Ducks starting goaltender Lukas Dostal has agreed to a five-year, $32.5MM contract, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports. Dostal himself confirmed on Anaheim’s X account that he’s signed a new deal.
It’s a significant commitment to the Ducks’ new undisputed No. 1, one that will see him count $6.5MM against the cap through the 2029-30 campaign. The 25-year-old was an arbitration-eligible RFA and chose to file for it earlier this month. Instead of going to a hearing, though, he lands a well-compensated deal that eats up the remainder of his RFA years – and then some.
Anaheim now has one of the more expensive goalie rooms in the league this season. They’re one of the few teams expected to carry three netminders, rostering veteran backups Petr Mrazek ($4.25MM) and Ville Husso ($2.2MM) at relatively steep cap hits for their projected workload. Mrazek was acquired when the Ducks sent longtime starter John Gibson to Detroit at the draft, paving the way for Dostal to assume the crease, while Husso finished last year in Anaheim as their third-stringer but landed an unexpectedly large new contract from them a few weeks ago.
The contract comes after Dostal, long touted as one of the league’s brightest young goalies, converted his linear development path into a breakout season in 2024-25. The 2018 third-round pick shouldered the majority of the workload for the first time, making 49 starts and five relief appearances for 54 total showings. He posted a 23-23-7 record, a .903 SV%, and a 3.10 GAA.
Those numbers may look close to average at first, but should be viewed in the context of Anaheim’s porous defense. The young Czech managed to save 14.3 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck, 16th in the league. He finished 12th in year-end All-Star voting among goaltenders as a result.
Dostal now becomes the 11th highest-paid goalie in the league for 2025-26, roughly in line with those ranks. He lands more annually than recent long-term extensions handed out to starters like Joey Daccord, Adin Hill, and Logan Thompson, but Dostal’s age advantage over them and corresponding room for growth likely drove up his market value – particularly on an Anaheim team that will need strong goaltending to make a playoff push next season with one of the league’s younger defenses.
Dostal will be 30 when the contract expires, making him an unrestricted free agent. Anaheim still has some notable RFAs to re-sign, namely 2021 No. 3 overall pick Mason McTavish.
Image courtesy of Kirby Lee-Imagn Images.
lol. NHL teams handing out cash to unproven players. What a joke.
If you want to lock them up for any amount of term you’re going to have to pay them. What’s the alternative?
When does a player move from unproven to proven? Until that point, do you expect them to work for free?
Whitey herzorg said it best sign them early when there cheap.
Yes it’s a gamble but if it works out that’s gonna be a good looking contract in a few years
@Dog. Who said anything about working for free? Even minimum wage in the NHL is 10 years most peoples salaries. How about a “prove it” bridge deal? Maybe 2 years x $3mill per? Just throwing money around. Some of these contracts in sports are ludicrous
Let’s say this guy signs one of your theoretical bridge deals, “proves” himself, then is able to negotiate a much larger contract than the the $32.5 mil deal he just signed, and it costs the Ducks more money in the long run? Where is the sense in that? Teams are looking to get cost certainty and getting a young guy locked up early can do that and provide the flexibility to make other moves. It comes with risk but so does waiting then having a guy get paid more or walk in free agency. If it was as easy as just signing a guy to one of your bridge deals teams would do it but these guys often get paid on potential.
@Dog. Sure, but there’s another side to that coin and it’s a 50/50 chance. Giving LD half that salary for 2 years would’ve been, in my view, the right deal. He’s not turning into Shesterkin or Hellebucyck. Ever. In 2 years the cap would’ve gone up around 12 million anyway and they could’ve given him the same deal.
Of course there is risk, just as there is risk with every contract. However to state that they just should have given him half the salary for two years says you are forgetting that all negotiations involve two sides. Since the very idea is that players ask for as much as they can get and teams look to sign guys for as little as possible, it is quite likely that he would not have accepted your offer. As for who he may become in the future, how do you know what he ultimately becomes as a goalie? Predicting the long term success of most players is extremely challenging so your statement is nothing but a guess. Ducks management and coaching is betting on this guy and made the financial commitment to lock him up.
@Dog. Exactly you don’t know what he’s gonna become in the future so why pay him as if he is going to become something great in the future. In the end we’re gonna have to agree to disagree.
Great goaltending gets much more than $5M AAV
@mtog
It’s simple really, pay for potential or pay for past performance, either way your paying something and paying for the past usually cost more.
Very underappreciated goalie and worth every penny, they’re paying him.
Hate to say it as a Kings fan, but the Ducks are going to be surprisingly better this year and are set up well for next few years.
gibson posted better numbers behind the same porous defense
That may be true, except Gibson is on a notable decline (through the years) and it will be more noticeable due to his age. Dostal should be in his incline years. It may not look like the greatest signing now, but it will age much better than Gibson. As goalies go in this league, I think you want to lock up your potential starter for as long as you can.
Fantastic goalie. Great deal for both parties.
This is a rare example of a deal that is just right for everybody. The AAV, the term and circumstances are all fair to perfection.
It seems like every signing this off-season has been met with ‘it’s an overpay’ from fans. But if everything is an overpay, by definition, they then can’t be overpays. It’s just what things cost.