No. You will never be able to massage this or the Edmonton trade into a positive. Hindsight is irrelevant to the process if we're serious about our evaluations.
I do not understand how you can expect anyone to take framing Gauthier as a disappointment on the day of the trade seriously. He hadn’t hit the point where he could fail yet. You had a full ELC landing strip to go. That was the whole point.
And Drysdale had 32 points at 19, then got injured in his third season.
Was xGFrel +0.30, HDCFrel -2.96 that one season. Fine for a young D-man on a dysfunctional team.
Was badly mishandled, should have spent his first season in the AHL (or the CHL) instead of being called up at 18 and thrown to the wolves.
That player was as deserving of #6 as Gauthier was #5.
Drysdale's "failure" was getting hurt at 20, then traded at 21.
Gauthier's "failure" was not being able to stay at center and being exposed as a volume shooter who played more of a perimeter game for a big forward. Flyers knew this when they traded him.
The script here became the trade was a fiasco b/c we got damaged goods and they got a #5 pick.
The reality was both players need a lot of work, the Flyers knew what they were getting in Drysdale, they were upfront about him needing a year or two to learn how to play defense.
Gauthier has raw tools, but will have to learn to play a lot tougher to be more than a 20 goal, perimeter scorer.
Because Gauthier was younger and seems more durable, Anaheim threw in their 2nd rd pick.
Anaheim got more value, but it wasn't close to a "steal."
In the 16 games since Drysdale returned to the lineup:
15:31 (5x5), xGF 58.84%, HDCF 57.49%, xGFrel +3.01, HDCFrel +4.60
Hasn't shown much on the PP, but neither did Andrae over the same period.
He's been used in a sheltered 3rd pair role, his value will depend if he can develop into a PP QB.
Don't know if he can sustain this level of play, but there's also a lot of room for improvement in coaching up fundamentals.
Gauthier this season,
12:23 (5x5) xGF 46.09%, HDCF 45.41%, xGFrel +4.77, HDCFrel +4.13, pp/60: 1.38
Not bad for a 21 year old rookie.
He's going to improve, but how much?