Winning a gold medal at the World Junior Championships, traded to the Anaheim Ducks, and now, back at Boston College continuing his dominance in front of many angry Philadelphia Flyers faithful.
Sometimes it's hard to remember that athletes are humans, too.
On January 8, the Philadelphia Flyers and Anaheim Ducks agreed to a deal that shocked the hockey world, sending Cutter Gauthier to southern California with Jamie Drysdale and a 2025 second-round pick heading to the northeast.
After the trade went down, reports started to surface that Gauthier informed the team that he would not be willing to sign a contract to play with them. The 19-year-old went from being drafted by Philadelphia and claiming he was "born to be a Flyer," to letting the organization know that he would not be signing with them, to finally, ignoring them entirely.
No matter how much general manager Danny Briere, president of hockey operations Keith Jones, and other members of Flyers management and the scouting team tried to get in touch with him over the phone or by attending games at Boston College and even in Sweden at the World Junior Championship, Gauthier avoided any and all communication.
Well, fresh off a World Junior Championship gold medal, Gauthier returned to the formerly number one ranked Eagles with a big weekend involving a home-and-home against the Providence Friars, and after all of the information came out about Cutter's unwillingness to discuss anything with Flyers brass, the fanbase was not happy, for obvious reasons.
They were so unhappy that there was a group of Flyers fans that showed up to BC's first game against the Friars to express their distaste for how Gauthier handled things.
But, despite the noise, Gauthier had himself another successful weekend, registering a total of three points over the course of the two games (including an excellent pass on an eventual goal that did not result in an assist in the second game). He now sits third in the Eagles scoring race with 26 points in 19 games behind New York Rangers prospect Gabe Perreault and San Jose Sharks prospect Will Smith.
Boston College head coach Greg Brown was impressed with the way that Gauthier came out and performed in his first game back, even with all of the noise.
"He'd been through a lot for a 19-year-old kid with the emotion of a World Junior and the emotion of being traded," Brown said. He even joked before continuing that he hoped Gauthier didn't look at social media much.
"To see him come out and be a force in that first period, he was probably our best player in that first period, was really gratifying for us because, like I said, he's been through a lot these last two weeks," Brown added. "For him to come out and put all that aside and have a strong start to the game and play a strong game was great to see. It's a strength of his, mental fortitude."
So, what did Gauthier's points this weekend look like?
Below was his first point of the weekend, a nice pass through to Andre Gasseau, who found Oskar Jellvik on the far side and ripped the puck home.
His next point was his only goal of the weekend, a gorgeous snap shot through a bit of traffic near the top of the zone, and the celebration was unsurprisingly full of emotion.
Gauthier didn't score the rest of the game despite the Eagles' 7-1 victory, and unfortunately, there isn't a good clip of his assist in the second game. It was one of those secondary assists where he didn't have to do much. However, the true highlight was Gauthier's pass that I referenced earlier in the article--a creative pass through his legs to space that Perreault eventually occupied and helped to create a goal that gave the Eagles the lead.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, they ended up losing the second game of the two-game series, which cost them their spot as the number-one team in the nation. However, it was a close game and certainly an entertaining way to close out the "welcome back" weekend of college hockey.
Despite the backlash that Gauthier received (whether you believe it was justified or not), it was a successful weekend for the newest prospect of the Anaheim Ducks, much to the chagrin of Flyers fans who were paying extra close attention to Gauthier's games this weekend. He continued his dominance and helped lead the Eagles to a big win against a highly-ranked squad and kept a game close the day after.
Gauthier will try to continue his strong performances as the Eagles take part in another home-and-home series, this time with Merrimack University, in the upcoming weekend.