Flyers trade Cutter Gauthier to Ducks

By Corey Pronman, Scott Wheeler, Kevin Kurz and Eric Stephens

It’s been a busy week for Cutter Gauthier.

Three days after the star forward and the Americans took home gold in the 2024 World Junior Championship, Gauthier was traded from the Philadelphia Flyers to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, the teams announced Monday.

Gauthier, the Flyers’ No. 5 pick in 2022, has yet to make his NHL debut. He was named the world juniors’ top forward after leading the U.S. with 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) and has spent the past two seasons skating for Boston College.

Drysdale, however, is in his fourth professional season, having just agreed to a three-year extension with the Ducks in October. The 21-year-old was selected No. 6 in the 2020 NHL Draft and joined the pros that season. He had 32 points in 2021-22 to rank second behind Detroit Red Wings’ Moritz Seider in rookie defenseman scoring, but a torn labrum in his left shoulder limited his 2022-23 season to only eight games.

What the deal means

The main sub context of this deal is that Gauthier had indicated he did not want to sign with the Flyers months ago. The World Juniors was the tipping point where it became clear that a trade may need to happen after they could not meet with him. — Corey Pronman, senior NHL prospects writer

Who wins the trade?

Gauthier is a legit top prospect who could be a top-line forward. He’s a 6-3 center who can skate, is very skilled and has a high-end shot. But Drysdale is not that much inferior of a player, he’s just been hurt a lot. At the top of his game, he looked like a projected top-pair defenseman in the NHL due to his elite skating combined with strong puck-moving ability although he’s not that big.

The Ducks get the best player of the two currently, but given the circumstances, Drysdale is still a very good long-term piece for the Flyers who lacked a top young defenseman of his caliber. — Pronman

Why the Ducks made the move

This is a sleuth move by the Ducks, who operate from a unique position of strength due to their abundance of high-end young defensemen. Much has been written about how three of their D prospects — Pavel Mintyukov, Tristan Luneau and Olen Zellweger — won the CHL’s three defensemen of the year awards last season. Mintyukov has since become one of the top rookie defensemen in the NHL. Luneau (prior to being hospitalized for an infection ahead of the world juniors) had more than held his own to start his pro career in the AHL and NHL. And Zellweger has been one of the top young D in the AHL to start this season. In Drysdale, they move an asset they likely felt was becoming expendable — and one whose early career has been impacted by injuries after a promising rookie season in 2021-22. He’s still a highly mobile and talented young defenseman, but he’s not viewed in the same regard as Gauthier. — Scott Wheeler, senior NHL writer

To give up a sweet-skating 21-year-old defenseman with upside who can play big minutes and a second-round pick for a 19-year-old forward in his second college season who hasn’t played an NHL game is quite the move and it’s going to be talked about for years in terms of who won this trade. But Anaheim general manager Pat Verbeek is showing that he isn’t shy when it comes to deal-making.

Verbeek knew that Gauthier wasn’t going to sign with Philadelphia and had the Boston College standout in his sights. The thinking here is Gauthier, a big power forward who can score and play a physical brand of hockey, could not only give Anaheim versatility up front in that he can play center as well as the wing but be the kind of forward prospect it needs that could potentially run shotgun with rookie center Leo Carlsson, a 19-year-old viewed as a potential superstar, for the next decade.

For the Flyers to trade their top prospect outside of Matvei Michkov is a choice but GM Daniel Briere may not have had one and went with the best deal he could make. Drysdale could play on the Philadelphia blue line for the next 10 years or more, but Verbeek was dealing from a position of strength. The Ducks are stacked in terms of defense prospects in their system. Luneau couldn’t play in the world juniors due to a knee infection but he’s bigger than Drysdale (which Verbeek likes) and there’s a feeling that he may have more upside as a potential right-shooting offensive force from the back end. — Eric Stephens, Ducks beat writer

When could Gauthier join his new team in the pros?

It’s an unenviable position for the Flyers, who would have been operating without a ton of leverage and are ultimately forced to move on from one of the top forward prospects in the sport. Gauthier is a premium asset and the kind of one that is rarely made available — a potential bonafide top-six center (who can also play the wing!) with size, plus-skating, athletic tools, an NHL shot and legitimate skill. He’s got pedigree with the national program, is already a two-time standout at the world juniors, scored seven goals at men’s worlds last spring and is viewed as one of the best players in college hockey this season. He should turn pro after his sophomore season at BC this year and step directly into a Ducks lineup that is already well-built around a core of Mason McTavish, Leo Carlsson, Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry. — Wheeler

The excitement Flyers fans had for Gauthier only grew throughout the World Junior Championship, as the prospect excelled for Team USA. The thought was that Gauthier would sign with the club after finishing his sophomore season at Boston College, and join the Flyers for what might be a playoff push in a few more months. Instead, after informing the Flyers that he wasn’t interested in signing with the club per The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, he’s now headed to Anaheim. And the Flyers’ prospect pool has taken a significant hit. — Kevin Kurz, Flyers beat writer

What the Flyers get in Drysdale

Drysdale is an NHL-ready defenseman and can step in right away on the Flyers’ blue line, perhaps even in a power-play role (the Flyers entered Monday’s game with Pittsburgh with the league’s worst power play).

As a right-handed shot, and with pending unrestricted free agent Sean Walker potentially on the trading block, Drysdale could be a valuable piece for the present and the future. — Kurz

Required reading

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