Florida Panthers centre Carter Verhaeghe of Toronto, Ontario recorded his fourth career National Hockey League hat trick on Sunday. He accomplished the feat in a 6-3 Panthers win over the New York Islanders at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.
Verhaeghe opened the scoring at the 39 second mark of the first period. Sam Reinhart of West Vancouver, British Columbia and Aleksander Barkov had the assists. Verhaeghe then put the Panthers up 2-0 at 12:52 of the first period. Defenseman Gustav Forsling picked up the assist. Then at 10:41 of the third period on the power-play, Verhaeghe notched the hat trick from Matthew Tkachuk and Barkov. At the time, the Panthers took a 5-3 lead.
There were two Canadians with a multi-point game. Verhaeghe had three goals and one assist for four points as he picked up an assist on a goal by Tkachuk. Reinhart had one goal and one assist for two points.
Vaerhaeghe’s first NHL hat trick came with the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 9-2 Lightning win over the Vancouver Canucks on January 7, 2020. That was followed by three goals in a 4-3 Panthers win over the Dallas Stars on March 27, 2021, and four goals in a 7-0 Panthers win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on April 1, 2023.
In 2024-25, Verhaeghe has 15 goals and 26 assists for 41 points in 54 games. He was a -12 with 28 penalty minutes, 16 power-play points, four game-winning goals, 165 shots on goal, 10 faceoff wins, 20 blocked shots, 689 hits, 17 takeaways and 59 giveaways.
In 2024-25, the Panthers lead the Atlantic Division. They have a record of 32 wins, 19 regulation losses and three losses in extra time for 67 points.
