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PHR Mailbag: Blue Jackets, Deferred Contracts, Perfetti, Raymond, Rangers, Ducks, September Moves

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Topics in this edition of the PHR Mailbag include a discussion on deferred contracts, Anaheim’s interest in moving out a pair of long-time veterans, and much more.  If your question doesn’t appear here, watch for it in next weekend’s mailbag.

User 1773920983: With Johnny Gaudreau passing away, what will happen to CBJ’s salary cap? They will fall below if it is removed.

vh33: I don’t want to be disrespectful, but I was wondering: due to the death of Johnny Gaudreau, what happens with the cap hit for the Blue Jackets and the salary? Will the cap hit be reduced? Or in the books for the remainder of his contract? And will the heirs receive his remaining salary? What are the rules for these tragic occasions?

Gaudreau’s contract comes off the books in full for Columbus which does indeed put them under the Lower Limit of $65MM for the upcoming season.  Per PuckPedia, they’re around $62.3MM with a 22-player roster at the moment so they do have a bit of work to do on that front.

It’s possible that they ask for some sort of waiver from the league to start the season below that amount given the circumstances but I think the NHLPA would need to sign off as well.  Their preference would obviously be that Columbus goes and signs a couple of free agents to make up the difference which is an option.  I expect the Blue Jackets will go the trade route and take on a player or two from teams needing or wanting to clear salary, picking up some draft picks in consideration for doing so.  Given that they’re a team that’s likely to sell at the trade deadline, I could see $67MM being a soft target, giving them a path to stay above the Lower Limit even if they move a player or two during the year.

As for what is and isn’t paid out, let’s start with the contract itself.  To the best of my understanding, the family won’t receive any of the remaining payments.  Assuming the $2MM signing bonus in his contract was already paid, that’s the last direct payment in the deal.

However, the family will receive some money.  Article 23 of the CBA provides some information on the insurance of contracts which is relevant here.  From my interpretation, there should be a $1MM life insurance policy as well as an accidental death policy valued at the base salary for that season which in this case is $7.75MM (it excludes the signing bonus).  There’s also a six-month extension of benefits for the family (added in the 2020 CBA extension) with an option to elect (purchase) continuation of coverage beyond that.

aka.nda: Deferred payments in contracts… how many can be in place, and for how much and what duration? How do they count against the cap if they’re paid out the day the season ends vs. some other time?

There are no restrictions on deferred payments in terms of how many can be in place, for how much, or for how long.

As for the second question, the end of the season still falls within the League Year so the quickest way to answer it is to go right to the CBA – Sec. 50.2(ii)(A):

Player Salary denominated as “Deferred” but payable within the term of the SPC shall be counted in the League Year in which the Player Salary is paid and shall not be treated as Deferred Salary.

That covers the day after the season ends but let’s look at another time.  More specifically, a deferral that is payable outside the term of the contract and payable outside the League Year (let’s say July 1st).  At that point, the value of the deferral is discounted to the present value of that compensation in the year it was earned.  Logically, the further out the payment of the deferred money, the lower the present value and therefore the lower the cap hit.  That’s my attempt at a simple explanation for a concept that isn’t all that simple.  PuckPedia has a nice breakdown with some more details of contract deferrals if you’re interested in reading up on it further.

I’m going to quickly comment on the idea of deferred salary in general having seen a lot of general speculation that the two deals Carolina did could lead to a spike in these types of agreements.  I don’t think that will be the case.  With escrow stabilizing, there’s going to be more effort into front-loading contracts as much as possible, especially for established top players.  They then get more money sooner which is the key objective.

Deferred contracts are more or less the opposite as players have to wait longer to get paid.  Presumably, they’re getting more in the end to make up for the deferral but they have to wait.  That’s how Carolina got around the perceived internal ceiling of Seth Jarvis’ deal being the $7.75MM that Andrei Svechnikov has.  The AAV based on total earnings is higher at $7.9MM but the cap hit is only $7.42MM based on the three deferred payments to the day after the contract officially expires.  It’s a creative solution but while we might see a few more of these deals (to be fair, Carolina’s two weren’t the first of its kind; they’ve happened before albeit rarely), this isn’t going to be the start of a new trend.

Cla23: What does a Cole Perfetti and Lucas Raymond contract look like?

