The Philadelphia Flyers and Anaheim Ducks shocked the hockey world on Monday. The Flyers traded Cutter Gauthier, the No. 5 pick in 2022, to Anaheim for Jamie Drysdale, the No. 6 pick in 2020, and a second-round pick.
Gauthier’s been in the spotlight because he refused to speak with the Flyers, which led to the trade. He’s the best player in this deal and fresh on many people’s minds after leading Team USA to a gold medal at the World Junior Championship earlier this month. That’s left Drysdale, a 21-year-old blue-chip right-shot defenseman, flying under the radar.
Here’s a closer look at what exactly the Flyers are getting in Drysdale.
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Debating the Gauthier-Drysdale trade: Why the Ducks get a top talent, the trade request, more
Why Drysdale’s skating ability is special
Drysdale’s gifted, smooth, four-way skating ability is the first thing that stands out when you watch him play.
He isn’t the fastest, most explosive player in a straight line, but the way he can dance on his edges, sharply change directions and effortlessly pick up steam on his crossovers is a treat to watch.
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Watch the clip below as an example of how well he moves. He darts back to win a loose puck race in the defensive zone and separates behind the net. After a broken sequence, he carries the puck into the offensive zone, cuts back and shows impressive edge work to evade Josh Morrissey. Two of his passes are off the mark but this clip is strictly meant to showcase his skating.
Drysdale can escape pressure against some of the fastest forwards in the NHL. Here’s an impressive play where he beats Dylan Larkin in a loose puck race, shields him off as he carries the puck and makes a pass to his defense partner to help the Ducks regain full possession.
Drysdale’s skating is an asset for jumping up in the rush offensively. He picks his spots well — he doesn’t cheat for offense — and can cleanly beat opposing players up the ice. Watch how deep in the defensive zone he starts before taking off and generating a Grade-A scoring chance:
This mobility is the foundation of his game — it powers his puck-moving, how well he walks the line in the offensive zone and even the way he defends.
Drysdale’s impressive poise under pressure and vision with the puck
Skating alone isn’t enough to make a high-end defenseman. Drysdale has strong top-four potential because he also has the intelligence to make high-level reads with the puck. He stays calm and composed when opposing players are applying heavy pressure and can make clever passes because of his heads-up vision.
Below you’ll see a good example. Drysdale’s given the puck behind the net with no obvious passing options and the opposing forechecker Nino Niederreiter — who has a significant size advantage at 6-foot-2, 218 pounds — is breathing down his neck. This is the type of play where you’d expect an undersized 5-foot-11 defender to surrender possession. Instead, Drysdale absorbs Niederreiter’s hit, protects the puck and now with a second Jets forechecker closing space, he makes a smart slip pass underneath to spark a clean breakout.
He’s not a flashy one-man breakout machine like Quinn Hughes or Cale Makar. Drysdale’s puck transportation is about using his feet to win loose pucks/beat the first layer of pressure and then make a smart outlet pass to one of his forwards.
Drysdale’s ability to absorb contact and make plays against bigger players isn’t a one-off either. Later in the same game, watch how he keeps the puck alive in the offensive zone despite Adam Lowry’s heavy checks. Drysdale stays strong on his feet, keeps possession and makes an excellent pass down low that leads to a scoring chance.
Offensively, Drysdale walks the line proficiently and scans well to find teammates with sharp passes. He doesn’t have a booming shot or the elite dynamism to make flashy highlight-reel plays. But he’s mobile, smart and efficient enough to provide legitimate power-play value.
How reliable is Drysdale defensively?
Drysdale looks raw and inconsistent defensively, like a lot of young blueliners.
He has a pattern of aggressively stepping up to try to kill plays early. Sometimes it works out great because of his skating, like in the play below where he stops Nikolaj Ehlers’ potential three-on-two rush.
But there are also several situations where he pinches up, can’t kill the play and is subsequently caught out of position. Then he’s chasing and defending from behind, like in the clip below where he’s forced to take a slashing penalty on Max Domi.
Drysdale’s in-zone defensive play — when the opposing team is cycling around on an extended possession — looks roughly average. He’s usually in the right position in those situations, but he doesn’t have the reach, size or proactive reads to routinely break plays up and create a change in possession. His net-front defensive play could use improvement, too.
Drysdale’s puck management could also be sharper. I think his hockey sense is high enough that he’ll cut down on turnovers with more development and experience, but for now, you see mistakes like this that lead to Grade-A chances against.
There are defensive flaws in his game but that doesn’t mean he’s a complete liability. It’d be wrong, for example, to characterize Drysdale as a one-dimensional offensive defenseman — players like that don’t earn big minutes in the NHL at 19 years old. But there’s unquestionably a fair bit of work that needs to be done defensively.
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Conclusion
Drysdale’s skating combined with his poise and IQ with the puck is an excellent foundation to build on. He’s going to be a major asset as a puck-mover and an offensive zone distributor, both at even strength and on the power play. On the other hand, he’s undersized, a work in progress defensively and, while talented offensively, he’s no Hughes/Makar/Adam Fox. All of those factors limit his ceiling.
If he stays healthy and is developed correctly, I think Drysdale has the ceiling to either drive a second pair or play a supporting role on a first pair next to a bona fide No. 1 defenseman (think Filip Hronek next to Hughes). He has a chance to become a core player for the Flyers. Sure, he doesn’t have Gauthier’s star-level upside, but considering the circumstances, it’s not a bad trade at all.
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
