Penguins goaltending prospect Taylor Gauthier has the right approach

Taylor Gauthier doesn’t necessarily want to be right (even if he always is).

He just wants to be better.

And considering how strong of a 2023-24 season he had while primarily playing for the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL, Gauthier has a pretty high bar to clear in that pursuit.

An undrafted free agent signing in 2022, the Pittsburgh Penguins goaltending prospect was an ECHL All-Star last season and even won that league’s goaltender of the year award.

In 42 games, he posted a 24-16-1 record, a 2.23 goals against average, a .923 save percentage and four shutouts.

And that success came despite missing the final 11 games of the campaign because of an undisclosed injury.

(He eventually recovered in time to appear in a single postseason game this past spring.)

“It (the injury) was disappointing but overall, I thought it was a good year. I thought I improved a lot. Learned a lot of things about myself and my game. There’s tons to be proud of but at the same time, it’s not my end goal to win individual awards. It’s to reach the NHL and win a Stanley Cup (championship). It’s nice to be recognized but it’s not the thing that I’ve been striving for. The work is going to keep coming.”

Gauthier figures to have a few more impediments in his way this upcoming season.

Despite the success of Gauthier and fellow goaltending prospect Joel Blomqvist, an All-Star with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League last season, Penguins management signed veteran goaltender Filip Larsson and another prospect in Sergei Murashov and added them to the mix in goal this offseason.

With incumbents Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic stationed on the NHL roster, the Penguins have a lot of depth at the position and all of it is under the age of 30.

Gauthier acknowledges that challenge. And embraces it.

“Some days, you think about it a little bit,” said the 23-year-old Gauthier. “But it’s our job to push one another. It’s competitive around here. We make each other better every single day. You look at the two guys that they just recently signed, Larsson and Sergei — I’ve been skating with him every day and he’s unbelievable — it’s our job as teammates for the same organization to push each other to try and get the best out of each other. You can’t do anything about who they bring in. Management is trying to make the best team possible and trying to build the team.

“They’re doing their job and it’s our job to make an impression when the opportunity comes and prove to them that you’re in the right spot.”

And Gauthier is right … handed.

That’s to say he catches with his right hand, something of a rarity in hockey.

(For a point of reference, only seven of the 98 goaltenders who appeared in an NHL regular season game last season were right catchers.)

Yet, he has some company at the moment during the Penguins’ participation in the ongoing Prospect Challenge event hosted by the Buffalo Sabres.

Murashov and undrafted free agent invitee Charlie Schenkel are also of the starboard persuasion.

“I thought I was special until I came here and we’ve got three going into (the Prospect Challenge),” Gauthier said. “It’s pretty cool. Obviously, it’s pretty rare to be. It’s kind of funny. I’m so used to doing drills, I’m always kind of the one that’s on the wrong side. But with Sergei, we’re both doing drills at the same side. We’re talking about the same side of the net at the same time.”

Gauthier and Murashov will presumably be competing for the same net at some level of the Penguins’ organization this season. If that’s with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton or Wheeling, that remains to be seen.

Obviously, Gauthier would like to move up the organizational trough. But he stops short of identifying any kind of specifics — such as games played — in terms of what he wants to accomplish as he enters the final year of his entry-level contract.

It seems to be the right approach.

“It’s hard to really put a goal on games played at (any) level,” Gauthier said. “I kind of did that last year and I realized it’s not a realistic goal to set for myself. For me this year, I’m going to be solely focused on effort and giving my all. … I want to go to bed at night and know that I put everything into the day, whether it’s on the ice, in the gym, relationships with my family.

“I just want to build to be a more complete person overall and be happy with who I am.”

Follow the Penguins all season long.