Why Panthers’ Carter Verhaeghe, an unlikely 40-goal scorer, is one of NHL’s best stories
Carter Verhaeghe did not make much of an impression on Matthew Tkachuk when the superstar right wing was tracking the rest of the NHL during his past few years with the Flames. Tkachuk knew Verhaeghe was having some pretty good seasons with some very good Florida Panthers teams, he just didn’t know very many specifics or how good the left wing really was and, frankly, how could he? Verhaeghe was in the ECHL as recently as 2017 and the American Hockey League as recently as 2019, and had only ever had one season with even 20 goals before finally, truly breaking with a 40-goal season this year.
Tkachuk quickly formed an opinion in the offseason, though. After the Panthers traded for him and he arrived in South Florida, Tkachuk started skating with teammates in player-led workouts and Verhaeghe, mostly because of his speed, stood out.
“Before I came here, I didn’t know a ton about him,” The All-Star winger said last month, “but coming here, even seeing him in skates before camp, you could see all the talent.”
Verhaeghe, 27, is no longer a mystery to anyone now. On Saturday, he exploded for four goals in a rout of the Blue Jackets to temporarily push the Panthers back into a wild card and crack the 40-goal mark for the first time in his career. He’s one of only 254 players in NHL history to score at least 40 goals in a season and now one of only two for Florida.
All-Star center Aleksander Barkov has never done it. Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau never did it before he got traded for Tkachuk last year. Even Tkachuk, who has a real chance to be a finalist for the Hart Memorial Trophy, needs to score two goals in the Panthers’ last five games to get there. Only Verhaeghe and Hockey Hall of Fame right wing Pavel Bure, who did it twice in Florida with 59- and 58-goal seasons, have ever scored 40 in a year for the Panthers.
It’s the sort of milestone almost no one, not even Verhaeghe, could have envisioned just a few years ago when he was struggling to even regularly crack the Lightning’s lineup.
“You don’t really dream of scoring 40 goals,” Verhaeghe said Saturday. “You just dream of making it.”
About half a decade ago, even this wasn’t a given.
Verhaeghe’s story is well documented by now, but it’s worth looking back at after he hit this rare milestone.
The winger was a third-round pick by the Maple Leafs in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, traded to the Islanders before he ever played a professional game, buried in the ECHL—the lowest level of NHL-affiliated hockey — for parts of two seasons and then traded again to Tampa, where he played a bit part in a Stanley Cup. He finally signed with the Panthers on a paltry two-year, $2 million deal in 2020 and promptly became a fixture on Florida’s top line.
Verhaeghe scored 18 goals in the shortened 2019-20 NHL season — doubling his total from the previous year — and then 24 last season before hitting 40 this season, in Year 1 of a new three-year, $12.5 deal.
It all comes together to make him one of the least likely 40-goal scorers in NHL history — like if a former G League player one day wound up averaging 30 points per game in NBA.
“When you see the work that he puts in, it’s always exciting to see an accomplishment like that,” forward Sam Reinhart said Monday.
The jump in production has largely been a product of increased volume, with his shooting percentage not even up a full percent from last year.
The bigger jumps have been in shots and time on ice. He’s almost certainly going to wind up with 100 more shots on goal than he had last year and apparently 150 more shot attempts, and he’s playing a full minute more per game because the Panthers trust him in more situations.
“It’s great because you get to watch it happen in front of you,” Maurice said. “He worked really, really hard on his game and we’re all excited for the 40, and it’s such a hard number to get through, but the biggest improvement in his game this year is probably away from the puck.
“A guy who scores 40 goals ... you’ve got 50 games where a goal scorer doesn’t score, then he needs to do something else.”
