What If the Flyers Never Traded Cutter Gauthier?

From the time he was drafted up until the minute he was traded, Cutter Gauthier was expected to help guide the Philadelphia Flyers through a grueling rebuild, which began essentially from scratch after a number of top draft picks failed to break out or establish themselves.

As we now know, those days never came, and Gauthier’s previous responsibilities have since been placed on the shoulders of the Flyers’ lone 2024 first-round pick, 17-year-old center Jett Luchanko.

To this day, it’s still unclear what exactly happened that caused Gauthier to spurn the Flyers for months in an effort to force his way out of Philadelphia. But what would the Flyers’ future outlook be had Gauthier remained in the organization and squarely a key piece of its long-term plans?

For starters, the Flyers would be without Jamie Drysdale on the right side of their defense, as well as the 2025 second-round pick that was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks alongside him. Not that Drysdale is guaranteed to become the star in the NHL that he was touted to be when he was picked in 2020, but his absence would leave the Flyers with a gaping hole on the right side of the defense, if for no reason other than the wide gulf of talent between Drysdale and his peers.

One could argue that if Gauthier was never traded, the Flyers could have opted to select a defenseman in the 2024 draft rather than a center like Luchanko. Danny Briere and Co. had the perfect opportunity to make that a reality in the real world, but they collectively decided to pass on University of Denver star Zeev Buium in favor of Luchanko.

Buium, of course, was drafted one spot later, getting snapped up by the Minnesota Wild with the 14th overall pick.

So far, the Flyers would hypothetically have a core of Gauthier, Matvei Michkov, and Buium.

Speaking of Michkov, let’s go back to the 2023 NHL Draft, when the Flyers already knew they had an issue with Gauthier and attempted to send him to the Montreal Canadiens to acquire the No. 5 overall pick.

That trade obviously never came to be, so I’m not going to play pretend and make it so.

However, the rift between Gauthier and the Flyers might explain why the team opted for a talented young defenseman, Oliver Bonk, rather than a burgeoning winger in Gabe Perreault, one of Gauthier’s Boston College teammates and close friends.

Perreault, 19, was drafted one spot after Bonk in the 2023 draft, going 23rd overall to the New York Rangers. In his first season in the NCAA, Perreault racked up 19 goals, 41 assists, and 60 points in just 36 games played.

The 5-foot-11 winger’s 60 points tied him for fourth in the NCAA in total scoring this past season, with only Macklin Celebrini and BC teammates Gauthier and Will Smith ahead of him. Perreault sounds like the kind of offensive talent the Flyers need, doesn’t he?

For further hypotheticals, let’s assume that Buium and Perreault both turn pro at the end of the upcoming NCAA season. How would the Flyers line up then?

Forwards

Cutter Gauthier – Sean Couturier – Matvei Michkov

Owen Tippett – Morgan Frost – Travis Konecny

Gabe Perreault (AHL?) – Noah Cates – Tyson Foerster

Joel Farabee – Scott Laughton/Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway

Extras: Nicolas Deslauriers

Defense

Cam York – Travis Sanheim

Zeev Buium – Rasmus Ristolainen

Nick Seeler – Egor Zamula

Extras: Ronnie Attard, Erik Johnson

Ideally, Perreault isn’t playing as a third-line forward with Joel Farabee getting moved down to the fourth line. There would obviously be some work to do there, without proposing that specific players get traded in order to build a more proportionate team with balance and variation.

The defense, even sans Drysdale, looks equally as talented on paper as it does in real life currently, though I suppose it’s concerning that Ristolainen, coming off an injury, would be the only regular right-shot in the lineup. The Flyers could always address that in a later draft, though.

Speaking of later drafts, it’s also worth noting that Gauthier’s agent, Kurt Overhardt, represents a lot of good players. He also represents Ryan Johansen, who doesn’t seem like he’s going to step foot in a hockey rink as a member of the Flyers organization.

Although Briere primarily offered size as the reason the Flyers passed on Buium in the 2024 draft, the 18-year-old defenseman is also represented by Overhardt. If a problem with the agent is having ripple effects due to whatever happened with Gauthier, it’s something the team is going to need to address, and quickly, because it appears to be actively impeding the front office from putting together the best possible rendition of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Overhardt’s time as an agent precedes Briere’s time as general manager, and he’ll be around long after Briere is gone, too.

What’s in the past is in the past, and now it’s up to the Flyers to prove that they have been making the right decisions.