Red-hot Cutter Gauthier achieves franchise first with rare feat

Cutter Gauthier sure can shoot—and score.

The Boston College product set a new Anaheim Ducks franchise record by recording a hat trick in back-to-back outings, scoring three goals in a 6-3 win over Ottawa on Nov. 1, and then repeating the feat on Tuesday night in a 5-4 victory at Vancouver. He's the second NHL skater to do this season, following Brady Tkachuk of Florida, and has now notched eight goals over his last three games. The Ducks are just a middling 7-7-1 overall so far, but still well within striking distance of a playoff spot with five months of season still to go.

“Kind of surprised some of those other legends before me haven't done that, with how good they were, and obviously a really special moment, but really happy we got the two wins and we can keep this thing going,” Gauthier said to Kevin Woodley of NHL.com after the win against the Canucks.

Gauthier, 22, now has 10 goals on the young season, and 71 goals so far in an NHL career that began with a one-game audition at the tail end of the 2023-24 campaign, just after he turned pro. He also added four goals in 12 games in his Stanley Cup Playoff debut last spring as Anaheim advanced to the second round in its first postseason action since 2018.

Born in Sweden but raised in Arizona, Gauthier currently leads the Ducks in goals, and is fourth on the squad with 15 points in 14 games. Blessed with size (6-foot-2, 205 lbs.) and a lethal wrist shot, he has more goals (71) in his pro career than penalty minutes (54). He's scored at every level, including 41 goals last year with the Ducks, and 38 goals as a sophomore at BC, where he helped the Eagles to the 2024 NCAA title game.

“He is a goal scorer, and he will be a goal scorer in the NHL,” said BC head coach Greg Brown, a former NHL player himself, shortly after Gauthier's college career had concluded, via Bob Reinert of usahockey.com. “If it doesn’t happen immediately, he’s not going to hurt the team when he’s on the ice. He’ll be sound in his own end, he’ll be responsible, he’ll check well."

So far, so good. 

It's been a few years since Gauthier turned down the Philadelphia Flyers, who drafted him fifth overall in 2022, just prior to his freshman year at BC, but he's still starring in orange—just for a different club. The second-highest paid player (six years, $81 million) on the Ducks behind Leo Carlsson, Gauthier was also shifted to center by head coach Joel Quenneville.

"He's definitely on us about getting some center time," Quenneville said in October, via The Sporting Tribune. "He'll jump in on a faceoff sometimes on a power play or five-on-five.

"We're going to find out how well he can handle it."

If his last two games are any indication, Gauthier is handling things very, very well indeed.