Sports
Cutter Gauthier’s teammates and coaches speak out after death threats, criticism: ‘Just a humble kid’
Nikita Nesterenko had awakened from an afternoon nap on Monday when he received a cellphone notification. Nesterenko, a former Boston College forward now playing for the American Hockey League’s San Diego Gulls, saw the name of former college teammate Cutter Gauthier pop up in a post sent out by the Anaheim Ducks.
“Originally, I felt like they were just congratulating him on the world juniors or something,” Nesterenko said. “Something weird. Maybe some kind of connection. And then I saw they acquired him. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s crazy.’”
The Ducks had traded Jamie Drysdale, a defenseman they drafted with the No. 6 pick in 2020, and a 2025 second-round pick for Gauthier, the No. 5 pick in 2022. The deal sent shockwaves throughout the hockey world, leaving the Philadelphia Flyers disillusioned and enraging large swaths of their passionate fan base.
A near-sellout crowd at Wells Fargo Center embraced the 21-year-old Drysdale this week in his impressive Flyers debut. On the other hand, Gauthier emerged on Wednesday in two interviews to discuss the trade, though he didn’t provide specific answers about how things broke down with the Flyers. Gauthier said he received death threats via social media after reports emerged that he didn’t want to play for Philadelphia.
So, who is Gauthier? Is the 19-year-old prospect being unfairly maligned for wanting a say in his future? And are his skills good enough to justify all this controversy? Some people who have spent time with him, and have watched him closely, believe he’s not getting fair treatment in some circles.
“He’s got a good personality,” Nesterenko said. “He’s not afraid to speak his mind. People are seeing that.
“Obviously, the Flyers’ fan base and organization is going to be a little salty and pissed off that they didn’t get such a star player. Right away, when you’re kind of pissed off, your first instinct is to trash the kid and say that he’s entitled and he doesn’t want to be there. He’s a great kid.
“He made the decision for himself where he thinks he’s going to fit in better. Have a better development for his career and the future. The fact that people are pointing fingers saying he’s entitled and all this stuff, it’s just crazy to me because he was never like that at college. He just wants what’s best for the team. Just a great player and great kid off the ice.”
Craig Button, a TSN analyst and a former NHL executive, doesn’t like how the Flyers reacted in the trade’s aftermath, with pointed comments from team president Keith Jones and chairman CEO Dan Hilferty, who said on a Flyers-themed podcast: “It’s gonna be a rough ride here and he earned it. We’re Philadelphians and we want people who want to be here with us.”
To Button, the Flyers had some complicity in soiling Gauthier’s makeup.
“I’ve been around Cutter for a number of years,” he said. “I think Cutter is an elite player. I don’t know what happened. Does it really matter? The Philadelphia Flyers were able to make a trade. What amazes me is they were going to protect a kid by not saying anything until they traded him. Then they started a smear campaign.
“It’s a bunch of B.S. as far as I’m concerned. … At the end of it, take the high road. I don’t know if Cutter will ever have a comment on it or if he ever needs to comment on it. Bottom line is, I got all the time in the world for Cutter Gauthier. The Philadelphia Flyers recognized that he wasn’t going to play there, and they went and made a trade. Celebrate what you just did. You don’t have to smear the kid.
“It’s funny. I didn’t see anybody in the Philadelphia Flyers organization talking about Eric Lindros picking where he wanted to go. A bunch of garbage is what I think it is.”
Nesterenko played nine games with the Ducks last season after ending his BC career and is working to get back to Anaheim. He’s hoping to be teammates with Gauthier again and feels that, in Gauthier, the Ducks will have a player who will be known for much more than rejecting the team that drafted him.
“When he comes to Anaheim, he’s going to be great,” Nesterenko said. “He’s super competitive. He wants to win. That’s what we’re striving for. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about him, honestly.”
The first reaction of Boston College associate head coach Brendan Buckley, when he saw the reaction of others to the trade, was to think of Gauthier, who he knew had a lot going on, beyond the trade. The Eagles staff had given their six members of Team USA’s gold medal-winning world juniors squad some time off before returning to Chestnut Hill, Mass., to rejoin the team and restart their collegiate seasons. Some had returned to campus on Jan. 8. Others were still making their way back on Tuesday.
Cutter Gauthier has 29 goals in his 49 games with Boston College. (Michael Miller / ISI Photos/ Getty Images)
For his part, Buckley has “nothing but great things to say about him and what he has done for our program over the last two years.”
