Gauthier traded to Ducks by Flyers for Drysdale, draft pick

Cutter Gauthier, the No. 5 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, was traded to the Anaheim Ducks by the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday for Jamie Drysdale and a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.

Gauthier has 23 points (13 goals, 10 assists) in 17 games for Boston College this season. The 19-year-old was also named the best forward at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship, when he had 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in seven games to help the United States win the gold medal.

Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said Gauthier expressed an unwillingness to play for them as early as last May.

“It was a long time coming,” Briere said during the first intermission of Philadelphia’s 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. “It's been going on for a while. We tried to give him space. We tried to get in touch with him many times; they would not communicate as far as the Gauthier side. So, at some point we had to make a decision and we thought with what happened just a few days ago (leading scorer at WJC), this was our time to probably get the highest value.

“Not very often you get the chance to find a Jamie Drysdale that you can add to your lineup. When that came about and his name was made available, we got really excited. The chance to add a player of this caliber to a premium position as a right-shot defenseman for a left winger just made a lot of sense, and we felt it was the right time to do it.”

Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said he was excited to have Drysdale in the fold after being asked about Gauthier's desire to play elsewhere.

“I don't know Cutter from a hole in the wall,” Tortorella said. “I'm not too interested in talking about him. I'd rather talk about Jamie; he's [the] guy that's coming here.

“… Just talked to Jamie. Watched a lot of tape on him, obviously had discussions. We're really excited about the opportunity. A 21-year-old right-handed shot, put him on the power play right away, one of [the units]. He's just starting. Kid's head's spinning right now. It's his first time at this, but we're really excited about the opportunity. I think it's a really good deal for us.”

Drysdale had five points (one goal, four assists) in 10 games with Anaheim this season. He missed 29 games from Oct. 16-Dec. 20 because of a lower-body injury.

Selected by the Ducks with the No. 6 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, the 21-year-old defenseman has 45 points (eight goals, 37 assists) in 123 NHL games.

"When I look at our system, our organization and the depth of our system, we do not have a player like this in our organization," Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said of Gauthier. .... "When I discussed with our amateur scouts, there's not a player like this coming, so two years down the road in his development, he should be able to come in and play in the NHL. That all went into this decision. … There's certain times when you want to shake things up, this wasn't the case. This was a need case, in my view."

Philadelphia (20-14-6) is fourth in the Metropolitan Division; Anaheim (13-25-1) is seventh in the Pacific Division.

“We were hoping that at some point he would change his mind,” Briere said of Gauthier. “He had already changed his mind. He looked at us at the draft and told us he was built to be a Flyer, wanted to be a Flyer, and then a few maybe months later told us that he didn't want to be a Flyer, didn't want to play for the Flyers. So, in our mind at first, we said we have to protect him because if he changes his mind again and it's out there that he doesn't want to play, it's going to be tough for him to put the uniform on. But when we realized that they refuse to talk to us now, it's been months, he didn't want to be a Flyer, didn't want to be in Philadelphia, it was time to make it happen.”

NHL.com deputy managing editor Adam Kimelman and independent correspondent Dan Arritt contributed to this report