The Philadelphia Flyers prospects gathered in Voorhees earlier this month for a week of training, drills, and scrimmages at development camp. However, the Flyers’ two top prospects were absent.
Seventh-overall pick Matvei Michkov missing camp was expected. He’s still under contract with SKA Saint Petersburg and attended their development camp back over in Russia.
However, 2022 fifth-overall pick Cutter Gauthier’s absence raised some eyebrows. Why was he playing hooky instead of playing hockey? Could that lead to some issues with the unsigned college player?
Well, Gauthier actually had a pretty reasonable explanation for his absence, while understanding that the team may have felt differently.
Gauthier is coming off a terrific freshman season at Boston College. He recorded 37 points (16 goals, 21 assists) in 32 games. The 19-year-old forward also represented Team USA at the World Junior Championship, where he put up 10 points (4 goals, 6 assists) in seven games.
That wasn’t all, though. After Gauthier’s season concluded he then went with Team USA over to Europe for the Men’s World Championship.
Gauthier was able to soak in the experience of playing with and against NHL veterans.
“Learning from the pros, it was awesome,” he said to NHL.com on Sunday. “It was a super surreal experience and I’m glad I went.”
Not only was it a great experience, but Gauthier showed out on the ice, too.
Only Dominik Kubalik scored more than Gauthier’s seven goals during the tournament, and the Flyers prospect finished tied for the eighth-most points with nine in 10 games.
But playing so much hockey in such a short amount of time wore on Gauthier and the top prospect ultimately decided to pass on the invite to Flyers development camp.
“It was a little bit too much hockey after Worlds,” Gauthier said. “It was just too much for me. I wanted time with the family. So, I figured it was best to stay home.”
Of course, this didn’t go over well with the Flyers front office. Understandably, they want their prized prospect to get as much training and experience around the organization as possible.
Gauthier gets that as well.
“After talking to Danny (Briere), obviously it wasn’t his favorite thing, but it was best for me.”
Ultimately, Gauthier missing development camp should be a non-story. He’s one of the best prospects in the Flyers system and in all of hockey, really. He still plans on signing with the Flyers to play in Philadelphia in the near future.
“That’s definitely the plan,” he said. “After this year, hopefully we get done pretty late there in April with the group we have (at Boston College), but overall, that’s the goal.”
Hopefully, Gauthier’s absence at development camp will be quickly forgotten after he makes his Flyers debut in the next year or two.
