Keith Jones Refutes Kevin Hayes, Cutter Gauthier Rumors
Did Kevin Hayes convince Cutter Gauthier not to join the Philadelphia Flyers? Rumors circulated on Monday night after Danny Briere dealt the former 5th-overall to the Anaheim Ducks for Jamie Dysdale and a 2nd-round pick in 2025. However, one prominent member of the Philadelphia front office conflicted the report.
Keith Jones on Gauthier, Flyers
Keith Jones joined The John Kincade Show to talk about the trade, the fit of Jamie Drysdale, and the ripple effects within the organization. He responded to the notion that Hayes had his hands in the situation.
“I don’t think so. Danny and I both have a good relationship with Kevin, and I know that Kevin reached out to Danny last night to say that that did not happen.” -Keith Jones
The Chicago Blackhawks drafted Hayes in the 1st round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. He spent four years at Boston College until the Blackhawks lost his rights. He signed with the New York Rangers.
Gauthier is currently playing in his second NCAA season at Boston College.
Gauthier Had No Interest in Flyers
Jones surprisingly revealed that he knew about Gauthier’s displeasure about a year ago before he accepted the job as the President of Hockey Operations. He didn’t reveal the answer to the mystery of why Gauthier didn’t want to join the Flyers. According to Jones, Gauthier never gave a definitive reason. He was never even willing to have the conversation, even when Jones and Briere traveled to Sweden for the World Juniors.
"We hoped that we would be able to convince the young man that Philadelphia was the right place for him to play and blossom into a star.
— 97.5 The Fanatic (@975TheFanatic) January 9, 2024
Unfortunately, we were unable to even sit down and present that message to the player."
— Keith Jones on the Gauthier trade
(@975JKShow) pic.twitter.com/1N5XchTnfU
The statement alins with what Danny Briere told Tim Saunders and Todd Fedoruk during the second intermission on 97.5 The Fanatic during Monday’s game against the Penguins.
“He just refused. He would not engage, would not listen to us, would not take a phone call, would not meet with us at all.” -Briere
The Flyers look forward to Jamie Drysdale and the opportunity to move forward after the news of the stunning saga. The 21-year-old defenseman has only played 18 games combined the past two seasons.
However, the organization is optimistic about his health and the fit he’ll provide as a smooth-skating defenseman who can become as a offensive catalyst from the blue line as a major part of the organizational rebuild.
Cutter Gauthier's issues with the Flyers organization go back a while, says Keith Jones.
— 97.5 The Fanatic (@975TheFanatic) January 9, 2024
“It goes back to when I was doing TV. I head a heads up that there was a problem and a high likelihood that the player was not going to join the organization.”
📸Minas Panagiotakis/Getty pic.twitter.com/f32QzixFZ0
Watch The John Kincade Show on the 97.5 The Fanatic YouTube page on weekday mornings from 6am-10am.
The All-Time Roster of Underrated Philadelphia Flyers
Mike Knuble
Peter Forsberg and Simon Gagne were the stars at the top of the lineup coming out of the 2004-05 lockout. However, there are three players on an NHL line.
Mike Knuble spent four seasons with the Flyers from 2005-06 through 2008-09, and he returned for a cup of coffee in 2013. He provided the perfect complement to a crafty playmaker like Forsberg and a finesse star like Gagne. He scored a career-high 34 goals in his first season in Philadelphia and followed it up with 24, 29, and 27 goals in the next three seasons, respectively.
Knuble knew his role as a garbage goal-scorer, and he played it damn well. He added 14 points in 24 playoff games with the Flyers, including an overtime game-winning goal against the Washington Capitals in 2008.
Kimmo Timonen
The NHL still associates the Broad Street Bullies mentality with the Flyers. Players like Chris Pronger feed into the identity of the fan base. The 6-foot-6 defenseman resonated with the fans perfectly as a fearless, powerful defenseman who became the workhorse on the Philadelphia blue line during the run to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final.
Kimmo Timonen didn’t have the same reputation. The Finnish puck mover was more of a classy guy off the ice who didn’t bring as much grit as Pronger, but he actually had a longer run as the top blueliner in Philadelphia.
The Flyers acquired Timonen as part of a series of trades with the Nashville Predators that pulled them out of the disaster of the 2006-07 season. He averaged over 20 minutes of ice time in each of his seven playoff series wins with the Flyers. Only Mark Howe and Eric Desjardins scored more points among defensemen in franchise history.
Dan McGillis
Hockey in the late 1990s and early 2000s required more physical defensemen while modern roster construction prioritizes puck movers on the blue line. The Flyers acquired 6-foot-3, 220-pounder Dan McGillis in 1998 during a window of Stanley Cup contention.
McGillis played 380 regular-season and playoff games in orange and black. He was the physical presence a contending team needed, but you won’t see his name in the franchise record books too often.
Stay-at-home defensemen are harder to glorify than offensive catalysts. McGillis recorded a career-high 49 points in 2000-01, and it’s no coincidence that it was the only one of his nine NHL seasons when he received Norris Trophy votes.
Steve Mason
Anyone who follows the Flyers knows the notorious reputation of the “Goalie Graveyard” in Philadelphia. The revolving door of goaltenders reached its peak with the Ilya Bryzgalov nightmare that ended in 2013, right around the time the Flyers really started to lose popularity in the Philadelphia sports landscape.
Coincidentally, the Flyers acquired Steve Mason in 2013. He spent four seasons as the top option between the pipes for forgettable Flyers teams that never won a playoff series.
Mason wasn’t some Vezina Trophy winner who would reverse the “Goalie Graveyard” narrative. He was never going to demand the attention of casual hockey fans in Philadelphia who were only interested in a contending team, but he was the type of solid goaltender for a good period of time that the Flyers haven’t usually had.
Daymond Langkow
It’s tough to identify any reason why Daymond Langkow is underrated. Like Joffrey Lupul and Sami Kapanen, he doesn’t seem to come up in conversations about the Flyers too often. The NHL journeyman notched at least 50 points in each of his two full regular seasons in Philadelphia.
He helped the Flyers advance to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final in 2000 with 10 points in 16 games during the playoff run.
The Daymond Langkow trade tree had remarkable ripple effects on the franchise. The return package acquired from the Phoenix Coyotes in 2001 indirectly led to the acquisitions of Jeff Carter, Jakub Voracek, Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, Jason Smith, Joffrey Lupul, and Chris Pronger.
