Hockey fan or not, you might have heard of the Cutter Gautheir drama. It’s been all over the news these couple of months, especially after he won gold with the U.S in the world juniors. Even though it’s been wildly publicized many people still don’t know the whole story. This is how Cutter Gauthier came to be the most hated player in Philadelphia.
Cutter entered the 2022 NHL draft as a consensus lottery pick, but many people were shocked when he went 5th overall to the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers organization loved what they saw from Cutter and were excited to have him join the team, so they didn’t mind if people thought he was a reach. Cutter was also excited to be a Flyer as he said, “I’m extremely excited to be part of this organization and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.” Previously to the draft, Cutter committed to Boston College. After the draft he didn’t sign with the flyers because he wanted to go down to the college level to play a year or two to be NHL ready before coming back to sign with Philadelphia. The Flyers were more than willing to let Cutter go play at the college level for a year or two, and were excited to have him be one of the faces of their future for years to come.
Cutter went off his first year at Boston College scoring 15 goals and assisting his teammates 15 times, finishing with 35 points in 30 games! This showed everybody why he was the 5th round pick in the NHL draft and silenced all the people calling him a reach. After the NCAA season, many expected him to sign with the Flyers, but Cutter decided to stay in Boston for another year. Many people including the flyers were shocked by the decision but Cutter stated that he, “wants to run it back and compete for a national title” as his reason for staying. During the summer the flyers had their yearly development camp, but Cutter declined to attend. Many people freaked out over this especially since the General Manager didn’t know the reason for Cutter’s absence. Cutter came out stating that, “It was a little bit too much hockey after worlds. It was just too much for me.” Cutter assured the media that he still planned to make his debut for the Flyers after the end of the NCAA season.
Then came the World Juniors, and this is where this story got interesting! Cutter Gauthier had an amazing tournament with the USA National Team ending the World Juniors with 12 points in 7 games helping the USA win gold for the first time since 2021. Around this time though, Gauthier started refusing to speak to anybody in the Flyers Organization. Shortly after, Cutter demanded a trade and refused to even consider playing with the Flyers. The Flyers Organization were shocked by Cutter’s actions and said that his decision to not play for them came out of nowhere. Cutter also gave the flyers a list of possible teams he would like to be traded to, but the Flyers did not want to trade him because they were waiting to see if he would change his mind again.
On January 8th, the flyers announced that they traded Cutter Gauthier to the Anaheim Ducks for Jamie Drysdale and a 2nd round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. When asked about Cutter not wanting to be a flyer, the organization responded saying, “we don’t want you.” Gauthier, as of now, seems pretty happy about being a duck, and The Flyer’s Organization is also happy about getting Jamie Drysdale in return who, if not injured, will be a great addition to the team. Flyer fans, however, are not happy with Cutter , and they have made it obvious by calling him names on social media, putting hate comments on his posts and some by going to Boston College games to protest.
Gauthier never stated the reason for why he left, but there are many theories. One of the most popular theories is that he didn’t want to be part of a rebuild that was gonna take a long time, and instead wanted to go to a team that was ready to compete. That seems to be the leading theory but there are others saying he didn’t like the city of Philadelphia, or that he didn’t like the Flyer’s organization. As of now the only person who knows the real reason is Cutter, his family, and his agent. Will we ever find out why Cutter went from saying he was”built to be a Flyer and wanted to be a Flyer” to refusing to talk to the Flyer’s organization? Maybe during his debut with the Ducks, but as of now it doesn’t seem so.
