The New Unending Flyers thread

[zambonir]

Mr. Snider would be proud (not sure that's a good thing).

"You don't want to be a Flyer? You're not going to be a Flyer."

Flyers President of Hockey Ops, Keith Jones discusses the trade with the Ducks. pic.twitter.com/btUehFXsVO

— Sportsnet ( @Sportsnet ) January 9, 2024

[xogfog]

I hope Cutter Gauthier is a complete failure, ■■■■ him.

[zambonir]

Too bad they couldn't trade him to the Nordiques

[zambonir]

Speculative, of course.

That draft was in July 2022. Brière said that sometime between then and last May, when Gauthier was starring for Team USA. at the 2023 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship — he had seven goals in 10 games in that tournament — Gauthier decided that he didn’t want to play for the Flyers anymore. Brière and president Keith Jones came on board as the organization’s new leadership team that same month, May 2023, but a source with knowledge of the situation said Monday night that Gauthier had soured on the Flyers before Brière and Jones were hired.

So what changed? During a podcast interview in April 2023, just a month before, Gauthier said that he had been in touch with and “pretty close to” Kevin Hayes. A Boston College alumnus, Hayes of course had spent much of the 2022-23 season in John Tortorella’s doghouse before the Flyers traded him to the St. Louis Blues last June. When asked if Hayes might have spoken to Gauthier about Tortorella or the organization in a manner that would have turned Gauthier off about the Flyers, the source didn’t rule it out.

“Not sure,” the source said.

Trading Cutter Gauthier is the Flyers’ first big setback in their rebuild

[zambonir]

This is probably the best piece on all of it. Hayes denies ever saying a word (but lots of other details and theories too). Not paywalled.

The Cutter Gauthier trade: Breaking down the when, why, and how of the Flyers'...

Scott Hartnell thinks Gauthier would have signed last year and maybe wasn't happy the Flyers wanted him to spend another year in college.

[Aquapong]

Well that’s a shocker. I wonder who gets sent down, released, or traded? I imagine Staal will get released or traded for something minor. Unless Zamula hasn’t played well there’s no reason to keep playing time from him. Or it could just expedite a Walker or Seeler trade.

[Aquapong]

Drysdale gets an assist and a nice cheer from the crowd in his first game. Cutter who?

[zambonir]

Gauthier received death threats for not wanting to play for Flyers

Just when Philly phans were starting to be lovable again. Hayes got them too.

Obviously death threats are never acceptable but even the anger seems misplaced to me. Hardly the first player to do this. Some of them even wait and go back into the draft.

And there there was Lindros of course. Heck, Drysdale held out of training camp this year too (though that was for his next contract).

It sounds to me like the breaking point was that the Flyers didn't want to sign him (and pay/start his free agency clock) after just one year of college. It's just weird that wasn't clear at the time. But they probably got more from him now then they would have at the draft (in fact that's fairly certainly, since they were already shopping him then and wanted Montreal's pick).

That said, Gauthier is still declining to say what really happened (if you can read the story).

[Aquapong]

Dislike the kid, but death threats are stupid.

Then again, the “I’m getting death threats” trope seems to be the go to mantra for anyone unpopular to generate sympathy. Who cares about this kid enough for death threats?

[phillychuck]

Death threats on the internet don't seem to usually be very serious. People have gotten death threats on the 'net for being left handed.

[zambonir]

lol Torts ripped into San Fillippo about the Kevin Hayes stuff.

[xogfog]

Flyers with a nice win in a shootout over the Canadians tonight.

So, should we call him J.D. Gauthier or Cutter Drew? Whoever throws the first battery wins!

[zambonir]

The funny thing is J.D. Drew was almost entirely the Phillies' fault. They shouldn't have drafted him, or they should have paid him. Even if Boras was also underhanded about it.

This doesn't seem to be the Flyers' fault but their spin on it, and the kid's refusal to talk to them or talk about it, makes it easy to turn the kid into a bad guy when he's just exercising his rights as a player. If he was a baseball player his rights would have simply ceased to belong to the Flyers simply by going to college (and he also could have gone back into the draft after one year instead of four).