For Perfetti, I think the two sides are going to hone in on a bridge deal.  He only has 75 career points under his belt so I have a hard time believing that the two sides can find a number that they’ll be happy with on a long-term agreement.  Perfetti wouldn’t lock in close to a max term for less than $6MM as he undoubtedly feels he has another level to get to offensively while given his performance so far, I doubt the Jets would go that high.  I expect a two-year term will be the target which should check in around $3MM per season, perhaps backloaded slightly to secure a higher qualifying offer.  That also fits nicely within Winnipeg’s current cap situation, giving them a chance to bank some in-season cap space.

As for Raymond, it looks like a long-term agreement is the goal and GM Steve Yzerman made sure to leave enough cap space to afford one.  His platform season was strong (31 goals, 41 assists) and there’s probably a belief that he can beat those numbers down the road.  I could see Raymond’s camp looking to best Cole Caufield’s contract (eight years, $7.85MM AAV) as he has better numbers now than the Montreal winger did at the time while Detroit is probably hoping to get that into the high-six range which lines up more with the cap percentage on Dylan Larkin’s post-entry-level deal.  I’ll go with seven years at $7.8MM or eight years at $8MM as the end result.

sha44ron! Due to the cap limits, the Rangers were unable to improve their bottom six so do you think that will hurt them this year?

I’ll start with this general thought.  If the bottom six is the biggest issue that a team has heading into the regular season, that’s a pretty good spot to be in.  And that’s where the Rangers are.

I’m not sure I agree that they haven’t been able to improve their bottom six.  As long as Filip Chytil stays healthy (granted, that’s far from a given), that’s a big improvement right there as he’s not passing Mika Zibanejad or Vincent Trocheck on the center depth chart.  If Reilly Smith’s addition pushes Kaapo Kakko onto the third line as well, now you have a third line that should be a capable secondary scoring trio.

I also think there’s room for internal improvement in the bottom six.  Will Cuylle should take a step forward while if they get a chance, Brennan Othmann and Adam Edstrom could contribute.

With New York’s overall talent, they’re in good shape for the season so they can be patient with their bottom six.  If the things I mentioned above happen and it’s a better group than expected, great.  If not, they can try to address it at the trade deadline.  If it’s still a problem going into the playoffs, then I’d be a bit more concerned but for now, I don’t think it will hurt them too much.

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Pacific Notes: Flames, DeAngelo, Brisebois

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With the Flames heading into what looks to be a longer-term rebuild, there has been speculation that some of their remaining veterans might want a change of scenery.  However, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman relayed in the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), GM Craig Conroy appears to be taking more of a wait-and-see approach with his current roster:

His plan is to start the year, see how it goes, and then decide what he’s going to do with some of these players. He’s asked his players to keep an open mind, see how this year goes, and then he’ll start looking at what he might need to do or what they want to do.

While some rebuilding teams have been okay with tearing it down and enduring some rough losing seasons, Conroy has talked about staying competitive during this stretch.  Accordingly, it makes sense that he’d like to hold onto his remaining veteran core for the time being.  Projected to operate just $3MM above the cap floor per PuckPedia, if the time comes to move a high-priced veteran, Conroy will have to make sure any move wouldn’t put them below that lower limit.

More from the Pacific:

  • Unrestricted free agent Tony DeAngelo expressed an interest in attending Oilers camp on a PTO deal but it appears the team has said no, suggests Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal. The 28-year-old is a right-shot defender, the side the team appears to be prioritizing but while he has a track record of some offensive success (with two 50-plus-point seasons), last season was a struggle for DeAngelo who managed just 11 points in 31 games while being a frequent healthy scratch.  That certainly hasn’t helped his market so far in free agency.
  • Canucks defenseman Guillaume Brisebois has fully recovered after dealing with a recurrence of concussion symptoms that cost him most of last season, relays Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston. The 27-year-old only played in eight late-season games in the AHL in 2023-24 due to the symptoms.  Brisebois has 27 career NHL appearances under his belt, all coming with Vancouver as he is the longest-contracted player in the organization having been signed to them since late in 2015.

Four Teams Have Interest In Mark Giordano

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The Score’s Kyle Cushman wrote that the Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, and Toronto Maple Leafs have maintained interest in veteran defenseman Mark Giordano. The oldest player in the NHL last year has spurned any interest in retirement and is again looking for an NHL opportunity next year.

