Ducks sign Cutter Gauthier to three-year, entry-level contract

Boston College forward Cutter Gauthier

The Anaheim Ducks are adding an NCAA star to their roster.

The Ducks signed Boston College standout forward Cutter Gauthier to a three-year, entry-level contract, the team announced Sunday.

Anaheim made the signing just one day after Gautier’s NCAA season came to an end with a Frozen Four title game loss to Denver University.

In 39 regular season games with Boston College this season, Gauthier, 20, recorded 37 goals and 27 assists.

Originally selected by the Philadelphia Flyers with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, Gauthier was traded to the Ducks in January.

Flyers general manager Danny Brière said he traded Gauthier because Gauthier wouldn’t sign, train, or even communicate with the Flyers. Gauthier refused to meet with Brière and Flyers president of hockey operations Keith Jones when they flew to Sweden last month to watch as Gauthier led the U.S. team to the gold medal at the recently completed World Junior Championship.

Gauthier initially told the Flyers that he wouldn’t join them last summer, a year after they drafted him. Brière said he purposely didn’t announce Gauthier’s reluctance or comment publicly on his increasingly awkward relationship with Philly’s top prospect.

With those comments fuelling a social media storm around the trade, Gauthier addressed the reaction he had received in a 30-minute phone call with Anaheim reporters, including The Athletic’s Eric Stephens.

“There’s been a lot of good and bad,” Gauthier said. “A 19-year-old kid getting a lot of death threats and a bunch of thousands and thousands of people reaching out and just saying some pretty poor things that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy, it’s pretty tough to see, obviously. But it’s a business. With all the rumours spreading around that aren’t true, it’s kind of tough to go out and say one word or anything to kind of quiet those people.”

The 20-year-old forward has still not said the exact reason why he didn’t want to play for the Flyers.

“That’s the question (that) kind of everyone’s wondering, and the biggest thing I can say right now is I have to keep it to myself, my family and my agent,” Gauthier said in January. “It’s been a long process in the past handful of months of dealing with this. I don’t think it’s the right time to kind of discuss it. There might be one day where I kind of get into details on what happened. Right now, I want to keep it to a private matter.”

Gauthier was outstanding at the World Junior Championship for team USA this year, tying for the tournament lead with 12 points and scoring the game-winning goal in the third period of the semifinal match.

— With files from the Associated Press