It’s July 7th, 2022. The Philadelphia Flyers have the fifth overall pick in the 2022 draft and take future Boston College winger and elite goal scoring prospect Cutter Gauthier.
Just a year and a half after drafting Gauthier, the Flyers traded him to the Anaheim Ducks for former 2020 sixth overall pick Jamie Drysdale and a 2025 second round pick.
You know the rest of the story.
Flyers General Manager Danny Brière then continued his relationship with Anaheim this past offseason, trading Columbus’s 2025 second round pick, the Flyers’ own 2026 fourth round pick, and Ryan Poehling for Trevor Zegras.
Looking back on the entire three-year window, a lot of Flyers fans did a lot of complaining about the Gauthier situation, what Brière was able to get for Gauthier, and piling on Drysdale basically just for not being Gauthier.
It is time for the Flyers fanbase to get over the Cutter Gauthier trade.
Now, that statement doesn’t mean Flyers fans should stop feeling betrayed or hurt by what Gauthier did; clearly there were problems on his side that he did a bad job of communicating to the Flyers. What that statement does mean is that Briere and Drysdale can stop being attacked for a situation Briere went into in handcuffs.
Two years removed from the original trade, the Flyers and Ducks have basically created a hybrid trade, with both major trades between the two sides seemingly being lopsided in one teams favor over the other.
If this was one blockbuster trade it would have looked like:
PHI Receives: Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, pick number 40 in the 2025 NHL Draft
ANA Receives: Cutter Gauthier, Ryan Poehling, pick number 45 in the 2025 NHL Draft, 2026 fourth round pick
Even before this season started, it seemed that overall the Flyers may have slightly won the fake mega-trade. They get two elite prospects who needed a new home badly. Drysdale was always hurt and Zegras was being misused and buried in the lineup. A change of scenery was necessary. The Flyers and Ducks also made a “pick swap” which resulted in the Flyers jumping up five spots early in the second round of the 2025 draft.
On the other side, the Ducks got an elite goal scoring prospect, a bottom six center to replace Zegras, and a fourth round 2026 draft pick. Seems more fair than not for both sides, right?
Well… the Flyers might have made out even better than expected. This season has been nothing but incredible for both Zegras and Drysdale. Yes, Gauthier has 19 goals and 19 assists for 38 points in 41 games, which is pretty good for a guy in his second year in the NHL. However, Zegras is currently sitting at 15 goals and 24 assists for 39 points in 40 games. Just a bit better than Gauthier with less around him.
On top of that, Drysdale has officially broken out. On the surface, the numbers aren’t insanely eye-popping. Drysdale has three goals and 15 assists for 18 points in 40 games. For a defenseman, that’s not too bad, but where Drysdale has really found his game is in his own end. He not only has been phenomenal defensively in his own end, but he has also been one of the best defensemen in the league this season breaking out of the defensive zone when the Flyers gain possession of the puck.
Overall, the four players involved in the trade have not been too bad, but if a casual hockey fan was asked which duo has been better this season, a majority of them will probably say Zegras and Drysdale.
Advanced analytics will also show you the same story. Yes, analytics are a hot topic of discussion especially on Flyers Twitter right now, but they are showing the same thing the eye test is: Zegras and Drysdale are having their best seasons as pros, while also being a bit better than Gauthier and Poehling.
It’s shocking, honestly, how much of a leap both Zegras and Drysdale have had this season. Obviously Zegras was struggling with Anaheim, and Drysdale was trying to finally have a developmental season where he didn’t get injured, but for both of them to take this type of leap is a great sign for the future of the Flyers.
Again, the opinion on Gauthier himself doesn’t have to change in the fanbase.
The problem with Gauthier in the eyes of the fanbase was that he blatantly ignored the Flyers when being asked to be talked to multiple times in multiple scenarios, such as phone calls, visits to Boston College, and the front office trip to Sweden. It screamed of immaturity and disrespect to the team that took a chance on him and drafted him. None of that changed. What happened happened, and Gauthier will have to reap what he sowed his entire career.
The thing that does need to change is the fans who attack Brière and Drysdale for the trade. Drysdale is a very, very, very good hockey player. Clearly he’s not a perennial 40-goal scoring forward, but you do need steady top pairing defensemen to win too. Drysdale falls in that category perfectly. Brière then went and replaced Gauthier with a point per game forward for only a depth forward and two picks, neither of them being first rounders.
For being put in a situation the Flyers would’ve rather not been in, Brière did a fantastic job repairing that broken piece of the roster.
The Flyers are hosting the Ducks tomorrow, which means yet another game where Gauthier has to come to the XMo and hear the music.
While jeering Gauthier is probably never going to stop, it’s time to get over the Gauthier trade itself. It’s been two years and the Flyers are in a better position now than they probably would’ve been in if they never traded Gauthier in the first place.
