Reevaluating the Flyers-Ducks trades involving Cutter Gauthier, Trevor Zegras, and Jamie Drysdale

Danny Brière has officially been the Flyers’ full-time general manager since May 11, 2023. In the two-plus years since, he has made 27 trades, with most involving draft picks or swapping players in the AHL.

But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been splashy deals. And two of the biggest ones are with a little guy he doesn’t hate working with, Pat Verbeek of the Anaheim Ducks.

As the Flyers get set to host the California team, let’s revisit them:

Flyers received: Jamie Drysdale and a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL draft

Ducks received: Cutter Gauthier

Flyers received: Trevor Zegras

Ducks received: Ryan Poehling, a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL draft (Eric Nilson), and a fourth-round selection in the 2026 draft.

» READ MORE: Trevor Zegras has fit in seamlessly with the Flyers. What will it cost to keep him long-term?

As for Gauthier, Flyers fans may want to look away.

Selected with the No. 5 overall pick in 2022, Gauthier never played for the Flyers after forcing a trade out of Philly.

“We tried to give him space,” Brière said the night the trade was made. “We tried to get in touch with him many times. They would not communicate, as far as the Gauthier side. So at some point, we had to make a decision.”

Why? No one knows.

“It wasn’t one specific reason why I asked for a trade,” Gauthier said on a Zoom with Anaheim’s media after the trade. “It was multiple, [recurring] issues that I’d seen over the past year and a half, two years of being under the Flyers organization. It kind of hit me all at once, thinking, ‘I can’t move forward with this, and I really need to step up for myself and see what’s best for my future,’ and that’s what I did.”

Last season, Gauthier notched 20 goals and 44 points in 82 games, finishing fifth in Calder Trophy voting with 92 votes — well behind fourth-place finisher Matvei Michkov — and was named to the All-Rookie Team. Amid that, he returned to a city that did not show him any brotherly love on and off the ice in a 6-0 thrashing by the Flyers last January.

This season, he already has 19 goals and 39 points in 42 games for an upstart Ducks team that is tied for third in the Pacific Division. Gauthier, who turns 22 this month, is on pace for 37 goals and 76 points.

In October, Gauthier had an eight-game point streak, helped by his first NHL hat trick against the Florida Panthers. He skates on the left wing of the Ducks’ top line, alongside Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn, while also getting time on the second power-play unit, where he has tallied four power-play goals and eight points.

Poehling, a first-round pick in 2017 for the Montreal Canadiens, resurrected his career in Philly after being signed to a one-year, bet-on-himself deal on July 1, 2023.

The speedy center, who collected 28 points in 77 games that season, became a favorite of then-coach John Tortorella and earned himself a two-year extension on Jan. 26, 2024. The following season, despite being impacted by injury, he set career highs in goals (12) and points (31) in 68 games with the Flyers.

» READ MORE: Trevor Zegras is even better than the Flyers thought, and other things we know as the calendar flips

Across his two seasons, Poehling was heavily relied on to kill penalties. He skated the second-most shorthanded minutes among forwards (235 minutes, 17 seconds). He tied Scott Laughton and Garnet Hathaway for second on the team with three shorthanded goals during that time frame and tied Hathaway, with whom he was often paired, for third with five shorthanded points.

Poehling, who has two goals and 14 points this season, has eight points across his last 12 games while centering Anaheim’s fourth line with Jansen Harkins and tough guy Ross Johnston.

In summation, two words: good things.

The two buddies have been key to the Flyers’ good vibes this season, with Zegras leading the team in goals (15), points (39), power-play goals (five), and power-play points (12) through 40 games.

While Zegras has officially put his last two years in Anaheim behind him, Drysdale has quietly shifted from being just a purely offensive blueliner who is questionable on defense to a guy who can play a complete 200-foot game.

With Drysdale paired with Emil Andrae since Nov. 22, the two have skated more than 300 minutes together and have been on the ice for 18 goals by the Flyers and just nine against.

So does Drysdale like being the veteran on the pairing with Andrae, who is the same age as him (23) but has played 182 fewer NHL games?

“A little bit, I do, yeah, I like it,” Drysdale said. “I love playing with Emil. He’s got a good mind, and I think that we have similar mindsets as well on and off the ice. And it’s good to build off each other.”

Drysdale is known to be a quiet guy, but he says he’s been more chatty on the ice, which is important as the veteran in the pairing. And a lot of it is to remind himself what to do, too, which seems to be working.

» READ MORE: For Trevor Zegras, the trade to the Flyers is not just a refresh, it is also a homecoming of sorts

He takes a lot of pride in his trajectory, noting that the defensive side is “coming to me more naturally now.” And while Drysdale’s power-play time is up and down, coach Rick Tocchet likes that he is consistent at five-on-five and is very good at following his philosophy of skating forward to defend.

“Well, I had heard a lot of different things, but what’s his identity?” Tocchet said when asked what he knew of Drysdale before coming to Philly. “And I didn’t really know that, but I know the one thing is that he came to camp in really good shape and he wanted to shake the tag that he wasn’t a good defensive player.

“So he corrected those two things, right? Came in great shape. He’s been really good [at] defending, so now we’re going to ask him [for] a little more offense eventually, but that’s a work in progress. I don’t want him to suffer in his other parts of the game to try to get the other part. I think he’s just got to chip away at that part, and he’s a very coachable kid.”

Originally, our Drysdale-Gauthier trade received an A-minus grade, and the Zegras trade an A. Today, almost two years after the former and just over six months after the latter, it’s an overall A.

Why?

Although Gauthier would rank No. 2 in scoring on the Flyers behind Zegras across several categories and has a promising career ahead of him as a goal scorer, the forward made it clear he didn’t want to play in Philly. So why keep a malcontent?

Trading him away became inevitable, and it made sense to bring in another young guy with pedigree like Drysdale, who has not only shown a stark improvement — and a desire to do that — but is good in the room. He has become a key defenseman for the Flyers while skating an average of 21:35, tying his career high from 2023-24. And he has worked so well with Andrae that the Swede has finally become an everyday defenseman on a pairing earning top-four minutes.

And what can one say about Zegras? The New York native has been a revelation on the ice and in the locker room.

Those 39 points in 40 games are setting him up to demolish his previous career highs — he’s on pace for 31 goals and 80 points — set in 2022-23, before then-Ducks coach Greg Cronin moved him to the wing. Is he playing the wing in Philly? Sure. Is he also playing some center? Absolutely. And he’s in a spot where he’s able to shine with his creativity and awareness while also having buddies like Drysdale, Cam York, and linemate Christian Dvorak around.

“You’re always looking for high skill level, talented players, and at the time, he was a distressed asset. ... You have to be thoughtful and a little bit lucky, and provide an environment where the player can shine,” Flyers president Keith Jones recently told The Inquirer.

“He’s done a great job,” Jones added. “It’s really proof of Danny’s willingness to wait for the right time, and he was really patient on this one. It’s been well-documented that it was a long process. Trevor kind of fit what we were looking for, and he has been all that and more with what he’s done for us.”