The Flyers-Cutter Gauthier Saga Continues: Gauthier Speaks, Tortorella Smokes Reporter Who Floated Kevin Hayes Rumor

The Philadelphia Flyers and Cutter Gauthier saga doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.

It started Monday night when the Flyers traded prized prospect Cutter Gauthier — who they selected with the fifth-overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft — to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a second-round pick in 2025.

That trade (which the more you think about it, probably works out well for both sides) was a shock. What was more of a shock was that Gauthier had completely ghosted the Flyers' multiple attempts to speak with him ever since he informed the club he didn't want to play for them last spring.

On Wednesday, Gauthier gave some of his first public comments.

...and his they yielded more questions than answers.

“That’s the question 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,” the 19-year-old said, per The Athletic. “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.”

So, there's still no word on why Gauthier's camp cut off contact with the Flyers and their multiple attempts to speak with him.

However, Gauthier did discuss the flood of messages — including, unfortunately, death threats — he has received since the whole situation began.

“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.

Gauthier Rumors Of Kevine Hayes' Involvement

An additional thread to this story was started by Philadelphia reporter Anthony SanFilippo. On Monday night, hours after the news had broken, SanFilippo claimed to have spoken to someone within the Flyers organization and that former Flyer and current St. Louis Blues forward Kevin Hayes had his "fingerprints" all over the Gauthier situation.

Hayes vehemently denied this, and so did Gauthier.

“I’ve kind of seen all the rumors going around about Kevin Hayes having his fingerprints on this,” Gauthier said. “I want to clarify that he has nothing to do with this whatsoever. He has absolutely nothing (to do with it). Some of the people who are kind of saying this stuff about his family and stuff like that, (it) is pretty gutless"

He also said he hadn't spoken to Hayes — who played his college hockey at Boston College as well — in a "long time."

Flyers bench boss John Tortorella used part of his post-game press conference on Wednesday night to tear a reporter who started a rumor about ex-Flyer Kevin Hayes' involvement in the Cutter Gauthier situation a new one. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

John Tortorella Rips Reporter Who First Floated The Kevin Hayes Rumor

Another person who issued a response to the Hayes conjecture — and a firey one at that — was Flyers coach John Tortorella. He used part of his post-game news conference Wednesday after the Flyers shootout win over Montreal to blast SanFilippo for putting the rumor out there.

“Is the guy here that caused Kevin Hayes a problem?” Tortorella asked.

He was indeed.

“Are you kidding me? You think Kevin Hayes is going to do something like that?” the coach said. “It’s bulls--t. It pisses me off that you guys throw that s--t around and it affects someone’s life."

Tortorella then praised Hayes for his character, while acknowledging that they didn't always see eye-to-eye when he was coaching him.

"Kevin and I had a problem, we couldn’t come to an agreement on how to play. That’s a good man; That’s a good man and what you said is going to stay with him," Tortorella said.

“That’s what you guys don’t understand and you’re going to sit there and say you have the right sources. I call bulls--t.”

Hayes denied the rumor from the jump in no uncertain terms. However, if you still need more evidence that he had nothing to do with this, look no further than the response from both Gauthier and Tortorella.

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