Taylor Gauthier was walking into church for an Easter service on Sunday morning with a number of his Nailers teammates when he looked down and saw that he had four missed calls from Penguins assistant general manager Jason Spezza.
Gauthier stepped out and called Spezza back, and Spezza explained that they needed Gauthier in Pittsburgh. Stuart Skinner couldn't play with an eye injury suffered the day before, and neither of the goaltenders in Wilkes-Barre could make it in time. It was already 10:45 a.m., and puck drop was a little over four hours away.
Gauthier ran back into the church to let his teammates know that he had to leave, and raced back to his apartment to pack a backpack. Just 20 minutes after his call from Spezza, he was on the road and on his way to Pittsburgh.
"I was here at 12:30," Gauthier said with a smile. "I had tons of time. I was a speed racer down the freeway today. I wanted to make sure I remembered how to get into the parking lot, get all settled in. I didn't want to ruffle any feathers."
Gauthier didn't play, though he did dress. He took warmups and backed up Arturs Silovs, and it was easy to see how much he was enjoying the experience. He always had a big smile on his face on the bench, cheering for the team and chatting with some of the guys. It wasn't quite an NHL debut, but the feeling wasn't far off.
"It's just ... it's surreal, you know?" Gauthier said. "Especially with the pedigree of of guys that are in this room, I think I speak for every Canadian kid that grew up watching Sid play. He's a hero to all of us. I was just trying to stay out of his way. Honestly, if I could have stayed on the bench (in warmups), I probably would have stayed on the bench just to make sure I wasn't in the way. It was unbelievable."
The recall is a great reward for Gauthier -- and a reminder why he made the decision he did last summer.
Gauthier, 25, was an undrafted free agent signing by the Penguins out of the WHL in 2022. He split his first season between the AHL and ECHL, but growing goaltending depth in the next two years had him primarily in Wheeling, where he thrived, including when he won the ECHL's Goaltender of the Year award in 2023-24. When his entry-level contract expired this past summer, the Penguins didn't extend another one. In addition to the two goaltenders on the NHL roster, they already had Sergei Murashov, Joel Blomqvist and Filip Larsson under contract for Wilkes-Barre.
Gauthier was one of the league's best goaltenders last season. Even if he couldn't get an NHL contract elsewhere, surely he could have found an opportunity elsewhere on an AHL contract that would have gotten him more regular AHL playing time. But he didn't want it -- he re-signed with the Penguins, only on an AHL deal with Wilkes-Barre, knowing that he'd almost surely end up back in Wheeling.
It's been a very successful year for Gauthier. He set the Nailers' franchise wins and shutouts records. He represented Canada in the Spengler Cup midseason. When Larsson asked out of his NHL contract to return to Sweden, Gauthier was signed to another NHL deal, paving the way for this eventual recall.
None of that would have happened had he taken the easy path to the AHL over the summer and left the Penguins' organization. I asked him what made him stay, knowing the depth ahead of him.
"Honestly, the people in this organization are first class," he said. "They've done so much work to develop me into the goalie I am, and they've put in so much time and effort this year and years previous. I had no reason to leave. I love everything about every city that I've played in, and I knew that there's an opportunity. You look at the depth charts, and, yeah, there's a lot of young guys, and there's a lot of competition. And I think I've thrived in the competition in previous years. I just I don't think I had a reason to leave. Some people get really caught up in the 'I'm gonna go try and find something better.' But, the grass isn't always greener. It's true. I don't know what other scenario I'd put myself in if I went somewhere else. So I feel very comfortable here, and just to continue working and developing and trying get back to this spot as soon as possible."
He paused, looking over at his nameplate on an NHL locker room stall, the stall that typically has Skinner's name on it.
"This is somewhere that I want to be for a long time, sitting in a stall permanently up here," Gauthier said. "It's just honoring the commitment that they made to me. I can return the favor."
