Carter Verhaeghe
BY: SUFYAN JAWED
August 1st, 2024
The goal of this new series is to give insight into a player on every team. The player will be randomly chosen by a panel of people close to me and this will hopefully give the general public better knowledge on a certain player in the show. Maybe you only really watch your hometown team, this will give you insight into a player that you may not have thought of in a deeper capacity.
Carter Verhaeghe - Left Winger
Age: 28 (August 14th, 1995)
Height: 6’2 Weight: 180 Lbs
Handedness: Left
Born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
National Team: Canada
Draft: Round 3, 82nd overall, 2013 NHL Entry Draft
Junior Team: Niagara Ice Dogs
NHL Year Status: Going into 6th year
Contract: 3 years x 4.16 (In year 3 of 3)
Team Role: Top Line Winger
Career Stats
2023 - 2024 Stats
Carter Verhaeghe has become one of the league's most underrated players. Being on the Cup winning Panthers team may have given him a bit more exposure but he’s often overshadowed by the likes of Matthew Tkachuk, Alexander Barkov and Sergei Bobrovsky, but Verhaeghe’s impact since he got to Florida cannot be understated. He ranks 13th in goals and 7th in even-strength goals over the last two seasons. Not only that but his importance to the Panthers is no joke either, this past season the teams on-ice expected goals % without Verhaeghe on the ice is 50.7% but 68.6% when he was on the ice. Verhaeghe is the silent catalyst to the Panthers offense, lets see what makes him special.
Strengths:
Clutchness
It may seem arbitrary to say this is his biggest strength, but at this point, it's impossible to deny that Verhaeghe is one of the most clutch players in the NHL. Since 2021-2022, he has led the league in playoff overtime goals with 5. He elevates his game when it matters most, and there is no more valuable trait to a team than the ability to step up when it is often the most challenging time to score. My favorite overtime goal of his came in this past cup run against Andrei Vasilevskiy in game 2 of their first-round series against the Lightning. Verhaeghe kept calm and waited out one of the best playoff goaltenders in the last half-decade before roofing a backhand. Not too many players would be able to keep their composure in that monumental moment.
Speed and Acceleration
On the surface, it's easy to tell that Verhaeghe's speed is one of his more prominent assets; he ranks in the 91st percentile for top skating speed and in the 92nd percentile of speed bursts over 20 mph. But he can sneak off and accelerate past defences. Like this goal against the Devils, Verhaeghe accelerates quickly up the neutral zone and receives the puck at full speed, catching the defender off guard and giving him an open lane to the net.
Shot Release
Verhaeghe shoots many of his shots from the mid-range shot distance, and his release has much to do with why he’s had so many even-strength goals in the last couple of seasons. He’s scored 47 of his 76 regular season goals in the last two seasons with wrist shots, which speaks volumes of his release because his release and accuracy need to be top-tier with his average shot distance being where it is. This overtime goal against the Bruins in game 7 of last year’s first round perfectly embodies his release's proficiency and accuracy. Firstly when he receives the puck, he takes a moment to pull it close to him, away from the defender's stick, as well as wait for the screen to develop in front; he then quickly lets a virtually unsavable shot, right off the back bar.
Verhaeghe's ability to show up when it matters makes him a great asset to the Panther's offence. What's even more impressive is the road he took to get there; for most of his early career, Verhaeghe bounced around in the ECHL and AHL before finally getting a shot with the lightning at 24. It didn't take long for him to prove he belongs, and now he's one of the better left-wingers in the league and has an outside shot at making Team Canada for the showcase next year and the Olympic team in 2026. I truly hope that he does.