Flyers Prospect Cutter Gauthier Declines Invite To Development Camp

Danny Briere and the Flyers organization invited him to camp but Cutter abruptly declined. Now, there are a lot of mixed feeling about him declining. Some fans believe it is a bad thing, others think it could just be because he is tired from travelling so much recently. The Flyers GM thinks the same when he was asked about Cutter Gauthier rejecting he said this, "Cutter was invited, declined to come. We're assuming that is because he's played a lot of hockey with the World Championship, lots of travel. We're not too worried about that."

There are also rules under the NCAA, which state no athlete can make any money or receive gifts that relate to the sport they play in college. Meaning that the Flyers wouldn't be able to help pay for Cutter's stay in Philadelphia, so if he were to attend development camp he would have to pay 100% of his expenses.

Additionally, Flyers official site contributor Bill Meltzer said that NCAA athletes can only go to one dev camp before they sign and Cutter attended last year.

As well, even if a player fully pays his own way to Development Camp, the NCAA has additional rules that govern attendance. The most
important rule is that players may not miss any classes at school in order to attend either a Development Camp in July or an NHL Rookie Camp in September. Thus, if a player is registered for summer classes at school, he cannot attend an NHL Development Camp. Which may be why Cutter Gauthier isn't attending either, he may have summer classes to attend and wants to focus on finishing school.

Per collegehockeyinc.com There is an opportunity, similar to the 48-hour rule (see above), to have an NHL team pay a portion of a player's stay at development camp on a one-time-per-team basis. The 48-hour period begins when you arrive at the team's facility and ends exactly 48 hours later. While in attendance the team can supply you with expenses that include travel, hotel, food, equipment, and all costs associated with practice and off-ice training. A player would have to cover all costs after that 48-hour period, including return transportation home.

So, there are obviously a lot of moving pieces to Cutter Gauthier not coming over and it is unknown if it is for a bad or good reason. But I'm gonna take the ladder and say there are no problems with him not wanting to come over, it's apparent that Cutter wants to be a Flyer and that should come fall of next year.