THE ASYLUM
Gauthier has 'surreal' first recall
Taylor Gauthier was walking into church for an Easter service on Sunday morning with a number of his Nailers teammates when he looked down and saw that he had four missed calls from Penguins assistant general manager Jason Spezza.
Gauthier stepped out and called Spezza back, and Spezza explained that they needed Gauthier in Pittsburgh. Stuart Skinner couldn't play with an eye injury suffered the day before, and neither of the goaltenders in Wilkes-Barre could make it in time. It was already 10:45 a.m., and puck drop was a little over four hours away.
Gauthier ran back into the church to let his teammates know that he had to leave, and raced back to his apartment to pack a backpack. Just 20 minutes after his call from Spezza, he was on the road and on his way to Pittsburgh.
"I was here at 12:30," Gauthier said with a smile. "I had tons of time. I was a speed racer down the freeway today. I wanted to make sure I remembered how to get into the parking lot, get all settled in. I didn't want to ruffle any feathers."
Gauthier didn't play, though he did dress. He took warmups and backed up Arturs Silovs, and it was easy to see how much he was enjoying the experience. He always had a big smile on his face on the bench, cheering for the team and chatting with some of the guys. It wasn't quite an NHL debut, but the feeling wasn't far off.
"It's just ... it's surreal, you know?" Gauthier said. "Especially with the pedigree of of guys that are in this room, I think I speak for every Canadian kid that grew up watching Sid play. He's a hero to all of us. I was just trying to stay out of his way. Honestly, if I could have stayed on the bench (in warmups), I probably would have stayed on the bench just to make sure I wasn't in the way. It was unbelievable."
The recall is a great reward for Gauthier -- and a reminder why he made the decision he did last summer.
Gauthier, 25, was an undrafted free agent signing by the Penguins out of the WHL in 2022. He split his first season between the AHL and ECHL, but growing goaltending depth in the next two years had him primarily in Wheeling, where he thrived, including when he won the ECHL's Goaltender of the Year award in 2023-24. When his entry-level contract expired this past summer, the Penguins didn't extend another one. In addition to the two goaltenders on the NHL roster, they already had Sergei Murashov, Joel Blomqvist and Filip Larsson under contract for Wilkes-Barre.
Gauthier was one of the league's best goaltenders last season. Even if he couldn't get an NHL contract elsewhere, surely he could have found an opportunity elsewhere on an AHL contract that would have gotten him more regular AHL playing time. But he didn't want it -- he re-signed with the Penguins, only on an AHL deal with Wilkes-Barre, knowing that he'd almost surely end up back in Wheeling.
It's been a very successful year for Gauthier. He set the Nailers' franchise wins and shutouts records. He represented Canada in the Spengler Cup midseason. When Larsson asked out of his NHL contract to return to Sweden, Gauthier was signed to another NHL deal, paving the way for this eventual recall.
None of that would have happened had he taken the easy path to the AHL over the summer and left the Penguins' organization. I asked him what made him stay, knowing the depth ahead of him.
"Honestly, the people in this organization are first class," he said. "They've done so much work to develop me into the goalie I am, and they've put in so much time and effort this year and years previous. I had no reason to leave. I love everything about every city that I've played in, and I knew that there's an opportunity. You look at the depth charts, and, yeah, there's a lot of young guys, and there's a lot of competition. And I think I've thrived in the competition in previous years. I just I don't think I had a reason to leave. Some people get really caught up in the 'I'm gonna go try and find something better.' But, the grass isn't always greener. It's true. I don't know what other scenario I'd put myself in if I went somewhere else. So I feel very comfortable here, and just to continue working and developing and trying get back to this spot as soon as possible."
He paused, looking over at his nameplate on an NHL locker room stall, the stall that typically has Skinner's name on it.
"This is somewhere that I want to be for a long time, sitting in a stall permanently up here," Gauthier said. "It's just honoring the commitment that they made to me. I can return the favor."
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