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Quitter Gauthier Says “Multiple, Re-Occurring Issues” Led to Flyers Trade Request
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Quitter Gauthier spoke a bit about his forced trade out of Philadelphia. In a writeup by Derek Lee at The Sporting Tribune, which is a regional Southern California/Vegas site, he claimed he had no issue playing for Torts:
“All those rumors saying I was scared of Torts, that’s not the case at all,” continued Gauthier. “I’ve had many hardo coaches throughout my whole life and I think that any coach I play for would love to have me on their team. I want to do whatever it takes to win and if they’re a hard, yelling, screaming kind of coach, I’ll roll with the punches. I’m never going to disrespect or talk back to a coach. I’m going to give it my all every single shift and that was definitely not the reason why I didn’t want to play in Philly. I actually met Torts during dev camp two years back. I was super excited and thrilled to meet him and obviously being a big name in hockey and the coaching staff industry, definitely was not against playing for him whatsoever.”
“I think that any coach I play for would love to have me on their team.” Alright then.
He also said this, which I think is the most interesting nugget coming out of these otherwise sanitized statements:
“It wasn’t one specific reason why I asked for a trade,” said Gauthier. “It was multiple, re-occurring issues that I’d seen over the past year and a half, two years of being under the Flyers organization. It kind of hit me all at once, thinking ‘I can’t move forward with this’ and ‘I really need to step up for myself and see what’s best for my future’ and that’s what I did.”
Okay so out one side of the mouth comes “private matter,” and out the other side it’s “multiple, re-occurring issues.” Like what? Like the change in GM? Comcast restructuring at the top? The past “year and a half” would take us back to the summer of 2022, and Torts was hired a few weeks before the draft, so if anything, the Flyers have only stabilized and re-organized further since Gauthier was drafted. Plus, if he stopped communicating with the organ-I-zation, then how would anyone be able to answer to and address these “re-occurring issues” anyway? Him reportedly not even speaking with John LeClair and Patrick Sharp is a bad look. Just immature no matter how you slice it. You’re just ghosting.
Unfortunately this answers nothing. Maybe one day this kid will grow up and give a real explanation for why he flaked.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com