Winners and Losers of the Flyers and Ducks' Cutter Gauthier-Jamie Drysdale Trade

It's been a fun early season in Philadelphia.

Though often buried on the city's sports pages behind the NFL's Eagles by this time each year, the 2023-24 Flyers are stealing some of the spotlight thanks to a near-.600 win percentage through 40 games that's got them firmly in the playoff hunt.

But it's not all fun and games in the Liberty Bell's hometown.

An organizational crack went public Monday when teenage winger Cutter Gauthier, whom the Flyers chose with the fifth pick in the 2022 draft, was dealt to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a 2025 second-round pick.

TSN's Pierre LeBrun reported Gauthier made the deal necessary by indicating he didn't want to sign with Philadelphia and subsequently refusing to meet with front office personnel to hear their plans for the future. In exchange, the Flyers got Drysdale, who was the sixth selection in 2020 and produced 45 points in 123 games with the Ducks.

"This is a trade we felt we needed to make as a player with Cutter's dynamic skill set are not available often," Anaheim GM Pat Verbeek said.

"We see Cutter as a long-term, high-end player who produces in big moments."

The B/R hockey team got together upon getting word of the deal and assembled a list of the transaction's winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments section.

OK, Philly fans. Let's get one thing straight.

You can't blame this one on Danny Brière.

The incumbent GM was indeed on the staff, but only as a special adviser when the Gauthier pick was made in the summer of 2022.

So he's got a plausible denial if nothing else.

But that doesn't diminish the franchise-wide stench that'll linger after losing a high lottery pick less than two years after he pulled a sweater over his head alongside Chuck Fletcher.

The margins for error are thin when you've not hung a banner since 1975, and this won't do much for the optics, which have been good so far under lightning-rod coach John Tortorella.

For a rebuilding franchise like the Flyers, losing a highly touted prospect who didn't want to play in Philadelphia is a blow, and one that will sting for some time.

At some point, the Ducks are going to put it together.

And when they do, look out.

Anaheim adds Gauthier, a 19-year-old with an already impressive set of collegiate and international credentials, to an already burgeoning crop of young forwards that includes one of the league's recurring highlight-makers in Trevor Zegras and his top running mate in Troy Terry, who's averaged 30 goals across the last two seasons.

Zegras, who'll turn 23 in March, has scored 53 times in 199 NHL games, including four Michigan lacrosse-style goals that helped him earn a cover position for the NHL 23 video game alongside Canadian women's star and Olympic champion Sarah Nurse.

At 6'2" and 201 pounds, Gauthier's blend of skill, size and muscle lets him play either wing or center while generating space in the offensive zone and utilizing a heavy, powerful shot.

It's a good bet he'll be a big star at Disney West.

No, this is not the NBA.

Still, you won't be blamed if you think it feels a bit familiar.

Though players strong-arming trades are more prevalent on the hardwood than the ice rink (see: Durant, Kevin), the move prompted by Gauthier's refusal to sign an entry-level deal with the organization that drafted him will certainly be noticed by prospects in the pipeline.

He's not played an NHL game.

In fact, he's played only 32 in college and 30 more in international events.

But his backroom flex toward the Philly market was enough to prompt a midseason deal that involved another recent high draft choice and another pick in 2025.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a power play...Gen Z style.

There was already smoke.

And now, with the arrival of the highly touted 21-year-old Drysdale alongside them on the blue line, it's five-alarm fire time when it comes to defensemen Sean Walker and Nick Seeler.

Walker and Seeler, aged 29 and 30, respectively, had been the subject of rumors indicating that at least one team was perhaps interested in acquiring both of them, as Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported.

It seems far easier to believe with Drysdale, the first defenseman from the 2020 class to reach the NHL, in town. The 5'11", 185-pounder missed nearly all of 2022-23 with a torn labrum in his left shoulder, but he's averaged nearly 20 minutes per game since his debut and his 32 points in 2021-22 were second only to Calder Trophy winner Moritz Seider among rookie D-men.

Having a pair of second-pairing guys makes for a nice hand, so expect Briere and his minions to offload one or both veterans to get some scoring punch for a team ranked 25th in goals.

It's not quite Christmas or Hanukkah.

But the 59-day season that'll run through the league's trade deadline on March 8 is among the most anticipated by fans across the NHL map.

And we can consider the Gauthier-Drysdale deal an early unwrapping.

Even if it's a cross-country regift.

"(Gauthier) looked at us at the draft and told us that he was built to be a Flyer. Wanted to be a Flyer," Briere said. "A few months later, he told us that he didn't want to be a Flyer."

Officially, there were 67 trades made last season between January 9 and the March 3 deadline, including blockbusters that saw Mattias Ekholm land in Edmonton, Patrick Kane in New York, and Jakob Chychrun in Ottawa.

If this is a sign of things to come, it'll be a memorable winter for all.