It came out of the blue. Like a meteor. A shooting star.

But it landed with a sonic boom.

The Flyers traded their No. 2 prospect, Cutter Gauthier, the leading scorer in the World Junior Championships, to the Anaheim Ducks just prior to  Monday night’s game in exchange for 21-year-old defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a 2025 2nd round pick.

It was a top-secret maneuver. Something the Flyers began exploring last summer after Gauthier declined to attend rookie camp. Gauthier had informed the Flyers he did not want to play in Philadelphia.

The Flyers wanted to give him time and space – in case he changed his mind. But every time they tried to engage with him, he turned a cold shoulder. The last straw came at the World Junior Championships when he refused to meet with Keith Jones and Danny Briere, who flew to Sweden for the event.

Briere said he and Jones were hoping to talk to Gauthier and pitch him on the plan the Flyers had going forward, but Gauthier didn’t want to talk to them.

“We tried to get in touch with him many times and they would not communicate,” Briere said. “At some point we had to make a decision and we thought that with what happened a few days ago, this was our time.”

Briere was referring to Gauthier being the leading scorer in World Juniors, leading Team USA to a gold medal. So the Flyers said, “Screw it” and decided to sell high:


Drysdale was the No. 6 overall pick in the 2020 draft and has played parts of four seasons with the Ducks, entering the league as an 18-year-old in 2020-21.

He posted 32 points in 2021-22, but then missed most of last season with a shoulder injury. He then missed the beginning of this season with a lower-body injury. but has returned to the lineup recently. The right-handed defenseman has a goal and four assists in 10 games with the Ducks. He is expected to arrive tomorrow and could play for the Flyers as soon as Wednesday.

Drysdale is signed for two more seasons with an AAV of 2.3 million.

Briere said the Flyers were engaged with several teams over the course of the past six months, but their interest was piqued when Anaheim mentioned Drysdale being available. The Flyers wanted to wait until he returned from injury to make sure their scouting grades were still accurate. They were pleased with what they saw, and the deal commenced Monday.

The Flyers were especially excited about the ability to acquire Drysdale because they had some real intel on him since hiring former Anaheim GM Bob Murray as a senior advisor.

But why wouldn’t Gauthier want to play for the Flyers? He said when he was drafted that he was born to be a Flyer. What changed?

What if I told you it could have been his connection to Kevin Hayes?

Multiple sources have told me that Hayes was very influential with Gauthier and three of them indicated that Hayes either had direct impact on Gauthier’s decision to not want to play for the Flyers or that it was very possible that he did.

Hayes befriended Gauthier because he, too, starred at Boston College. Gauthier called him a role model and said he was someone he is fortunate to have in his contacts who he can call whenever he needs advice.

Of course, Hayes was not a fan of coach John Tortorella, and put doubts in Gauthier’s mind about what it’s like playing for Torts. Obviously, his influence stretched far beyond young players in the locker room.

How’s that for a nice going away present for the organization after trading him to St. Louis?


There’s a reason Torts has continued to say that there needed to be changes to the locker room, and now we’re seeing another reason why.

As for Gauthier, if that’s the reason you don’t want to play in Philadelphia, then it’s a good thing you’re gone. Really. How long would you have had to play for Torts? Two years? That’s soft, man. Just be ready for a lot of vitriol when you come back here every season. And it will be deserved. Every ounce of it.