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The Philadelphia Flyers say that top prospect Cutter Gauthier didn’t want to play for them, so they sent him packing Monday, trading the forward to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a 2025 second-round draft pick.
Flyers general manager Danny Briere told reporters that the trade “was a long time coming.” Briere said when the team first drafted Gauthier that the forward told the front office that he was “built to be a Flyer and wanted to be a Flyer” before ultimately changing his mind.
“Maybe a few months later, he told us he didn’t want to be a Flyer and didn’t want to play for the Flyers,” Briere said. “So, in our mind at first, we have to protect him. 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.”
After Monday night’s 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh, coach John Tortorella was succinct when asked about Gauthier not wanting to play for Philadelphia.
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“Then, we don’t want you,” Tortorella said.
The Flyers had selected Gauthier with the fifth pick of the 2022 NHL draft with the expectation that the hulking forward would be part of their future once he left Boston College, where he is a sophomore.
Tortorella was asked if he was surprised by Gauthier’s decision.
“I don’t know Cutter from a hole in the wall,” Tortorella said. “I’m not too interested in talking about him. I rather talk about Jamie. He’s the guy who’s coming here.”
But Gauthier, 19, has been in the news, scoring two goals and had 12 points over seven games as the U.S. won its sixth gold medal at the IIHF world junior hockey championship last week. Gauthier finished tied with Buffalo Sabres prospect and Czechia center Jiri Kulich for the most points in the tournament.
So what would make the Flyers decide to move on from arguably their most promising prospect just days after he helped the U.S. win gold?
Briere said the team tried giving Gauthier space and tried to get in touch with him several times only to…
Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/39272288/flyers-trade-prospect-cutter-gauthier-want-you
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Publish date : 2024-01-09 15:49:16
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