Winners and Losers from 2023 Philadelphia Flyers Development Camp
The Philadelphia Flyers’ 2023 Development Camp kicked off on the wrong foot when Cutter Gauthier declined his invite, but plenty of others still impressed.
Development camp is an exciting time for the Philadelphia Flyers and Flyers fans, and especially more so as of late. Plenty of prospects, such as the likes of Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, and Emil Andrae, all have legitimate shots at making the Flyers’ NHL roster in 2023.
Bobby Brink and Tyson Foerster are both facing uphill battles to make the NHL roster strictly because of the Flyers’ roster composition. The Flyers already have righties Owen Tippett, Cam Atkinson, Travis Konecny, Wade Allison, Garnet Hathaway, and Tanner Laczynski on the roster. The former three are already established on the Flyers roster, which seems to leave Foerster and Brink competing for Allison’s spot. Laczynski is 26 now and has been in and out of the Flyers lineup and hasn’t earned regular minutes.
Loser: Cutter Gauthier
One player who will have less competition than the rest of his peers is 2022 fifth overall pick Cutter Gauthier. Gauthier made headlines this week when he declined his invitation to the Philadelphia Flyers’ development camp. Gauthier is well within his rights to do so, but it’s a comment that Daniel Briere made in regards to it that sounded some alarms.
In regards to why Cutter Gauthier bypassed camp, Briere said “We’ll find out a little bit more. We’re trying to figure out why he didn’t want to come, but at this point I’m not too worried about that”. This could very well just be politicking to keep things in house, but on the surface, not knowing why your top prospect is skipping camp is a bit concerning.
To this point, there’s been no indication that Cutter Gauthier wishes to leave the Philadelphia Flyers organization. He remains on their reserve list and the team will have until August 15, 2026 to sign him. There’s also an NCAA rule that a pro team can only cover a development camp once, which the Flyers did with Gauthier already last summer. If Gauthier wanted to attend this summer, he’d have to cover his own bases. However, with no competition in his way, it would’ve been nice to see Gauthier at development camp.
There’s been external debate about whether the Boston College talisman is a winger or a center at the pro level. It’s likely the Flyers want to know the same, and this would’ve been a great step towards finding the answer alongside his future teammates.