He is destined for bottom-pairing responsibilities next year after averaging his lowest average time-on-ice since the 2008-09 season. He’s spent the last two-and-a-half years with the Maple Leafs organization where he’s recorded nine goals and 45 points in 144 games while averaging 18:14 a game.

Calgary represents more of a ’feel good’ landing spot as the other three interested parties have internal expectations of contentions next season. He’s spent 15 years of his career in southern Alberta where he recorded 143 goals and 509 points in 949 games including a Norris Trophy in the 2018-19 season.

He’s seen his possession quality dip in the last several years after finishing the 2023-24 season with a 48.4 CorsiFor% compared to a 53.0% career average. He’s still a formidable bottom-pairing veteran presence and could provide a bonus to any team.

At the end of his career, the expectation is that Giordano will look to maximize his opportunity to win the Stanley Cup which would trim his potential teams down to Edmonton and Toronto. Without needing to shoulder top-level responsibility anymore at this stage in his career; he should have a ready opportunity in both organizations.

Snapshots: Sharks, Shesterkin, Perfetti, Clutterbuck

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The San Jose Sharks have rounded out their kinesiological staff with the hiring of Will Leonard as head athletic trainer, Ryan Ledwon as assistant athletic trainer, and Patrick Dugan as assistant strength and conditioning coach according to beat reporter Max Miller.

Leonard will take over as the team’s second athletic trainer for the team since the 1997-98 season. The position was previously held by Ray Tufts who was relieved of duties the same day as former-head coach David Quinn on April 24th of this year. Leonard had previously served as the head athletic trainer for the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda before working under Tufts for the last two years with the Sharks as an assistant athletic trainer.

Ledwon and Dugan are rookies to the organization with the former having experience in his role with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls of the Anaheim Ducks organization. Dugan’s new role with the Sharks will be marked as his first position in professional hockey.

Other snapshots:

  • All signs point to Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin eclipsing the retired Carey Price to become the league’s highest-paid goalie, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said on Friday’s “32 Thoughts” podcast. If that’s the case, his inevitable extension to keep him off the free agent market in 2025 will check in with a cap hit north of $10.5MM. The Rangers already have over $58MM tied up for 2025-26 with only 10 players signed, per PuckPedia.
  • Jets RFA Cole Perfetti may still be without a contract, but the young forward has returned to Winnipeg to train before hopefully signing a new deal before training camp, Darren Dreger of TSN reports. Dreger adds that Perfetti, 22, still intends to represent the Jets at next week’s player media tour in Las Vegas, even if he doesn’t have a deal. Multiple Winnipeg-based pundits have posited a two-year bridge deal is the most likely outcome. However, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period said yesterday that Perfetti’s camp is still awaiting a firm offer from the Jets.
  • Free agent winger Cal Clutterbuck has spurned PTO offers as he continues to search for guaranteed employment next season, reports James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now. Clutterbuck, who turns 37 in November, is on the open market after spending the last 11 years in an Islanders uniform, plying his trade as a valuable fourth-line checking presence. The 2006 third-round pick of the Wild played in all 82 games last season for the first time in his 17-year NHL career, posting seven goals and 12 assists for 19 points.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed to this article. 

Poll: Which Team Is The Best Landing Spot For Cam Fowler?

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Earlier today it came to light that the Anaheim Ducks and long-time cornerstone defenseman Cam Fowler were working on a trade to move Fowler to a new organization. Fowler has spent nearly 1000 games as a member of the Ducks. Still, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman explained that Anaheim wants to give their young blue-liners more opportunity moving forward.

Fowler owns a modified no-trade clause in his current deal which gives him a relative amount of control over where he ends up. Friedman reported that Fowler is willing to edit the list if prompted but there are only a handful of teams with the cap space and the need for a top-four defenseman. One could reasonably assume for various reasons that Fowler likely won’t end up on the Calgary Flames, Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Blackhawks, or San Jose Sharks which helps iron out a more concrete list of hypothetical landing spots.

The Winnipeg Jets immediately jump out as a team that could have interest in Fowler as one of Dylan Samberg, Ville Heinola, or Logan Stanley are currently pegged for top-four duties. That trio leaves much to be desired in a top-four role which could lead the Jets to pivot to Fowler. Winnipeg has just under $6MM in cap space with Cole Perfetti the only restricted free agent left to sign. Perfetti shouldn’t eat up too much of the available space which should allow the Jets to comfortably fit Fowler’s contract into the fold for the next two years especially if the Ducks retain some salary off the top.

