Reassessing the Jamie Drysdale-Cutter Gauthier trade as the Flyers and Ducks face off a year later

ANAHEIM, Calif. ― Jamie Drysdale sat in the visitor’s locker room at the Honda Center for the first time in his short NHL career.

“Definitely different,” he said. But, as the Flyers defenseman added, “It has been a year, so I’ve kind of gotten used to the other side of it.”

Almost one year ago, on Jan. 8, general manager Danny Brière sat in his suite at the Wells Fargo Center. Looking down from his perch among the rafters, he was about to unleash a massive twist in the organization’s future.

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At 7:15 p.m. the tweet went out, and 5 minutes later, the email hit everyone’s inbox. The subject line sent shockwaves through the press box: Philadelphia Flyers acquire defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a second-round selection in the 2025 NHL draft from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for forward Cutter Gauthier.

“It was a long time coming. It’s been going on for a while,” Brière said during the first intermission of that game, a 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, of trading the 2022 draft’s fifth overall pick who, the GM added, told the team he didn’t want to play for the Flyers or in Philly.

“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.”

While Gauthier and his advisers, who spoke exclusively with The Inquirer less than 48 hours later, have yet to reveal the reason for not wanting to don orange and black, Gauthier did address it on a Zoom with Anaheim’s media after the trade.

“It wasn’t one specific reason why I asked for a trade,” he said. “It was multiple, [recurring] 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.”

The future will collide on Saturday afternoon (4 p.m., NBCSP) in the first meeting of the season for the Flyers and Ducks before the Ducks flock to Philly on Jan. 11.

“Obviously with all that happened, it’s definitely been a game circled on my calendar, and I’m super excited to play,” Gauthier told local media at a Ducks practice in nearby Irvine, Calif. “It’s been a lot of anticipation leading up to the game, so I’m ready to go out there and play my game.”

Was the game circled for the Flyers?

“Oh, don’t give a [expletive] what he says,” coach John Tortorella said when asked about Gauthier’s comments. “I’m not interested in answering questions about Cutter Gauthier. Don’t wish anything bad on the kid. I’m not going to answer any questions on him.”

Well, the start of his NHL career hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Gauthier.

The forward made his NHL debut last season after wrapping up his college career at Boston College with a 2-0 loss in the NCAA championship game to Flyers prospect Massimo Rizzo and the University of Denver. It came after he said in a pregame television interview that there were going to be “a lot of tears for that team over there.” Whoops.

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He skated in one game on April 18 and registered an assist. This season, he is averaging 14 minutes, 33 seconds of ice time and has four goals and 14 points in 33 games for a Ducks team that went into the holiday break tied with the Detroit Red Wings for the fifth-fewest points in the NHL.

Originally slated on Anaheim’s top line with Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn, Gauthier was benched twice in the team’s fourth game of the season; he did not play the final 8 minutes, 38 seconds of the second period, returned for two shifts in the third, and sat for the final 14:39.

According to Daily Faceoff, Gauthier is now on the third line with Mason McTavish and Robby Fabbri. He has also been downgraded from the No. 1 power play to the second one and has one goal and three assists in his past 12 games.

“He was struggling a bit,” Ducks head coach Greg Cronin told reporters after the game in which he benched Gauthier. “A 20-year-old kid, it’s his [fourth] game in the league. ... Sometimes it’s good to learn by watching.”

That’s a mantra Tortorella likes to use too. But the games Drysdale has “watched” since moving cross-country were because of injury.

After being acquired by the Flyers, the blueliner played 17 of the Flyers’ next 19 games. He skated an average of 18:37 and collected four points. But he suffered a shoulder injury on Feb. 25 after he got trucked by Jansen Harkins, who was then on the Pittsburgh Penguins and now plays for the Ducks. Drysdale returned for the final seven games of the season and had one assist while averaging 19:16 of ice time.

Drysdale also was playing through a core injury, which he suffered in the Ducks season opener, and underwent surgery for it at the end of April. It was another injury to add to the pile for the defenseman drafted sixth overall in 2020 by Anaheim. He made his NHL debut that season but has missed significant time with shoulder injuries, including a torn labrum that required an operation in 2022.

The injury woes continued this season for Drysdale who was placed on injured reserve Nov. 11 with an upper-body injury suffered late in regulation against the Florida Panthers on Nov. 9.

Before the injury, the blueliner had one goal, three points, and a plus-minus of minus-10 in 15 games while averaging more than 20 minutes of ice time. In the three games before facing the Panthers, he was averaging more than 24 minutes and skating primarily on the top pair with Travis Sanheim.

Since returning on Dec. 8, Drysdale has two assists and is minus-3 in eight games while averaging 19:14 of ice time. He is skating with Nick Seeler and is on the point for the first power-play unit.

Tortorella said two days after Drysdale returned that his game is still a work in progress, but he wants to make him a rover like Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets or former NHLer Dan Boyle, two players the Flyers bench boss coached.

“I’m not going to try to turn him into a defensive specialist,” Tortorella said. “I want him up the ice. ... We’ll teach him the defensive part of it. I don’t think he’s ever going to be great at it. I just want him to meet us halfway there. I want him the other way. I want him to see the ice better. He’s going to have to do that with reps because I just don’t think he sees the ice that well right now. I want him aggressive offensively. The defensive part, we’ll live with some of the mistakes. I just want him up there.”

The 22-year-old defenseman feels his game is making strides.

“I think I try and create as much as I can, and I do that the most when my feet are moving,” he said after the Flyers lost to the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 18. “I was playing pretty tentative at the start of the year. I think that my game’s coming along. It’s nowhere near where I think it should be. I got to get more shots here, got to create more.

“[I] feel like sometimes I’m skating, but sometimes a little bit aimlessly, so just being more effective and efficient. So, yeah, it’s a learning process.”