John Tortorella Compares Cutter Gauthier To A ‘Hole In The Wall’
Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella wasted little time on Cutter Gauthier after the Flyers and Ducks swapped youngsters Monday evening. He gave a brutal response when asked about the trade.
After a reporter claims Torts met with the 2022 No. 5 overall pick, the wily coach said that he does not know Gauthier “from a hole in the wall.” Check out the full sound byte below:
"I don't know Cutter from a hole in the wall"
— SiriusXM NHL Network Radio (@SiriusXMNHL) January 9, 2024
John Tortorella gave his reaction to the #LetsGoFlyers trade pic.twitter.com/dnSZplrqLP
This is about as classic a Torts quote as it gets. It’s also clear that everyone in the organization waited until the trade was done to air their grievances on Gauthier. Credit goes to them for keeping this about as quiet as you possibly can in this day and age. Not a single report came out until after Philly and Anaheim reached an agreement on the Swedish-born US forward, and it’s natural that finger-pointing will continue to come out towards both sides.
Are the Flyers an attractive place to play amid their rebuild? Does Gauthier have attitude problems for causing this before even playing a single NHL game? There’s a bunch of conspiracies on why this is happening.
The one I agree most with is that Cutter felt he was NHL-ready this fall and the Flyers didn’t agree. Danny Briere told him to stay at BC and he did not like it. Then, after having a great World Juniors with Team USA, froze off relations with the front office.
Win-Win Deal?
While they lost a top prospect, the Flyers are a better team right now than they did yesterday. Jamie Drysdale has the potential to be a top-four defenseman who could also move the puck. He’s on a respectable deal of $6.9 million over three years, per Spotrac. So there are virtually no cap implications. Furthermore, moving from a defensive mess in Anaheim to a more structured team with Tortorella will absolutely help him.
His total number of games played in the NHL at 21-years-old is 123. That’s a lot of hockey, and he missed out on even more after being injured last season.
He’s already off to a better start in Philly than the guy he was traded for. Rather than worrying about the trade, he cut right through the noise and spoke about this new opportunity. I’m not a mind reader, but his new coach will probably love this:
jamie drysdale you gonna do big things pic.twitter.com/hAvPkdsj1x
— puck bunny?? got 7 & story of us (@guccipantiesrry) January 9, 2024
Tortorella delivered a nuke on former Flyers prospect Cutter Gauthier. It’s safe to say he has a short memory and is looking forward to having a new defenseman in the fold.
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