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Anaheim Ducks Sign Alex Stalock To One-Year Deal

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The Anaheim Ducks have signed goaltender Alex Stalock to a one-year contract, per a team release. It’s a one-way deal worth $800K, according to The Athletic’s Eric Stephens.

Anaheim is the 36-year-old netminder’s fourth NHL stop (and sixth NHL organization overall) as he enters his potential 12th NHL season. It’s been quite the long road since he was selected in the fourth round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by the San Jose Sharks, where he eventually grew into a full-time backup by the mid-2010s. Serious health issues have limited Stalock’s playing time over the past handful of seasons, including a scary bout with myocarditis, which caused him to miss the entire 2020-21 campaign.

It was a tough break for the veteran netminder, who at the time was coming off a career-best 20 wins, 36 starts, and four shutouts with the Minnesota Wild as he captured the starting role heading into the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. After a long road back to full health, Stalock did post quite solid numbers behind a poor Chicago Blackhawks team last year, recording a team-leading .908 save percentage and 3.10 goals-against average. He also captured both of the team’s lone two shutouts.

Now, he has a chance to get some NHL looks again in Anaheim. He’s been brought in as insurance, either if projected backup Lukas Dostal isn’t ready for full-time NHL action just yet, or to tandem with Dostal if the team trades longtime starter John Gibson. Extending him a one-way deal this late in the offseason makes it clear they don’t envision assigning him to the minors, however.

Anaheim Ducks' Second Buyout Window Closes Today

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  • After settling their final arbitration cases with Drew O’Connor and Troy Terry, the second buyout window this offseason for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks closes today, respectively. While the Ducks are extremely unlikely to utilize a buyout at this point in the offseason, Pittsburgh will be a team to watch today. As covered at length this week, the team’s salary cap situation is being kept a close eye on by almost everyone as the team closes in on trying to acquire defenseman Erik Karlsson from the San Jose Sharks. Their most likely buyout candidate is 2023 trade deadline acquisition Mikael Granlund, who’s locked in for this season and next at a $5MM cap hit and had just five points in 21 games with Pittsburgh after arriving from the Nashville Predators. Per CapFriendly, a Granlund buyout would provide the Penguins with over $4.1MM in savings this season.

Latest On Trevor Zegras

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Yesterday, we issued an update on the 14 remaining unsigned RFAs league-wide after this year’s arbitration calendar wrapped up thanks to the Anaheim Ducks’ massive seven-year settlement with winger Troy Terry. The most glaring name on that unsigned list is Terry’s linemate, Trevor Zegras, who told NHL.com’s Dan Rosen yesterday he’s “hopeful” for a new contract soon but won’t return to Anaheim until a new deal is signed. He’s spent the offseason training in Connecticut, where he’ll remain for the time being.

Zegras offered no update, good or bad, on how close his camp was to an extension with Anaheim. He did infer that he hasn’t been personally involved much in contract talks, saying the negotiations are “kind of out of my control” and “this is why you have people in place to handle this type of stuff.” Zegras, 22, did not have the four professional seasons required under his belt to be eligible for arbitration this summer. He remains an RFA for the time being after his three-year, $5.235MM entry-level contract expired on July 1.

If general manager Pat Verbeek’s negotiations with Terry are any indication, we likely won’t learn any details about Zegras’ extension until it’s officially announced. The two sides were $3.5MM apart on a contract heading into their arbitration hearing, and there were no credible rumors of a settlement before the announcement came last Wednesday. Financial flexibility is not an issue for the rebuilding Ducks – CapFriendly still projects them with over $20MM in cap space after signing Terry.

Despite a 32nd-place finish for Anaheim in 2022-23, Zegras himself had a solid sophomore season. Skating in 81 games, he matched his rookie total in goals (23) and set a career-high in points with 65 while seeing a small bump in ice time to 18:50 per game. The 2019 ninth-overall pick has kept Anaheim relevant in public discourse despite their poor performance, routinely making incredible individual playmaking efforts. He may have significant defensive holes in his game, but Zegras said he’s “very excited” to play for new head coach Greg Cronin, who traveled to Connecticut to meet with the young center and outlined specific improvements for Zegras to focus on in the defensive zone.

Ideally, the buck won’t fall on Zegras long-term to be a do-it-all first-line center. The Ducks have multiple other top-six caliber prospects, including Mason McTavish and Leo Carlsson, with the latter carrying high two-way upside. Verbeek mentioned yesterday he envisions Zegras as the most likely candidate to shift to the wing eventually if Anaheim’s center corps becomes crowded.

