The Philadelphia Flyers were forced to trade Cutter Gauthier earlier this season. He was their fifth overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft but he had no intentions of ever signing with them.
After months and months of issues, they traded him to the Anaheim Ducks for Jamie Drysdale and a second-round pick.
Knowing that he was going to become a problem for them publicly if they didn't move him when they did, they got a decent return for him. If it ever got out that he had no intentions of signing there, their leverage would have been all gone.
With that said, it had to sting for Flyers management to watch him dominate this weekend in college hockey. It was conference championship weekend and he was amazing.
Cutter Gauthier is going to be hard for Flyers fans to watch for a long time
In the Hockey East semi-final game played on Friday night, Gauthier and Boston College Eagles took on UMass. Gauthier had two goals and two assists in an 8-1 victory to send BC to the conference final.
That conference championship game was played on Saturday night against Boston University. This was only the third time that this matchup decided the Hockey East champion.
All of the stars came to play for BC once again and Gauthier was no exception. He had one goal and two assists in the final which helped his team win 6-2.
They are now the Hockey East champions and Gauthier was as important to this run as anyone in the lineup. He leads the country with 35 goals and is tied for second in points with 59.
Now, it is tournament time. They are the number one seed and will face Michigan Tech in the first round. They have as good of a chance as anyone to make it to the Frozen Four and then win the National Championship.
The Flyers had no choice but to trade Gauthier when they did but as mentioned before, it is not fun watching him dominate like this. It would have been nice to just have peace with him so they could keep him but that wasn't the case.
Now, going forward, they just have to hope that some of their other high-level prospects (and young NHL players) continue to develop well. They also need Jamie Drysdale healthy and playing well. If these things happen, their rebuild will work despite Gauthier leaving.