Offseason Keys: Anaheim Ducks

With just two teams still playing, the rest have already started their offseason planning.  What storylines lie ahead around the league?  Our Offseason Keys series continues with a look at the Anaheim Ducks.

Following an appearance in the Western Conference Final in 2016-17, the Ducks headed into the season looking to take that next step forward.  Instead, they wound up taking several in the wrong direction and were swept in the opening round by San Jose.  While GM Bob Murray decides whether or not it’s time to shake up the core of their roster, here are some of their other keys to their summer.

Bridge Or Long-Term Deal For Montour

A strong showing last postseason for defenseman Brandon Montour set the stage for him to become a key part of Anaheim’s back end.  He did just that while working his way into a lot more ice time down the stretch; he played at least 20:58 in his final 28 games (including the playoffs).  Montour also took advantage of the extra ice time to post an impressive 32 points.

With his entry-level deal now finished, the 24-year-old heads into the offseason in a good place.  He’s eligible for arbitration and if he goes to a hearing, he’ll have a strong case.

What makes this a bit more intriguing is that 2017-18 was Montour’s only full NHL season.  He played quite well but has he shown enough over 107 career regular season games and 21 postseason contests to warrant a new long-term deal that covers the rest of his RFA years plus some UFA ones?  Or, is a short-term pact the better way to go?

While Anaheim has several other restricted free agents to re-sign (including wingers Nick Ritchie and Ondrej Kase), they should have enough room under the cap that their situation won’t force them to go with a bridge deal.  Montour projects to be a key cog on their back end for years to come but with such little of an NHL track record under his belt, it’s going to be an interesting call to make for Murray.

Extension Talks

Last summer, the Ducks acted early and signed defenseman Cam Fowler to an extension as soon as he was eligible.  They’ll have to decide whether or not to do so with a trio of notable players entering the final year of their respective contracts.

Goaltender John Gibson didn’t have the best of playoffs but he had a very strong regular season and was among the league leaders in games played, wins, and save percentage.  He has emerged as a legitimate starting netminder and he will be seeking a significant raise on his current $2.3MM AAV.  There isn’t anyone at the minor league level that is set to push for playing time so it’s clear that Gibson is their guy for the long haul.  With that in mind, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team try to get an early extension done.

Center Adam Henrique made a big impact after being acquired from the Devils for defenseman Sami Vatanen and with Ryan Kesler’s availability for next year in doubt already, Henrique is going to be counted on as a key cog once again.  That should have him in line for a nice raise on his $4MM AAV (though it’s worth noting he’s set to earn $5.5MM in salary next year).  Anaheim already has $15.5MM per year tied up through 2020-21 in their top two pivots but they may want to add another big chunk to that in the form of a new deal for Henrique.

Then there’s winger Jakob Silfverberg.  The key part of the Bobby Ryan trade took a small step backwards in 2017-18, posting 40 points in 77 games after picking up 49 in 79 contests the year before.  He has basically cemented himself as someone that’s going to be around that 40-point plateau each season and while he’s more of a secondary player, that type of consistency will be rewarded on the open market if he makes it there next July.  His current cap hit is $3.75MM and it will take a pretty big raise to get him to forego free agency.  Of these three players, he’s probably the least likely to sign an early extension.

Rebuild The Fourth Line

In the final game of the postseason, Anaheim’s fourth line was Derek Grant down the middle flanked by wingers Jason Chimera and J.T. Brown with center Antoine Vermette as a reserve forward.  All four of those players are slated to become unrestricted free agents and it’s doubtful that all of them will be back.

This will give Anaheim the opportunity to really reshape their bottom trio.  They could give youngsters like Troy Terry and 2016 first-round picks Sam Steel and Max Jones a chance to play right away and add some speed and scoring touch to that unit.  Of course, doing so would limit their penalty killing options so as tempting as this may seem on paper, it’s an unlikely scenario.

The more realistic expectation is that they will try to bring back one or two of their existing group (Grant in particular), add one or two new faces in free agency, and then give the younger players a look at training camp.  The fourth line has been an area that Murray has frequently tried to tinker with the last couple of years but this will be a chance to really build the trio from scratch so that in-season moves to bolster it shouldn’t be necessary.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.