Drysdale and 2nd for Gauthier.

[IamCanadiens]

Gauthier for Drysdale and a 2nd

Love these hockey trades where both teams are meeting specific needs. I can see Hughes doing this style of trade in the future to lessen the logjam on D

[drkcloud]

Gauthier sure seems.like a bit of an attitude. Refused to even meet with the Flyers at the WJC. Just let it be known he wouldn't sign with them. Plus his behavior at the end of the gold medal game with his late hits and apparent taunting.

Good for Briere to get as much as he did for him.

The league needs to close this loophole for NCAA players ASAP.

Sure hope Hutson and Tuch haven't been taking notes

[IamCanadiens]

Jan 8, 2024 20:12:46 GMT -5 drkcloud said:

Gauthier sure seems.like a bit of an attitude. Refused to even meet with the Flyers at the WJC. Just let it be known he wouldn't sign with them. Plus his behavior at the end of the gold medal game with his late hits and apparent taunting.

Good for Briere to get as much as he did for him.

The league needs to close this loophole for NCAA players ASAP.

Sure hope Hutson and Tuch haven't been taking notes

Yeah, the talent is obvious but there appears to be an attitude to go with it.

[drkcloud]

Maybe McGroarty will refuse to sign in Canada's armpit (Winnipeg) and demand he be traded to NY like Fox did, or just somewhere warm with no taxes like Miami, Tampa or Dallas.

[folatre]

For sure, cool hockey trade, boldness from both sides.

I think I heard something on the NHL Network coverage mentioning that Gauthier did not seem very receptive to chatting with Briere and Flyers management at the WJC, so maybe they have been riding a vibe for some time now that essentially this kid was telling them without telling them that hey I am not excited about your organization.

Drysdale was considered a stud in his draft year. But injuries have certainly held back his development at the NHL level. I imagine the deal was influenced by Mintyukov bursting onto the scene sooner and better than most observers would have ever predicted. And Zellweger has opened a lot of eyes with his outstanding debut season in the AHL. Plus, Anaheim may see more in Luneau and Noah Warren than a lot of scouts did. Time will say, though I think that if Verbeek does not draft a d-man with their likely top five pick this summer, then he could be sniffing around for a young NHL-ready d-man to add something immediately to their d-corps for 2024-25. Montreal could be an organization that starts having conversations with him.

[drkcloud]

I find this interesting.. apparently Gauthier was offered to Habs for the 5th pick at the draft, possibly to take Reinbacher but Habs said no.

Whether they feel Reinbacher is the better player or Gauthier has a list of teams he wouldn't play for?

[folatre]

Interesting, I had not heard that. Maybe they thought they would draft Michkov at #5 (assuming Arizona would have taken him at 6) and then use their pick (#7) on Reinbacher.

Anyway, Hughes is super connected to the USDP and NCAA scenes, so I assume he would have had a well informed opinion about Gauthier.

But, hey, there is no denying the Habs need goal scorers. And although I certainly get the best player available approach (because over the longer term it makes more sense than focusing on positional needs since almost no 18 year olds add anything beneficial to an NHL roster), I will probably feel despondent if Montreal selects yet another d-man with their first round pick, which looks very likely to be top 10, if not in the 5-7 range.

[IamCanadiens]

Jan 8, 2024 21:58:39 GMT -5 drkcloud said:

I find this interesting.. apparently Gauthier was offered to Habs for the 5th pick at the draft, possibly to take Reinbacher but Habs said no.

Whether they feel Reinbacher is the better player or Gauthier has a list of teams he wouldn't play for?

For all we know Gauthier's character may have prevented Hughes from looking into this too deeply. If you have a generational talent in Michkov available and if questionable character was a determining factor in not drafting him then you likely also wouldn't trade for someone else with character concerns. Seems to me like a direction this management group wouldn't go.

[jkr]

Friedman reporting that the Flyers didn't want to sign Gauthier to a contract last year because they didn't want the bonus overage to carry over into this season.

The relationship went downhill from there.

[Willie Dog]

Jan 9, 2024 20:23:39 GMT -5 jkr said:

Friedman reporting that the Flyers didn't want to sign Gauthier to a contract last year because they didn't want the bonus overage to carry over into this season.

The relationship went downhill from there.

Was Philly that cheap or were they that tight against the cap?

[folatre]

They were pretty tight against the ceiling (serious dead money retaining on Hayes and DeAngelo, taking the Cal Peterson dump from LA), but it still seems strange nevertheless because essentially a rookie bonus overage just carries over to the following season and Briere would have had time to shuffle a couple or three other roster spots before 2024-25.

Maybe it was clumsy/obtuse for Philadelphia's management to have explained things to Gauthier's camp (kid, agent, dad/mom) in those terms, but I always heard he wanted to be playing at Boston College this year, so maybe this is Freidman reporting Gauthier's side of the story while they may operating a little in damage-control mode. Who knows, really.

[Tankdriver]

I thought this stemmed from even before Brière and Jones got the job?

[drkcloud]

Jan 8, 2024 21:58:39 GMT -5 drkcloud said:

I find this interesting.. apparently Gauthier was offered to Habs for the 5th pick at the draft, possibly to take Reinbacher but Habs said no.

Whether they feel Reinbacher is the better player or Gauthier has a list of teams he wouldn't play for?

Apparently Pierre LeBron is reporting that Hughes also turned down an offer from Nashville for the Number 5. The offer was Askarov and the Number 15 (became Matthew Wood). People were either really high on Reinbacher or Michkov