“He has been a great teammate, a great guy to coach, he’s competitive in practice, he pushes himself, he wants to get better, he wants the team to do well,” Buckley said. “Last year, we weren’t where we probably wanted to be, and then we had a nice class come in with some good talent and he helped them out and helped get them up to speed.”
He knows the Ducks are getting a good player, too.
“The first thing that comes to mind with Cutter is an elite release and shot,” Buckley said. “He can score from all over the ice and it gets off of his stick quickly. I think it surprises goalies, how quickly the puck can get to them. That semifinal goal on the power play at the world juniors was a great example of how he can just rip a puck and change a game. ”
Buckley said Gauthier has also worked hard to round out his game and prepare for the NHL over the last two seasons.
“He’s just a more mature player now and I think that just comes with being a little bit older and physically maturing, and then also playing in high-compete games, which he has always done the last two years for us,” Buckley said. “He has done a really good job. He works hard and he’s a fun guy to coach because he wants to get better every single day.”
Three years ago, when Gauthier was set to join USA Hockey’s national program, Nick Fohr, one of the coaches for the 2004 age group, remembers there being “a lot said about him.”
There weren’t specifics, but he remembers there being “a bit of a negative connotation from a standpoint of ‘he might be hard to deal with.’”
And so, naturally, he was a little interested in how Gauthier was going to be in their two years together with the team.
In the end, though, “the truth couldn’t have been further from that,” according to Fohr.
“Honestly, all of this stuff that was being said, none of it was true. None of it. He was awesome, and he was a great teammate. He worked his tail off, he was engaging, he had a great relationships with everybody, staff included. He was great. He did everything we asked him to do and he even wanted more.”
Gauthier was billed as one of the stars in his age group from the very start. “Everybody was talking about Cutter Gauthier,” Fohr said. But while he’d finish as that guy — a first-liner for the ’04 team — and would become the No. 5 pick, that’s not where Fohr and USA’s staff started him.
That included playing on the second power-play unit during his time at the program because he played the same spot as a bigger star, Logan Cooley. “It didn’t deter him from going about his business and doing his work and being good with it,” according to Fohr.
“It was a super talented team and he wasn’t played as the highlight guy. Logan Cooley was the highlighted player in the group. And he probably deserved to be on that top unit at times but he wasn’t. So he wasn’t handed everything, he wasn’t given everything, it wasn’t all about Cutter Gauthier. And he was awesome,” Fohr said.
“It wasn’t easy for him here and sometimes if you’re the guy when you come in and you stay the guy for two years like Cooley was, it’s easy for those guys, they never really face any adversity or have moments where they get frustrated and suddenly their true colors come out. And that wasn’t the case for Cutter. He had to work for the things he got and it wasn’t always easy for him. And by the end of it he’s on that line with (Cooley and Jimmy Snuggerud) and things are really, really good. I think it just shows his character, and how he worked, and his compete level.”
That hasn’t changed in Fohr’s time with Gauthier since he left the program, either. He coached him at the 2023 world juniors. Before the 2024 world juniors, when Gauthier was in Plymouth for selection camp, he made time to skate and practice with Fohr’s current U18 team.
“He was awesome with my current players, and there’s no ‘I’m better than anybody else’ type of attitude to him. He’s just a humble kid that just goes about his business and appreciates the things he gets,” Fohr said.
This week, as Fohr watched how all of this played out, he was reminded of players like Jimmy Vesey and Adam Fox, who also decided not to play for the teams that drafted them. On draft day, he remembers seeing Gauthier and his family at the hotel and them being “excited” about the Flyers.
“Things may have changed. … It happens a lot more than people realize. This just happened to be at a big moment with the world juniors and him being a high profile guy. It doesn’t make him a bad person by any means,” Fohr said.
“They’re kids. They’re still kids.”
Gauthier won’t play his first NHL game until he finishes his sophomore season with the Eagles, which could be a memorable one given that they are ranked No. 1 in the nation. It could come with the Ducks in April, as he confirmed that he intends to sign an entry-level contract with them. And there will be great anticipation for the forward, who can play center or on the wing and is, Button fervently believes, a “multi-dimensional threat” in the mold of Colorado Avalanche star Mikko Rantanen as an equally dangerous shooter and set-up man.
“We look at Cutter and think what a great shot and what a great goal scorer he is,” Button said. “He’s also a hell of a playmaker. And I think that’s what keeps opponents off balance when you’re playing against Cutter. He can beat you with a play, he can beat you with a shot. And he’s big. He can skate. He’s got confidence in his game.”
