Colby Guy
SUNRISE — Carter Verhaeghe has reached a number of heights since joining the Florida Panthers in 2020.
Verhaeghe, once battling for playing time in Tampa, is on pace for 40 goals for the second straight season as the Panthers passed the midway point of their season.
And he has become one of the league’s elite scorers unlike others in the NHL.
Since the start of the 2022-23 season, Verhaeghe has the third-most even-strength goals (52) and the 14th-most even-strength points (92) in the entire league.
Those numbers were put up after head coach Paul Maurice came in and replaced Florida’s run-and-gun offense with a more structured system built around forechecking and sustained pressure.
So how did the speedy winger’s career-high in goals balloon from 24 to 42 in his first year under Maurice?
“I think it was definitely a change right off the start,” Verhaeghe told Florida Hockey Now.
“We weren’t getting as many rush opportunities. It’s a lot more stopping and starting and it’s harder to keep your speed. But I think it definitely works. You can see the results and it’s more generating stuff off the cycle in-zone and finding different ways to score, whether it is going to the front of the net, getting sticks on pucks or quick shots on the cycle. I think that’s the biggest challenge.”
Maurice admired Verhaeghe’s unique skillset long before he stepped foot in South Florida to implement his system.
While watching the 2022 second-round playoffs, Maurice had to stop and ask himself a question about a player on the Panthers.
Who is this Carter Verhaeghe?
Verhaeghe, fresh off sending the Panthers to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 1996 with a Game 6 overtime winner, stood out to Maurice.
Yes, the Panthers got swept against Tampa — which led to Maurice ending up in Florida — and, sure, Verhaeghe went without a point in those four games after a six-goal, 12-point showing in the first round.
But he was noticeable. Maurice thought No. 23 showed flashes of something special.
“I’m watching Tampa, but this guy from Florida is all over the puck,” Maurice said. “He’s on it.
“There’s skill and there’s numbers, but he is just a dog on a bone.”
After taking the Florida job and watching Verhaeghe’s tape from that postseason closely, Maurice knew he was made for his system.
“He is not your prototypical 40-goal guy,” Maurice said.
“I get that he is really fast and I get that the rush game should be there for him, but that’s not what he’s great at, either.
“If you could put 20 guys on the ice instead of 10 skaters, he’d score 60. The more chaos, the more traffic, the more he does things that people can’t do. Three-on-three, can he play it? Sure. But I think his strength and his grace and what makes him highly unique is that he is really, really good in chaos.”
And he found the perfect combination of linemates to maximize that ability last season.
Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk are both drivers who play their best hockey near the front of the net.
Their physical style allows Verhaeghe to get quick shots through screens while they each create offense in unique ways.
“Matthew can do things with the puck that you don’t expect, but it’s not really secret plays. It’s not like ‘What the hell was that?’ It’s like ‘Oh my God, that was good’,” Maurice said.
“Sam Bennett creates chaos just with his speed. It’s unusual that he will beat a goalie through a screen in the middle of the ice. He has that shot. All three of those guys are capable of some things that are unusual.”
For a player with a release as quick and accurate as Verhaeghe’s, the space those two create gives him exactly what he needs to generate offense in the tightest situations.
And, of course, when Verhaeghe finds opportunities off the rush, he can still turn on the jets and make things happen.
“I think it’s a mixture of both,” Verhaeghe said.
“When I can use my speed, I use it and I try and generate opportunities that way. But sometimes, it’s not there, and I think that’s kind of what our team has been better at realizing, that we are not always going to be able to get looks from speed or off the rush. We’ve been finding other ways to score and I think it’s been a bit of a mixture and that’s the biggest thing.”
The versatility and the ability to create offense in tight situations has made that line one of the best in the league come playoff time.
Tkachuk and Verhaeghe alone accounted for eight of Florida’s 13 game-winning goals and five of Florida’s seven overtime-winning goals during the team’s run to the Stanley Cup Final last year.
Verhaeghe scored two of the most iconic goals in franchise history last season — a Game 7 overtime winner to sink the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Boston Bruins and an overtime winner in the first Stanley Cup Final win in Panthers history — with quick shots off the cycle.
That’s where his clutch ability in the playoffs comes from.
“I think he just has the nose for the net and has an unbelievable shot,” Tkachuk said of Verhaeghe after his goal in Game 3 of the Cup Final.
“He finds the soft areas like not many guys can. He has his skating and it allows him to be one of the top players in the league but if you can’t do anything with that, you can’t be as successful. He’s got that full offensive package that you rarely see.
”You saw his shot tonight. It wasn’t screened. He just has that ability that not that many guys out there have to shoot it from that far. It’s great.”
Maurice still thinks there is another level Verhaeghe can reach.
With the Panthers filled with talent for much of his career, Verhaeghe got few opportunities on the top power play.
And he didn’t need to, with most of his offense coming 5-on-5.
That changed this year.
He was moved to the top unit early in the season and has since put up five power-play goals and nine power-play points through 41 games, two goals and four points shy of the career highs he set from the second unit last season.
“He’s a shooter,” Maurice said. “So finding the right spot to shoot the puck takes a while and he’s learning how to play that position.
“He is playing on his natural side on the power play where you’d say ”Why don’t you put him on the one-timer side?’ That has to do with everybody else’s hands. So he’s just learning. He’s new to it. He wasn’t a power play guy for three years, he couldn’t get on the power play, but I have to give him credit. He works hard at getting better.”
Florida’s power play has been clicking at a 32.7 percent clip since Dec. 23, and Verhaeghe has played a significant role in how things flow.
“He is a big threat when he is on the ice,” Panthers captain Sasha Barkov said. “He can shoot the puck and he can score, so the other team has to know that. And they know that. They play him tighter, so the other four guys get room. If the puck is on his stick, we can always expect a goal. He is that good of a shooter.”
And on top of his elite shot and speed, his work ethic has driven him to improve no matter how high his numbers get.
“You always want to find ways to grow your game,” Verhaeghe said.
“And one of the ways where I want to be a really good player is on the power play. It’s something I want to get better at and kind of grow. I think it’s been good so far. I’ve got some good looks and I got some goals on it and I think my mindset on the power play is just puck recoveries and shooting the puck.”