Flyers draft 18th Friday; will Julien Gauthier be their pick?
BUFFALO - Julien Gauthier, the high-scoring right winger who is one of the players the Flyers could consider with their first-round draft pick Friday night, admitted he was surprised that the Orange and Black didn't interview him during the recent NHL draft combine.
BUFFALO - Julien Gauthier, the high-scoring right winger who is one of the players the Flyers could consider with their first-round draft pick Friday night, admitted he was surprised that the Orange and Black didn't interview him during the recent NHL draft combine.
"But it happens," he said in a good-natured tone Thursday inside a Buffalo hotel lobby that was filled with a who's who of the hockey world. "It's all right."
Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said it was wrong to assume a team is not interested in a player just because it doesn't interview him.
"We know what we need to know about those people," he said. "You've got to be really careful there, trying to figure out who we're going to pick based on who we interviewed and who we didn't. Certain guys we're very comfortable with, and there's other guys we're not very comfortable with, so we interview certain people."
The Flyers have seen a lot of the 6-foot-3, 231-pound Gauthier because he was teammates with one of their prospects, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, on Val-d'Or in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The Flyers had scouts at several of their games.
Gauthier, who was on Aube-Kubel's line two years ago, scored 41 goals in 54 games this season. Skeptics say he is a one-dimensional player who has to make major improvements on defense. Proponents say he can fill up the net and is just the type of power forward the Flyers need.
From talking to scouts, Gauthier thinks he will be chosen between 10th and 20th in the first round. The Flyers pick 18th.
"Everybody's nervous; everybody's excited," said Gauthier, whose uncle, Denis Gauthier, played in 10 NHL seasons, including two with the Flyers. "I think I'm more excited than nervous, but I just can't wait until it's over so you know where you're going."
Gauthier said his uncle was "always a good mentor for me and never put pressure on me, but still gave me good advice and [told me] to always be who you are and everything is going to be fine."
Hextall is trying to move up in the draft - the first round is Friday and Rounds 2-7 will take place Saturday - but isn't optimistic.
"Right now, if I was a betting man, I'd say nothing is going to happen," said Hextall, who moved up with his second first-round pick last year and drafted promising forward Travis Konecny. "But that can change in a hurry."
As far as the first round, the top forwards who could be available at No. 18 are Gauthier, Max Jones, Kieffer Bellows, Luke Kunin, and Riley Tufte.
Hextall and scouting director Chris Pryor will have a friendly debate when it's the Flyers' turn to make their initial selection.
"He likes to fight. I don't," Hextall, known as a combatant goalie during his playing days, said with a smile.
Breakaways
Defenseman Radko Gudas, who was a restricted free agent, signed a multiyear extension with the Flyers on Thursday night. Gudas received a four-year deal with an annual cap hit of about $3.25 million. ... As it stands, the Flyers have 10 picks, including five in the first three rounds. They are expected to get another pick, a conditional fourth-rounder from Arizona (acquired from San Jose) from last year's Nick Grossmann trade. Arizona doesn't have to disclose whether it will surrender the pick until the fourth round starts. If Arizona keeps it, the Flyers would get the Coyotes' third-round pick next year. . . . The Flyers had $14.3 million in cap space before Gudas was signed, and Hextall, who still has several of his own free agents he wants to re-sign, said he prefers having a $2 million cushion when the season starts.
The Flyers chose center Bill Clement the only other time they had the 18th overall selection. Clement, now one of the team's broadcasters, had a solid 11-year career, scoring 148 goals, and was on two Stanley Cup champions with the Flyers. . . . Buddy Robinson, from Gloucester Catholic High, signed a one-year, two-way contract with Ottawa that will pay him $750,000 if he is on the Senators and $75,000 if he is in the minors.
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