Angry Flyers Fans, Cup Winner Ready For Cutter Gauthier's First Game In Philly: 'I Hope He Gets Lots Of Boos'

On Saturday, Philadelphia Flyers fans are expected to show Anaheim’s Cutter Gauthier their outrage.

The 20-year-old left winger was the Flyers’ first draft pick (No. 5 overall) in 2022, but he later asked for a trade before he ever played a game for the Flyers. He never explained why he asked to be traded, other than to say it was “personal” and that he was going to keep the reason to “myself, my family and my agent.”

At another point, he said “it wasn’t one specific reason why I asked for a trade. It was multiple issues that I’d seen in the last year and a half, two years of being under the Flyers organization.”

Gauthier will make his first appearance in Philadelphia on Saturday since the Flyers dealt him to Anaheim last year for defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a second-round draft pick in 2025.

Based on comments from fans who attended Flyers practices in the Philadelphia suburb of Voorhees, N.J. this week, Gauthier will be rudely welcomed.

“He’s going to get booed out of the building, for sure,” said Mike Golick, 19, a mechanic from Waterford, N.J., who plans to attend Saturday’s game. “He’s going to be booed every time he’s on the ice, every time he has the puck.”

He pointed out that Flyers fans in Anaheim booed Gauthier (18 points in 41 games this season) loudly when their team defeated the host Ducks, 3-1, on Dec. 28. But, that is only a fraction of what he will hear Saturday, Golick said.

Sidney Crosby Fan

“I’m excited for it,” Golick said. “I knew from the second he said Sidney Crosby was his favorite player that he was not meant to play here in Philadelphia. He doesn’t have the right mentality. And if you don’t want to play here, get out of here.”

Golick conceded that the Flyers could use Gauthier’s offensive ability.

“I can’t lie. He does have really good talent,” he said. “But if you look at what we got in return, we got a pretty solid defenseman in Jamie Drysdale. I like his style of play, and we got a draft pick – and you can’t go wrong with a draft pick when you’re in the middle of a rebuild.”

Frank Pantalone, 48, said Gauthier deserves to know how much he hurt the franchise.

“He did us dirty,” said Pantalone, a salesman from Deptford, N.J. “They drafted him. He wanted to be a Flyer, and then he turned his back on us. That’s not cool, you know. He should have told us from Day 1 and not come to camps and act like he wanted to be here.”

When Philadelphia drafted Gauthier, GM Daniel Briere said after trading him, the forward said he was “built to be a Flyer and wanted to be a Flyer.”

Jeff McAllister, 53, an emergency medical technician from Pine Hill, N.J., said it’s “going to be a rude awakening” for Gauthier when he steps on the Wells Fargo Center ice Saturday. “I just know how Philly fans are. If you don’t want to play for a Philadelphia team… it’s your loss,” he said.

McAllister said the Flyers “made out better in the deal” that sent Gauthier to the Ducks. “It seems like Drysdale is going to be a real good player for our future. He has a lot of talent.”

Most of the current Flyers have avoided getting involved in the Gauthier talk. But Bob Kelly, who played for the Flyers’ famed Broad Street Bullies in the 1970s, is not a fan of Gauthier’s.

Kelly’s View

“I hope he gets lots of boos,” said Kelly, a longtime ambassador with the Flyers and a one-time Philadelphia winger who scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal against Buffalo in 1975. “There are certain things you say and certain things you don’t say when you’re representing a team and a franchise and they’re trying to do something. You don’t need to bring attention to yourself.”

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Gauthier crossed the line when he said he didn’t want to play in Philadelphia, Kelly said.

“That throws a stone at everybody, (including) businesses,” he said. “Here’s a kid who doesn’t want to come. Maybe he’ll be sick or hurt or something by the time he comes here.”

Some visiting players got what was called the “Philadelphia Flu” when they played the feisty Flyers during their Broad Street Bullies days at the Spectrum, declining to play.

“It’s been known to have been around,” Kelly cracked.

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