That change won’t happen anytime soon, though, as Carlsson isn’t a guarantee to make the NHL next season. For now, Anaheim’s roster still carries significant holes, which will lead them to rely on Zegras heavily in the middle of the ice. Although free-agent additions Alex Killorn and Radko Gudas and a healthy Jamie Drysdale could buoy the team and lift them out of last place, 2023-24 is not expected to be the season where the young Ducks break out – yet.

Silfverberg Sustained Blood Clot At Worlds, SHL Is Third Option For Carlsson

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Ducks winger Jakob Silfverberg missed the final 23 games of the 2021-22 season due to a blood clot and had to deal with one once again this summer.  Gefle Dagblad’s Daniel Sandstrom reports that the 32-year-old sustained one while suiting up for his native Sweden at the Worlds back in May.  Fortunately, he is expected to be ready for the start of next season.  Silfverberg is coming off a 26-point season while playing over 80 games for the first time since 2015-16 and is entering the final year of his contract which carries a cap hit of $5.25MM.

  • Still with Anaheim, while there is an expectation that Ducks prospect Leo Carlsson will make the jump to the NHL next season, GM Pat Verbeek told NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika that no determination has been made just yet on their plans for him. Carlsson was the second overall pick back in June and had a productive year with SHL Orebro, recording 10 goals and 15 assists in 44 games.  If Carlsson doesn’t make the team, Verbeek indicated that he’d be assigned to AHL San Diego next, not back to the Swedish league.  If he does make the team at his natural center position, Verbeek feels that Trevor Zegras who would move to the wing to make room for him.

Anaheim Ducks Sign Troy Terry To Seven-Year Deal

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The Anaheim Ducks have signed winger Troy Terry to a seven-year contract, per the team, avoiding an arbitration hearing with the young forward set for today. The Athletic’s Eric Stephens reports the contract carries a $7MM average annual value. With the news, all pending arbitration cases this offseason are now concluded.

Terry’s career in Anaheim began rather unceremoniously, selected 148th overall in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. Elite offensive production at the University of Denver, plus some memorable international appearances for the United States, quickly boosted his stock as a prospect, however. Although he didn’t make the Ducks full-time immediately after turning pro in 2018, it took just a year and a half of seasoning in the minors for Terry to transform into a legitimate NHL talent.

At 23 years old in 2020-21, Terry played in 48 out of 56 games during the COVID-shortened campaign but largely played bottom-six minutes on a Ducks team that finished with a .384 points percentage and failed to do much of anything well. Despite that, he managed to finish fifth on the team in scoring with 20 points, providing some very solid two-way play in the process. That performance set the basis for the following two seasons, which have seen Terry develop into a top-flight, All-Star caliber winger for the struggling Ducks.

Now 25, the Denver native exploded for 60 goals, 68 assists and 128 points in 145 games since 2021. He’s maintained his status as a possession monster, too, posting a career-high relative Corsi For percentage of 7.9 at even strength last season. His 23 goals in 70 games last year tied Trevor Zegras for the team lead, and his average ice time of 19:22 ranked first among Ducks forwards. Needless to say, Terry has transformed into a franchise pillar for Anaheim in the span of a few years, and he’s now been rewarded with the highest cap hit on the team. That’s a stat that could change in the coming days, however, as Zegras remains without a deal for next season.

While Anaheim has indeed struggled over the past few campaigns, that’s not an indication of Terry’s inability to lift the team around him. The team’s patchwork defense and subpar scoring depth have limited their ceiling, all the while, Terry has managed to continue developing undeterred. He’s become a prototypical first-line winger without many weaknesses in his game, possessing an accurate shot while building out his playmaking ability to a high-end level.

Now, Anaheim looks to Terry to keep it up over the rest of the decade as their next wave of prospects begins to hit the NHL. They already had a promising one-two punch at center led by Zegras and Mason McTavish but now also have Swedish phenom Leo Carlsson as the second overall pick in this year’s draft. The team has one of the better goalie prospects in the sport in Lukas Dostal, who’s set to make the jump to the NHL full-time this season in a backup role. Consider a very strong defense pool led by Jamie Drysdale, Olen Zellweger, Pavel Mintyukov, and Jackson LaCombe, and it doesn’t seem like Anaheim will be in the throes of a rebuild much longer.

