Transaction Analysis: Flyers Acquire Drysdale for Gauthier’s Rights

When all was said and done with Monday’s trade that sent the NHL rights to highly touted forward prospect Cutter Gauthier to the Anaheim Ducks for Jamie Drysdale and a second round pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, the Philadelphia Flyers turned a negative situation into a potential big positive. 

The 411 on Drysdale

In Drysdale, whom Anaheim selected with the sixth overall pick of the 2020 Draft, the Flyers are getting a 21-year-old blueliner with All-Star caliber upside and a coveted right-handed shot. Drysdale is an extremely mobile defenseman with PP1 upside, the ability to trigger breakouts or skate with the puck himself. 

Now a season advisor for the Flyers, Bob Murray was the general manager in Anaheim who drafted Drysdale. Flyers general manager Danny Briere said that Murray spoke very highly of the player both in terms of his potential ceiling in the NHL and his character. 

Drysdale went directly to the NHL in 2020-21 from the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters, although he split his first pro season between the Ducks and the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. Keep in mind that, due to the Covid pandemic, the 2020-21 OHL season was canceled and the CHL/AHL rule was temporarily altered to allow Ontario Hockey League players under the age of 20 to play immediately at the AHL level.

The vast majority of young defensemen, no matter how naturally talented, take a bit longer to develop as pros than forwards. Despite growing pains and tough seasons for the Ducks, Drysdale did show plenty of flashes of high-end offensive ability during the 2021-22 campaign.

Last season, regardless of the Ducks’ ongoing difficulties, Drysdale started to show hints of starting to round out more of his all-around game. Unfortunately, his season soon came to an end as Drysdale suffered a torn labrum and played in just eight games. Early season, after signing a new contract, Drysdale continued to deal with injuries. That is why he only played 10 games for the Ducks this year prior to the trade.

However, Drysdale is now fully healthy again. Briere said the Flyers extensively checked on all of the player’s medical reports to be sure there were no ongoing red flags. The Flyers Hockey Ops staff also reviewed extensive video and in-person scouting reports and found that Drysdale’s game has not suffered from the surgery last year. His skating remains top-notch and he’s making plays. Drysdale posted five points in his 10 games with Anaheim.

When the trade went down, Drysdale told Briere and head coach John Tortorella that he was excited to get started right away with the Flyers. Drysdale could have taken a couple days to get his head together but wanted to be on the ice as a Flyer immediately. 

Drysdale skated with the team at the FTC in Voorhees on Tuesday. He is slated to be in the starting lineup to make his Flyers debut on Wednesday against the Montreal Canadiens. Tortorella indicated that Drysdale will be part of the Flyers’ power play right from the outset. 

The Ducks employ very different systems than the ones that Tortorella and his coaching staff use in Philadelphia. The head coach stated on Monday that he fully expects that Drysdale will need a reasonable amount of time to adjust. Tortorella anticipated that the first discussion he and assistant coach Brad Shaw will have with Drysdale will be about encouraging the player to be more aggressive in jumping into the attack up-ice.

Drysdale, who is not big (5-foot-11, 183 pounds) but has a quick stick and good hockey sense to go along with his excellent skating, still is not a finished product in terms of the defensive game at the NHL level. He’s not bad but there’s opportunity for growth. Tortorella said that the Flyers staff will “teach him defense”.  

For now, though, the Flyers don’t want to throw too much information and direction at the young defenseman all at once. Tortorella said he wants Drysdale to focus first on helping the team offensively. The rest will come organically as he settles in.

How will the Flyers’ defense pairings be affected? Tortorella said that, at least for now, Travis Sanheim will see reps with Drysdale, with Sanheim (who has been on his off side all season and handling it well) moving back to left defense. 

If Drysdale is placed with Sanheim, Cam York may play alongside Sean Walker. That would put Nick Seeler on the third pairing with Rasmus Ristolainen. Tortorella will then have to figure out playing time for  Egor Zamula (who has played well of late, especially on the power play) and veteran Marc Staal, assuming there are no injuries on the blueline.

What happened with Gauthier?

Gauthier, as Briere made crystal clear on Monday evening, no longer had any interest in signing with the Flyers. His camp had cut off all communication with the organization.

Even when Briere and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones traveled to Sweden for the 2023-24 World Junior Championships — both for prospect scouting purposes and in hopes of a face-to-face dialogue with the fifth overall selection of the 2022 Draft — the player would not meet with them.

Gauthier’s attitude about signing with the Flyers changed 180 degrees from the 2022 Draft and offseason — when he was gung ho about being a focal point of the Philadelphia franchise — to last summer. He has not changed his stance. Briere said he does not know why Gauthier’s viewpoint shifted so dramatically, but the Flyers began quietly exploring trade options while holding out hope the hard-shooting forward would warm again to the prospect of being a Flyer.

Finally, it became clear to Briere and Jones that Gauthier’s mind was made up. Although the Flyers could have held Gauthier’s rights for two more seasons –he cannot become a free agent until August 15, 2026 — the player’s pre-NHL trade value hit its peak as Gauthier won the Top Forward award as a member of gold medalist Team USA in the 2023-24 WJC.

Inevitably, it would have leaked publicly that Gauthier had no intention of signing with the Flyers. That would have markedly decreased his value as a trade asset — there’s no way a player with Drysdale’s potential would have been available if Philadelphia had been trading purely from a position of weakness. There’s calculated risk involved in acquiring Drysdale because of the time he missed with injury issues, but there’s also home run potential with the gifted young player.

With Gauthier, there has always been — and still is — lively debate among scouts and hockey operations types as to whether the best position for him in the NHL will be at left wing (his original position) or at center.

The Flyers drafted Gauthier in 2022 with the intention of developing him as a center. He moved from the wing to the middle as a freshman at Boston College  last year and then for Team USA this year (after playing LW at the 2022-23 WJC and 2023 World Championships last year). However, Briere referred twice to Gauthier as a winger during his post-trade media availability on Monday.

Finding the best positional fit for Gauthier did not figure into why the Flyers made the trade, although Briere noted that defense (especially a right-handed shooting defensemen) tends to be a little more highly coveted priority than the wing. That does not apply to wingers with as much upside as Gauthier, however. 

With Anaheim, given the presence of Mason McTavish and Leo Carlsson, Gauthier seemers likelier to by deployed on left wing raher than at center. That’s for the Ducks to figure out.