By Corey Pronman, Shayna Goldman and Eric Duhatschek
Anaheim Ducks get: Forward cutter Gauthier
Philadelphia Flyers received: Defenseman Jamie Drysdale, 2025 second-round pick
Corey Pronman: The main reason for this deal is that Gauthier indicated months ago that he didn't want to sign with the Flyers. There was a turning point at the World Juniors where it became clear that a trade might have to happen after they couldn't meet him. GM Daniel Briere and AGM Brent Flahr were present in Gothenburg.
Gauthier is a real top prospect who could become a top striker. He is a 6-foot-3 center who can skate, is very skilled and has a high-end shot. There has been a debate for several years as to whether Gauthier is an NHL center or a winger, as there have been minor concerns about his hockey sense. He was the USA's top center at the last World Junior Championships and one of the tournament's best overall players. In Anaheim, he'll likely play on the wing alongside someone like Leo Carlsson or Mason McTavish. This gives Anaheim a potentially lethal young group of forwards to build around as they try to emerge from a rebuild.
Anaheim also had a bit of a dilemma with its young defenders. Pavel Mintyukov excelled in the NHL as a teenager. He would compete with Jamie Drysdale for power play time in the long run. As well as upcoming prospects Olen Zellweger and Tristan Luneau. Drysdale is much better than the latter two, but they are all really offensive-minded talents and there is limited power play time. Anaheim operated from a position of strength in this regard. They need to figure out what their blue line of the future looks like, and in a defense-heavy 2024 NHL Draft they could select defenseman with their first pick since the current group doesn't look like the core for a contender. Ideally, they would add a strong two-way defender.
Gauthier is a great player, but Drysdale isn't a bad candidate (especially when Gauthier is a long-time winger and Anaheim happened to announce him as a left winger in their press release), he has only been seriously injured in 18 NHL games since the 2022 season played. At the peak of his game, he seemed like a likely top-pair defenseman in the NHL due to his elite skating and strong puck-moving ability, despite not being that big. If he's been this healthy the last few weeks, he looks like a minute-hogging defender. It's easy to forget how good he looked as a teenager when he came up through the Ducks organization a few years ago.
The Ducks currently have the best player of the two, but given the circumstances, Drysdale is still a very good long-term player for the Flyers, who lacked a top young defenseman of his caliber. In the long term, he would be ahead of defender Cam York on the team, for example. He just needs to stay healthy
Duck class: A-
Note of the flyer: B-
Shayna Goldman: It's easy to chalk this up as a loss for the Flyers – after all, they're losing the best player in the deal. And the recent hype surrounding the Junior World Championships isn't helping at the moment, as everyone still knows exactly how great Gauthier is. Management likely envisioned the 2022 No. 5 pick as a cornerstone of the rebuild. But that can't happen if the player doesn't want to sign there. The second it's known, and it's pretty obvious when he's formed, Philadelphia is losing a lot of influence. Therefore, it is far from ideal for them from start to finish.
The good thing is that management here isn't getting away with nothing. Sure, they're the losers in the trade, but it could have been worse – they could have lost him for nothing when his draft rights expired, or they could have gotten ripped off on him outright, and that didn't happen here. A second-round pick is valuable to a rebuilding team like the Flyers, as is Drysdale.
Drysdale hasn't really broken through at the NHL level yet, and injuries have a lot to do with that. But there's still untapped potential here for the 21-year-old – he's someone who could develop into a top-four defender. If he can stay healthy, it will be no surprise if he completes the defensive elements of his game that need to be worked on under John Tortorella and Brad Shaw. And in the meantime, he could bring some strengths that the Flyers need right now. Philadelphia's power play has been a disaster this season, so it can't hurt to bring in someone who could step in at quarterback on the top unit and potentially provide a spark.
Jamie Drysdale has not yet been successful at the NHL level for Anaheim. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
While the Flyers have some upside here, the Ducks are the winners in this trade. There have been some questions about whether Trevor Zegras can be the man in Anaheim that puts more value on the forward group around him. Along with Zegras, Troy Terry and Mason McTavish, this team has now added Leo Carlsson and Gauthier to the roster last year. There's still a lot of young talent at the top that should help the Ducks regain their clout soon and stay there for a long time.
Considering what they have in their pipeline at the back – including Pavel Mintyukov, who is playing at the NHL level this season, Olen Zellweger and Tristan Luneau – management can afford to move Drysdale. Pat Verbeek took advantage of an area where there was a surplus of talent to further round out the forward group. Therefore, the defense in Anaheim may be less inspiring without him in the near future, their eyes are rightfully on the bigger picture that this trade supports. It's a bold move, but a manager in Verbeek's position should pay attention. When rebuilding, it's all about the talent to make a difference, and that brings with it a player who has tons of potential to be that.
Duck class: A
Note of the flyer: b
Eric Duhatschek: So this is a real blockbuster that you don't often see in the NHL. Two young players, both with the chance to become stars of the league, traded for each other. But last week there were rumors in the GM community that the Flyers might have trouble signing Gauthier, even though they had owned his rights long before losing him as a free agent. But GM Daniel Briere just isn't brave, and this is a bold move to address a potential problem before it even becomes one.
From Anaheim’s perspective, the deal makes a lot of sense. Organizationally, the organization was knee-deep in a defensive perspective. Last year, the Ducks had the best defenseman in each of Canada's major junior leagues – Olen Zellweger in the WHL, Tristan Luneau in Quebec and Pavel Mintyukov in Ontario. Of the three, only Mintyukov had seen regular NHL action this season, but the Ducks had trusted him to be the best power play unit until Drysdale recovered from his core muscle injury, which he suffered in just the second game of the season , returning resulted in him missing a total of 29 games. It should be noted that Drysdale also missed most of last season as he recovered from shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum that limited him to just eight games. That means he has seen limited action at the NHL level over the past two years or since he recorded 32 points in 81 games as an NHL sophomore in 2021-22 – excellent results for a player who is starting out was a teenager this season.
So his potential is high – potentially an up-and-coming No. 1 defenseman, a dynamic talent from the blue line, with great hockey sense, very good at knowing when to pinch hit and when to stay back. Additionally, the Ducks also had Jackson LaCombe available, who joined the organization after playing for the University of Minnesota last year and played most of the season in the NHL until being sent down to the minors just last week.
That means they had the blue line depth to play Gauthier, the fifth player selected in the 2022 draft, the same player the Ducks got Mintyukov at No. 10. He should be a good addition to an up-and-coming group of young players. Anaheim's forwards include Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish and Leo Carlsson, who was selected second overall last June and is now out due to injury. It's a more impressive core of young forwards that fits in with the four quality defensive prospects.
As for the Flyers, they had recently been using Egor Zamula to play the spot on their top power play, a position he would hand over to Drysdale fairly quickly. On paper, it just looks like a win for both organizations. Ducks GM Pat Verbeek probably said it best: It's a deal that has to be made because a player of Gauthier's pedigree isn't available via trade very often. It's also worth noting that the manager who drafted Drysdale to the Ducks, Bob Murray, is now serving as a consultant for the Flyers and thus would have made valuable contributions.
Duck class: A
Note of the flyer: B+
(Photo by Editor Gauthier: Adam Ihse/ TT / AFP)