I suppose they probably still boo Adam Fox in Calgary.

The most interesting thing about this season might be the emergence of Ersson.

[zambonir]

Cutter Gauthier on his trade to Anaheim and more | The Sporting Tribune

“It wasn’t one specific reason why I asked for a trade,” said Gauthier. “It was multiple, re-occurring 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.”

O'Connor's tweet in response to this:

Honestly, if Gauthier said, "Look, from when I got drafted through May '23, the Flyers org looked like a total shitshow & once I made up my mind, I wasn't reversing course," I actually think a lot of fans would get it.

They remember what the org seemed like during that timespan.

— Charlie O'Connor ( @charlieo_conn ) January 11, 2024

[Austinfan]

The problem they had with Gauthier is he didn't say anything about not wanting to play in Philly before the draft, they would have just taken Jiricek (big RHD) instead. Waits a year, then tells them no way he's signing, won't meet with new GM and President, and won't give a reason.

So not only were they blindsided, they don't even know why.

However, if Drysdale stays healthy, it's a wash, because his upside is similar to Gauthier and fills a bigger need.

They wanted Gauthier to return to college b/c he was LW with USDP with Cooley at center, so he needed time to play center and they wanted to evaluate him in that role.
He was OK, but not someone you'd project more than a 2C (think a faster Brayden Schenn), and Anaheim is going to use him at LW. As a LW, he has less value, he's going to score goals, but defense and IQ are still a question.

Drysdale had a torn labrum a couple years ago and a foot injury this year, got rushed by Anaheim, then injuries have slowed his development. Now has to adjust to a different scheme (zone instead of man) and role (Torts wants him to be a rover), so we may not see his true potential until next season. But has true jets, playmaker, biggest weakness is his shot and his defensive fundamentals, first may come in the weight room, second with tutelage by Shaw. #6 pick.

The 2nd rd pick should be around #40 in 2025.

[zambonir]

Well yeah, he was all-in when they drafted him. Something changed over the next 11 months. I think the idea that he decided the organization was a mess and was not at all impressed with the hiring of Jones and Briere (even though Briere would have been heavily involved with drafting him in the first place) seems like the obvious explanation. They were hired on May 11 and by the end of that month (the world championships ended May 28) he was out.

Whether the question of him playing or not playing in the NHL this year came up, who knows? Seems unlikely it would have just in those few weeks of May. It's still bizarre (and immature) that he wouldn't engage with the team but part of that is probably the fact that he's an NCAA player without a real agent (you can only have one if you're actually talking contract) so he either wasn't getting enough advice or was getting bad informal advice. He's still only 19!

Everyone loves Jonesy and Briere personally and you also gotta love how they've done so far (including their handling of this incident PR-wise) but there are very few Flyers fans who also didn't believe the franchise was a complete wreck, and those hirings were the same old same old, at the time.

The trade was good. And the fact that they prevented it from ever getting public (even as every GM in the NHL must have known since June) is impressive. The fact that Drysdale had the injury history and the holdout is what made him available too.

[Aquapong]

Brayden Schenn has had a nice run with the Blues. Won the Cup with them in 2019 and is now their captain. The picks we got for him turned into Frost and Farabee.

Gotta wonder how the bubble year would’ve turned out with Schenn on the team.

[zambonir]

Who needs football

[bkeich]

Who needs football

I want to start to believe. I really do. The Flyers just seem to burn me every time I get excited about a season.

Ok. I am in. This may be the moment the season went to crap, sorry.

Can I trust Briere to stick with the plan and not trade away you to make an ill timed run this year?

[zambonir]

I don't think they will squander any future assets, unless it's something like the Phillies' trade for Marsh, where the return is someone who will be around for a while too. Maybe they stand pat, maybe they just hold on to a few vets they wouldn't have otherwise. They don't really need to add anything to just try and get in, and once you're in - especially with the goaltending they have - who knows?

And there's still nothing stopping them from continuing to be in more of a rebuild or aggressive trade mode in the off-season.