Button calls Gauthier “an elite, elite shooter” with pinpoint accuracy. That has helped him become BC’s top goal scorer over his two seasons, racking up 29 in his first 49 games with the Eagles. He had only two in the United States’ march to their sixth world juniors gold medal but had 10 assists to tie Czechia’s Jiri Kulich, a Sabres prospect, for the tournament scoring title.
Nesterenko played last season with Gauthier at BC and remembers him as a quiet kid at first that started to open up as he found his footing in NCAA competition. The two would flourish as linemates and while the Eagles had a subpar 14-16-6 record, Gauthier led them in goals (16) and points (37) as a freshman.
“On the ice, he’s a gifted scorer,” said Nesterenko, who played three seasons at BC and signed with Anaheim after a trade with the Wild. “It’s not easy at this level to score a goal, so any time you can secure a guy like that with that scoring touch, it’s a huge plus. Off the ice, he’s a great kid. He means well. He’s got a great family. He was kind of shy coming into college. Was very to himself. Obviously, a lot of guys are shy when they come in. New team, new atmosphere. Once he kind of got to know all the guys – and I kind of brought him under my wing, teaching him a couple things – he got adjusted really quick.
“We had a lot of fun. We didn’t have the best team in terms of result. Obviously, they’re doing way better this year. But he was a big part of our team. We had a lot of fun. He’s a great kid.”
(Photo of Cutter Gauthier: Richard T Gagnon / Getty Images)
Sports
Florida AG launches civil rights investigation into MLB’s warning to Christian pitchers over Pride Night caps
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The attorneys general from Missouri and Florida have reacted strongly to the controversy stirred when Major League Baseball warned three San Francisco Giants players about inscribing a Bible verse on their Pride Night caps, and that reaction includes MLB being served with a subpoena that signals the launch of an official investigation.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier launched his investigation on Friday by serving MLB with a subpoena to investigate whether it is violating the civil rights of players based on their religious beliefs.
The general purpose and scope of Florida’s investigation “extend(s) to possible civil rights and deceptive and unfair trade practices violations in matters of employment concerning the business practices, policies, and procedures of Major League Baseball,” per the subpoena obtained by Fox News Digital.
In a letter from Uthmeier to MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred, the AG warns that “a pattern or practice of selectively enforcing its rules to benefit favored secular beliefs over disfavored religious beliefs would not only potentially violate Florida civil rights law, but it would also violate the League’s own policies.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL FACES BACKLASH FOR ITS STANCE ON CHRISTIANS WRITING BIBLE VERSES ON PRIDE CAPS
“And a practice of claiming not to discriminate based on religion while discriminating based on religion could further amount to an unfair or deceptive trade practice in violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier speaks at a news conference in Orlando on July 15, 2025, where he said U.S. Masters Swimming should not allow transgender athletes to compete against women swimmers or face legal action. Advocates Cassidy Carlisle and Lainey Armistead also attended. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service)
Uthmeier is particularly troubled by the fact MLB said its warning had nothing to do with the players’ religious beliefs but rather was strictly because of a violation of the league’s uniform code.
It should be noted MLB said in a follow-up statement to its initial warning to the players that it was merely enforcing its uniform codes and the warning had nothing to do with Giants pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker writing a Bible verse on the team’s Pride Night Cap most of the other players wore.
MLB ACCUSED OF ‘DOUBLE STANDARD’ AFTER CALLING OUT PLAYERS’ BIBLE MESSAGES DESPITE BACKING BLM IN 2020
Uthmeier noted that doesn’t ring true and presented in his letter a handful of examples where MLB has been absolutely fine with players adding to their uniform.
“In 2019, for example, a Cincinnati Reds player wrote on his cap in tribute to a nearby mass shooting,” Uthmeier wrote to Manfred. “And in 2020, MLB evidently added new, sweeping exceptions to its uniform rules by allowing players to ‘support social justice and diversity and inclusion.’ These policy changes included permitting players to add Black Lives Matter patches to their sleeves.
“MLB therefore appears to applaud — even change its rules for — the ideological beliefs it prefers, but targets players who express religious views the League doesn’t like.”