Utah Hockey Club has already added heavily to their defensive group this summer swinging separate trades for Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino. The team is looking to contend in their first season in Salt Lake City and Fowler would give them a complete blue line. Most lineup predictions have Juuso Valimaki on the second defensive pairing but his inconsistency over the last two seasons may give general manager Bill Armstrong some pause. Utah still owns one of the better prospect pools in the league and would not need Anaheim to retain any salary in a hypothetical trade.

Another team looking to make it back to the playoffs after an eight-year drought is the Detroit Red Wings. The team nearly swung a trade for New York Rangers’ captain Jacob Trouba earlier this summer although he used his no-movement clause to block the deal. The nixed trade for Trouba indicated that the Red Wings are still looking to upgrade their blue line making them an enticing fit for Fowler. The team largely has no reliable options outside of youngster Moritz Seider and Fowler would represent a veteran defenseman who has maintained plenty of responsibility throughout his career as evidenced by his career average of 23:15 time on ice. There is a bit more uncertainty with the Red Wings salary cap picture as they still need to look down Seider, Lucas Raymond, and Jonatan Berggren on new deals.

Fowler and the Ducks organization will inevitably agree on a trade profitable for both sides. It’s uncertain at this time whether a trade will come together relatively quickly or if Fowler will start the 2024-25 season as a member of the Ducks. Will one of the abovementioned teams swing for Fowler or will another team off the board pull the trigger?

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Atlantic Notes: Newhook, Dach, Panthers, Khaira

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Expect Alex Newhook to start the season on the wing on the Canadiens’ second line centered by Kirby Dach and flanked by Patrik Laine, says Eric Engels of Sportsnet. It may not be a long-term fit, though, as Engels cautions not to be “surprised if there’s a bit of a revolving door next to Dach and Laine as the season rolls along.” Regardless of who plays with them, early signs point to Dach shifting to center after spending a good portion of his first season in Montreal, the 2022-23 campaign, on the wing. The 23-year-old forward missed all but two games last season after tearing his ACL and MCL in his right knee.

There’s more out of the Atlantic:

  • The Panthers will dip their toes into the professional tryout market soon, says David Dwork of The Hockey News. They’re on the lookout for a veteran forward, likely to compete to help replace the departures of fourth-liners Nick Cousins, Steven Lorentz, Kyle Okposo, and Kevin Stenlund over the past few months. Notable UFAs left to fill those roles that haven’t landed PTOs elsewhere include Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, Cal Clutterbuck, Matt Martin, and Chris Tierney.
  • Jujhar Khaira’s streak of appearing in an NHL game for the last nine seasons is in jeopardy after settling for an AHL contract today with the Lightning’s affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. Khaira, 30, was once a regular bottom-six presence for the Blackhawks and Oilers around the turn of the decade but was relegated to an AHL role last season after signing a two-way deal with the Wild, making just one NHL appearance for Minnesota early in the season. In 22 games with the Iowa Wild, his first minor league action since the 2016-17 campaign, he scored five goals and added 13 assists for 18 points. His AHL deal with the Crunch could include a PTO with the Lightning, allowing him to participate in NHL training camp and attempt to earn a two-way contract with Tampa.

Snapshots: McCabe, Couture, Shattenkirk, Kaprizov, Sorokin

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The Maple Leafs have begun initial talks with defenseman Jake McCabe on a contract extension, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on today’s “32 Thoughts” podcast. He’s entering the final season of a four-year, $16MM deal with a $4MM cap hit, but the Leafs are only on the hook for half of it thanks to the Blackhawks retaining $2MM per season on his deal when they traded him to Toronto before the 2023 trade deadline.

McCabe, 31 in October, has fit in seamlessly on the Toronto blue line, averaging 20:39 per game in his first entire season there last year. It wasn’t quite a career-high in ice time, but it was a career-best year for McCabe in nearly every other category, including goals (8), points (28), rating (+20), and hits (219).

While a passable puck-mover, McCabe is primarily effective as a stay-at-home piece. He averaged 2:12 per game on the penalty kill and kept his head above water in terms of controlling expected goals at even strength, the first time he’s done so in his career after toiling on rebuilders in Buffalo and Chicago. He’ll still feature heavily on a new-look Toronto defense next season featuring Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Chris Tanev.

