When Lou Lamoriello was at the helm of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he traded Carter Verhaeghe to the New York Islanders ahead of the 2015-16 season.
When Lou Lamoriello was at the helm of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he traded Carter Verhaeghe to the New York Islanders ahead of the 2015-16 season.
Just before the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers hit the ice on Wednesday to kick off their regular season against the Boston Bruins, forward Carter Verhaeghe got a nice surprise.
General manager Bill Zito called the 29-year-old lamp-lighter into his office to tell him he was now the owner of an eight-year extension worth $7 million annually.
“I want to thank you on behalf of the organization and myself,” Zito said. “It’s not just what you do on the ice, but for the teammate you are, the person you are. This guy is a Florida Panther. I think he defines…what we just went through, all the superlatives that we used about our team, Carter lives them every day, and we're very blessed to have him.” (H/t THN's David Dwork)
Verhaeghe is a skating underdog story.
After the Toronto Maple Leafs drafted him in the third round of the 2013 NHL Draft, he spent five seasons in the minors, which included a season in the ECHL.
After a strong two-year stint with the Tampa Bay Lightning's AHL affiliate Syracuse Crunch, he got recalled to the big club for the 2019-20 season, winning the Stanley Cup as a rookie/fringe fourth-line forward.
He scored nine goals with four assists for 13 points in 52 regular season games, which is nothing to brag about, before two assists in six postseason contests.
That summer, the Lightning didn't tender him, a restricted free agent, a qualifying offer, so he signed a two-year, $2 million deal ($1 million AAV).
And the rest is history.
But, we did skip over an essential part of Verhaeghe's story.
How did he go from Toronto to Tampa, a move that truly kickstarted his career?
Following the 2014-15 season, his final season with the OHL's Niagara Ice Hogs, former Maple Leafs general manager and current New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello included him in a deal, along with forward Taylor Beck, defensemen Matt Finn and Tom Nilson and goaltender Christopher Gibson to acquire speedy forward Michael Grabner from Long Island.
Verhaeghe would spend two years in the Islanders organization (2015-2017), playing 75 games for Bridgeport, scoring 26 goals with 24 assists for 44 points.
He also found himself in the ECHL in both seasons, playing 20 games for the Missouri Mavericks in 2015-16, with eight goals and 17 assists for 25 points, before a 16-game stint in 2016-17, potting 12 goals with 20 assists for 32 points.
He participated in the ECHL playoffs in 2015-16, scoring two goals and nine assists for 11 points in 10 games.
On July 1, 2017, Islanders general manager Garth Snow made a 1-for-1 deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning, sending them Verhaeghe for goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis.
The Latvian goaltender never played for the Islanders, but he played 37 games in Bridgeport during the 2017-18 season. He went 12-16-2 with a 2.83 GAA and a .897 SV% before going to the KHL the following season.
Islanders fans will look at Verhaeghe's story as a"player that got away," like Roberto Luongo or Zdeno Chara, to name a few.
While Verhaghe didn't blossom until well after he left the Islanders, they played a part in his eventual NHL success.