Commissioner of Major League Baseball Robert D. Manfred Jr. speaks at the 2024 MLB Draft presented by Nike at Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas, on July 14, 2024. (Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The Florida subpoena, issued under the Florida Civil Rights Act, demands action from MLB on July 23, 2026, at 9 a.m.. At that time, MLB must deliver to the AG’s office documents including:
- All documents concerning how MLB characterized or classified the June 2026 cap writing, including, for example, whether MLB treated it as religious expression, political messaging, protest, or a violation unrelated to its content.
- All documents concerning what prompted MLB’s review of and warning regarding the June 2026 cap writing, including any complaint, media inquiry, internal escalation, or third-party communication received before the warning issued, and the timing of each relative to the warning.
- All documents concerning the actual June 2026 warnings issued by the MLB to any club.
- All documents, including drafts and internal deliberations, concerning MLB’s decision to issue and publicly announce the June 2026 warnings, and any analysis of whether doing so adhered to the Code or with MLB’s treatment of comparable non-religious expression.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Landen Roupp wrote “Genesis 9:12-16” on his Pride-Night themed hat. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
Uthmeier is thus joining Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who recently wrote a letter to Manfred asking the commissioner to confirm that no player who has chosen to refrain from “wearing Pride Month paraphernalia or included Bible verses on Pride Month hats” will not be disciplined in any way.
Hanaway’s letter states that if Manfred fails to answer by June 25 or does not confirm that no discipline will be levied, she too will open an investigation of MLB.
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The two attorneys general have authority over their individual states. But it affects four MLB teams.
Florida is home to two MLB teams — the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins — while Missouri is home to the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals.
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Sports
Commentary: Why MLB’s Pride Night cap condemnation isn’t the anti-Christian crackdown conservatives claim
Amid the first days of grief after Alex Vesia and his wife lost their newborn daughter last fall, Vesia noticed something as he watched the World Series on television. He paused the broadcast, then checked the video, then texted another player to make sure.
51.
Dodgers teammates wore his number on their caps. So did players from the Toronto Blue Jays.
“It was awesome,” Vesia said. “It was a very heartwarming moment.”
Moving.
Touching.
And, under baseball’s rules, illegal.
Who knew, really, until this week? Three pitchers from the San Francisco Giants wrote the name of a Bible verse on their Pride Night caps and, amid an uproar, Major League Baseball said it had warned the players that “writing of any kind, with any message” on any playing apparel is not permitted. The issue, the league said in a statement, was not what they wrote on their caps but simply that they wrote on them at all.
Said MLB in the statement: “We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as ‘Dad’, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, I Love Mom’ and names of family members.”
To its credit, the league did not enforce the rule when Vesia’s number started appearing on caps in the World Series. But, if you’re going to draw a line on enforcement, where should you draw it?
In San Francisco, the actions of the Giants’ pitchers were widely condemned.
“They were in for a rude awakening with the response, and it wasn’t just from the gay community,” Giants broadcaster and former pitcher Mike Krukow told KNBR, the team’s flagship radio station. “It was from the Northern California community that supports the gay community.”
In response to media inquiries, and as first reported by Outsports, MLB confirmed it had warned the three players. I asked the league whether warnings had been issued in two other instances in which players had written on their caps, including Clayton Kershaw last year writing the same Bible verse on his Pride Night cap that the Giants’ pitchers wrote this year. MLB declined to comment.
“I got chastised by the league when I put Charlie [Kirk]’s name on my hat last year, because a man was murdered in cold blood,” Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen told me, “and now these gentlemen who are relievers in San Francisco are getting chastised by the league for putting a Bible verse on their hat. It’s crazy to me.”
Treinen said league officials had told him the rule is strictly enforced.
“I straight up asked Clayton last year, ‘Did they call you when you put that on your hat?’” Treinen said. “He said, ‘No.’”
The Pride caps feature team logos decorated in the colors of the rainbow, a symbol long associated with the gay community. In the Bible verse cited by the pitchers (Genesis 9:12-16), the rainbow represents “the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures.”
That the league would warn players against writing a Bible verse on their caps ignited a wave of conservative outrage, from Vice President JD Vance to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley fired off a letter to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, alleging apparent discrimination “against baseball players who profess their Christian faith” and threatening the league’s antitrust exemption. Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon said on national television that players might be able to file a claim for employment discrimination.
That is complete nonsense. This is what you want: When employees raise an issue to their employer, the employer listens and addresses their concerns.
In 2023, the year after five Tampa Bay Rays players declined to wear rainbow logos for Pride Night, Manfred said the league would no longer compel players to do so.