More from around the league:

  • There’s still uncertainty about Sharks captain Logan Couture’s availability to begin the season, but Friedman said that he doesn’t get the sense Couture is considering hanging up his skates. The 35-year-old played just six games in 2023-24 due to osteitis pubis, a rare type of joint inflammation that causes pain and swelling in the groin and lower abdomen (from the Cleveland Clinic). With three seasons left on his contract at an $8MM cap hit, the 15-year veteran still hopes to be a core piece and guide San Jose’s new crop of young players through their ongoing rebuild.
  • Free agent defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk still fully intends on returning for his 15th NHL season in 2024-25, his agent, George Bazos, tells Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. Bazos said his camp is in discussions with a few teams regarding his client but didn’t say whether they were regarding guaranteed deals or professional tryout agreements. Shattenkirk, 35, had 24 points in 61 games with the Bruins last season in bottom-pairing minutes after signing a one-year, $1.05MM deal in Boston in free agency.
  • Leon Draisaitl’s recent eight-year mega-deal likely has positive implications for Kirill Kaprizov as he kicks off extension negotiations with the Wild, Friedman posits. Kaprizov’s deal runs for two more seasons, and he isn’t eligible to sign an extension until July 1, 2025, but there’s already a sentiment building around the league that Draisaitl’s $14MM cap hit is a “needle-mover” for contracts handed out to superstars, Friedman said. After winning the Calder Trophy during the shortened 2020-21 season, Kaprizov has emerged as one of the league’s most consistent scorers, topping the 40-goal mark for three years in a row. He’s still owed $17.5MM on the five-year, $45MM deal he signed as a restricted free agent in 2021.
  • An undisclosed injury may have had something to do with Ilya Sorokin’s slight regression in play for the Islanders last season, Friedman said. The 29-year-old netminder still managed to finish eighth in Vezina Trophy voting, but his .908 SV%, 3.01 GAA, and two shutouts were all career-lows. He’s about to kick off the eight-year, $66MM extension he signed to stay on Long Island last summer, and Friedman said whether Sorokin checks in at 100% when training camp begins later this month will be one of the bigger storylines to watch for the Isles.

Friedman: Sidney Crosby Still Undecided On Extension

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Entering the final season of his 12-year, $104.4MM mega-deal with the Penguins, franchise cornerstone Sidney Crosby became eligible to sign an extension on July 1 this year. A deal seemed close shortly after that, with reports suggesting the two sides would formalize an extension weeks into free agency. However, with no news yet, Elliotte Friedman said on today’s “32 Thoughts” podcast that Crosby is still weighing whether he wants to sign any of the multiple offers presented to him by Pittsburgh general manager Kyle Dubas.

Crosby’s uncertainty isn’t related to a desire to maximize his earning potential in the latter stages of his career – it’s simply about whether he’s prepared to spend the final years of his time as a top-of-the-lineup player on a retooling Pittsburgh club. The Penguins have presented him with multiple offers with varying lengths, all of which are acceptable to Crosby in theory, Friedman notes.

One thing I wonder is if Crosby is simply sitting here saying ’I’ve got no problem with the offers, I’ve got no problem with the Penguins, but if we’re not going to be making the playoffs, am I going to be able to handle that?’ I think that’s one of the things he’d kind of weighing. My prediction is he stays because I think he’s a Penguin and he wants to be a Penguin, but I’ve tried to ask around about why it isn’t done, and I think one of the reasons is it’s the summer and he doesn’t need to rush. He’s still got time. And I think the other one is what if it’s like that? Is [he] going to be able to deal with it, because he’s still at the top of his game and he’s competitive.

With the extension saga beginning to draw out into its third month, there’s been more discussion about contingency plans and ripple effects if he enters training camp in a couple of weeks without a deal in place. Travis Yost of TSN posited earlier this week that Crosby may accept a trade elsewhere at the deadline, allowing the Pens to bolster their future with a presumably gargantuan trade return before signing back in Pittsburgh as an unrestricted free agency next summer. Last month, Josh Yohe of The Athletic wrote about the off-ice impact of Crosby not extending before camp.

Crosby has one season left on his deal at an $8.7MM cap hit, but he’s owed just $3MM in salary this year. It’s the same structure his extremely front-loaded contract has carried since the 2022-23 campaign.

