this level (though certainly with potential for more if he sees a team effects boost next season). As such, the feeling we\'re carrying into next season is more in the lane of appreciating the offense he can bring as something of a nice bonus, but acknowledging that his defensive impacts are going to be the even more valuable piece of the equation, and that bit he already has well locked down.

The real area where Gaucher could do well to improve is his skating. There\'s a lot that works well in his game, and he\'s done some good work to develop his instincts and his positioning to help offset the fact that he\'s not able to bring a ton of speed to his game, but the lack of speed does still present as an issue at times, particularly on a team with a whole host of speedy wingers (and with more on the way). If Gaucher is able to put in some more targeted work over the summer to add a step heading into next season, it would go a long way to help him gel better with a larger pool of potential linemates, to support their offense to an even greater degree.

What can we expect from him next season?

Next season is going to be an interesting one for Gaucher, to be sure, in part because he certainly earned himself a lot of leeway this past year through how deeply he endeared himself to his head coach, and now with Laperriere not returning to the coaching staff, it\'s back to square one. Now, that said, it\'s back to square one for everyone, and Gaucher has built up a game that seems like it would endear it to any coach at that level, but it will be interesting to see how quickly he\'s able to rebuild his stock under his new head coach.

And it\'s stock that we do expect him to rebuild, at the end of the day. The Phantoms will have some additions coming their way to start the season, but it won\'t give them a huge boost at the center position, still. This will likely make for another season where Gaucher is given a high volume of high-leverage minutes, playing a significant role at even strength, as well as on the penalty kill (though his role on the power play will be a little more uncertain). The coaching change does change the equation to some degree, but Gaucher has carved out a big role for himself on this team, and we don\'t expect this to change significantly.

Talking Points