“We have told teams, in terms of actual uniforms, hats, bases that we don’t think putting logos on them is a good idea just because of the desire to protect players: not putting them in a position of doing something that may make them uncomfortable because of their personal views,” Manfred said then.
Teammates congratulate Freddie Freeman after his walk-off home run gave the Dodgers a 1-0 win on June 5, when the Dodgers held their annual Pride Night. Blake Treinen, the winning pitcher that night, elected to wear his regular Dodgers cap instead of the Pride version.
(Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
Manfred said the Pride Night celebrations could go on, however a team wished to stage them — or not, in the case of the Texas Rangers, the only one of the 30 MLB teams that declines to hold a Pride Night. And the league still sells Pride gear on its website for all teams, including the Rangers.
In the cases of the Giants and Dodgers, MLB grandfathered each team’s long-running use of a rainbow logo on the cap, with this accommodation to players: If you don’t feel comfortable wearing the Pride cap, just wear your regular cap.
That is what Treinen and outfielder Alex Call did when the Dodgers celebrated Pride Night. That is also what a fourth Giants pitcher did.
“My job is to abide by the rules,” Treinen said. “Ultimately, the only rule we have is to wear our team-issued uniform. So that’s what I chose to do.”
To Treinen, the decision over whether to wear a Pride cap is not about passing judgment on anyone else but about what he sees as the push “to force something on people that you know that is controversial to their faith — and, in fact, straight up against their faith.”
He expressed his support for the Giants pitchers.
“Kudos to those men over there who are standing strong in their faith,” he said. “It’s a sad thing to corner someone and try to make them feel bad about their convictions.”
I respect Treinen for explaining his viewpoint. To me, wearing a Pride cap for one night does not diminish your faith at all. It might sharpen your convictions. More important, it signals a welcome to everyone in the community that buys the tickets and broadcast subscriptions that help pay your salary.
“I think a few people made it about themselves and not about the community,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie told the Bay Area Reporter.
We always proclaim the life lessons of sports. One of them: Sometimes you have to put the team’s interests ahead of your own.
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After its massive 1-0 win over South Korea on Thursday night, Mexico has won Group A and officially clinched a spot in the knockout round.
El Tri will play its Round of 32 game in Mexico City, and will face the third-place finisher in either Group C/E/F/H/I.
This is the fourth time that Mexico has topped the group stage of a World Cup, with the other three coming in 1986, 1994 and 2002.
With the win, Mexico remains unbeaten in World Cup group games at home, going a combined 6-2-0 (W-D-L), with two wins and a draw in 1970 and 1986, and now two wins in 2026.
Before the tournament began, Mexico was listed at +6500 to win the World Cup. Now, after winning its first two games of the tournament, Mexico has surged up the oddsboard to +5000.
Can Mexico build off its first two matches and make a deep run in this tournament? Let’s check out the updated odds for El Tri as of June 19.
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Team Mexico — Stage of Elimination
Last 32: +125 (bet $10 to win $22.50 total)
Last 16: +135 (bet $10 to win $23.50 total)
Quarterfinals: +600 (bet $10 to win $70 total)
Semifinals: +1600 (bet $10 to win $170 total)
Runner-up: +3000 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
Outright winner: +5000 (bet $10 to win $510 total)
Mexico is currently +5000 to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup after winning Group A (Getty Images).
Mexico’s Past World Cup Results:
1930: Group stage
1934: Did not qualify
1938: Withdrew
1950: Group stage
1954: Group stage
1958: Group stage
1962: Group stage
1966: Group stage
1970: Quarterfinals
1974: Did not qualify
1978: Group stage
1982: Did not qualify
1986: Quarterfinals
1990: Banned
1994: Round of 16
1998: Round of 16
2002: Round of 16
2006: Round of 16
2010: Round of 16
2014: Round of 16
2018: Round of 16
2022: Group stage
2026: TBD
What to know: Mexico has made a habit of being in the running, but never really being in the running. Make sense? Consider this: El Tri made it out of the group stage in seven consecutive World Cups (1994-2018), but never made it past the Round of 16 in any of those years. In 2022, Mexico failed to make it out of the group stage, and it will look to get back to its winning ways in 2026 after a great start to the tournament. With its win Thursday night, Mexico has now advanced to the knockout stage in eight of the last nine World Cups. It is important to note, however, that Mexico has never made it past the quarterfinals at a FIFA men’s World Cup.
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