If there’s a lack of urgency from Crosby’s end to the degree that Friedman implies, it’s becoming more plausible than not that he’s still not signed past 2025 when camp kicks off in less than two weeks. Pittsburgh still needs his best if they have any intention of closing the three-point gap that kept them out of the postseason for the second year in a row last season. The 37-year-old had 42 goals and 94 points in all 82 games en route to finishing ninth in Hart Trophy voting, his highest finish in the MVP tally since 2021.

East Notes: Kapanen, Kolosov, Mercer

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Canadiens center prospect Oliver Kapanen signed a two-year deal with Swedish Hockey League club Timrå IK back in May. He’s already made quite an impression on his new head coach, longtime NHLer Olli Jokinen, who showered the 21-year-old with praise in a recent interview with Marco D’Amico of Responsible Gambling.

In fact, Jokinen’s been so pleased with Kapanen’s play during the SHL preseason that he’s concerned about him spending more time than expected in Montreal next month when he heads to North America for training camp. “He’s been too good for our league so far this preseason, playing like a dominant force in every single game,” Jokinen said. “He’s been great offensively, scoring some goals, but also defensively and in the faceoff circle, which will be his biggest advantage going into Montreal.”

Kapanen may have inked a multi-year commitment with Timrå, but he also signed his entry-level contract with the Canadiens shortly thereafter. While technically eligible for assignment to the AHL’s Laval Rocket, there’s a European Assignment Clause in his ELC that will allow him to return to Timrå if cut from Montreal’s NHL roster, Jokinen said.

It would be a surprise to see Kapanen unseat another Canadiens youngster like Joshua Roy to win a roster spot, but the Finnish national is certainly trending in the right direction after recording 34 points in 51 games last season with Liiga’s KalPa. If he does play this season in Timrå, he’ll likely be their leader in ice time among forwards as “a first-line center with power play and penalty kill time,” said Jokinen.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:

  • The Flyers are now operating under the assumption that goaltending prospect Alexei Kolosov won’t be reporting to training camp, Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff reports. He also adds that general manager Daniel Brière remains unwilling to loan the 22-year-old back to Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League, where he’s played for most of the past four seasons. Kolosov, a third-round pick of the Flyers in 2021, has two years left on his entry-level contract with Philadelphia. He’s been in dispute with the club about where to play this season since at least May, when reports emerged he had trouble adjusting to the North American environment after ending the 2023-24 campaign with a pair of appearances for Philly’s AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
  • Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said on Friday’s “32 Thoughts” podcast that he’s confident the Devils’ pending agreement with RFA forward Dawson Mercer will be a short-term one. With just under $5MM in projected cap space (PuckPedia), he doesn’t think the Devils would be able to fit a long-term deal with Mercer under the cap this season without a significant preseason corresponding transaction. Mercer remains unsigned with less than two weeks to go until training camp, but general manager Tom Fitzgerald said last month that a resolution wasn’t too far off.

Ducks Notes: Marchessault, Stamkos, Gibson, Gudas

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Anaheim was also one of the many teams making serious pitches for star forwards Jonathan Marchessault and Steven Stamkos during their brief stints on the free agent market earlier this summer, said Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on today’s “32 Thoughts” podcast. TSN’s Bob McKenzie reported at the time that the Ducks were among the top five teams making competitive offers for Stamkos, but Marchessault wasn’t linked to Anaheim until now. Many expected Anaheim to be a major player in free agency after picking up veterans Gudas and Alex Killorn in last year’s frenzy, especially with ample cap space to spend, but their offseason moves ended up being more conservative after Marchessault and Stamkos opted to both sign deals with the Predators instead.

There’s more from Friedman on Orange County:

  • The Ducks haven’t given up on trying to move goaltender John Gibson and are still shopping him with three years left on his contract, Friedman said. But there hasn’t been any significant progress, and no deal appears close with less than two weeks to go until training camp. They’ve been in trade discussions regarding the 31-year-old, who posted a career-worst .888 SV% in 46 appearances last season, for the entirety of the offseason, per Friedman.
  • With trade rumors now surrounding the Ducks’ longest-tenured player, Cam Fowler, expect them to name Radko Gudas their next captain before the season starts, Friedman said. The hulking 34-year-old defender was Anaheim’s best defensive player last season by a wide margin after signing a three-year, $12MM deal in free agency, leading the team with a +14 rating, 128 PIMs, 154 blocks, and 232 hits. The captaincy in Anaheim has been vacant since Ryan Getzlaf retired in 2022.

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