Terry’s long-term extension accentuates an offseason in which the Ducks tried to fill out their developing core with seasoned depth, inking two-time Stanley Cup champion winger Alex Killorn and bruising right-shot defenseman Radko Gudas in free agency. His contract, which keeps him in a Ducks jersey through 2030, carries an even $7MM salary spread in each season and a ten-team no-trade list beginning in 2025-26, per PuckPedia.

Despite the strong list of names in the system, most of them aren’t ready to make the jump to full-time impactful NHLers next season. Expect a marginal amount of improvement from the Ducks under new head coach Greg Cronin next season, but the first season of Terry’s massive extension figures to be another forgettable one for the 2007 Stanley Cup champions.

CapFriendly projects the Ducks with upwards of $20MM in cap space for next season, a solid chunk of which will go to new deals still needed for Drysdale and Zegras.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Toronto Maple Leafs Had Interest In Milan Lucic, Radko Gudas

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The Toronto Maple Leafs were active this summer in trying to add some toughness to their roster in the form of enforcers and multi-dimensional players, eventually settling on Max Domi, Ryan Reaves and Tyler Bertuzzi. Those weren’t the only players they contacted of that ilk, however. Both forward Milan Lucic (YouTube link) and defenseman Radko Gudas (link to iSport.cz) revealed in separate interviews that Toronto general manager Brad Treliving had pursued them in unrestricted free agency.

Lucic hadn’t been previously connected to the Leafs throughout this summer’s rumor cycle, but it makes sense they’d have interest given their pursuit and acquisition of Reaves to play a similar role. He told Paul Bissonnette and Ryan Whitney of the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast yesterday, though, that he’d turned down interest from Treliving because of his previous stint with the rival Boston Bruins. The 35-year-old would end up returning to Boston after an eight-year absence, inking a one-year, $1MM contract with the Bruins on July 1.

In terms of offense, Lucic would’ve been a higher-upside (and potentially cheaper) addition to the Leafs’ roster than Reaves. In fact, the only advantage Reaves arguably has between the two players is fighting skill – something the Leafs would end up paying a premium for with a three-year, $4.05MM commitment. Of course, Toronto would end up getting some higher-octane offensive players with the gritty element they were looking for in Bertuzzi and Domi.

Gudas, on the other hand, is pretty much the antithesis of the right-shot defender Toronto did end up signing, John Klingberg. A hulking, physical defensive specialist, Gudas told an outlet in his home country that he’d turned down offers from three teams (Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton) to avoid playing in front of a Canadian media market. While he did sacrifice playing on a competitive team in his twilight years, Gudas did get compensated nicely by the rebuilding Anaheim Ducks with a three-year, $12MM deal carrying trade protection.

The 33-year-old Czech was a large reason why his former team, the Florida Panthers, advanced all the way to the Stanley Cup Final for just the second time in franchise history. He quickly immortalized himself in Leafs lore in the process, going semi-viral for an image that showed him screaming at Toronto goalie Joseph Woll after the Panthers knocked the Leafs out of the playoffs in the Second Round thanks to a Game 5 overtime win.

While Toronto ended up paying slightly more in terms of cap hit for Klingberg ($4.15MM compared to Gudas’ $4MM in Anaheim), they were able to get him at just a one-year commitment, absolving themselves of any long-term consequences should the signing not pan out.

Gudas has topped 100 penalty minutes three times throughout his career and has consistently posted standout advanced defensive metrics over the past number of seasons. He recorded 17 points in 72 games for the Panthers last season while averaging 17:22 of ice time per game.

Anaheim Ducks’ Isac Lundeström Sustains Achilles Injury

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Anaheim Ducks center Isac Lundeström sustained an Achilles injury during offseason training in Sweden earlier this month and will miss the start of next season as a result, according to a report from Swedish outlet NSD translated by The Sporting Tribune’s Derek Lee.

Lee notes Lundeström suffered the injury about three weeks ago and has already undergone surgery, meaning he’s still got five to six months of recovery time ahead of him. That puts Lundeström’s season debut around mid-January 2024, potentially keeping him out for over half the season.

It’s a tough break for the 23-year-old Swede, who the Ducks hoped could take a major step in his development, at least offensively. Selected 23rd overall in the 2018 NHL Draft, Lundeström has been a star defensively on a team that’s struggled heavily to keep the puck out of their own net. He’s also averaged nearly two minutes per game on the penalty kill over the past three years and posted good results in the process.

If he stops developing now, he’s a perfectly fine third-line center, even on a contending team. That being said, Anaheim would love for him to display point production more in line with the 16 goals he put up in 2021-22, not the four goals and 14 points he posted in 61 games last season.

He’s a young player that often flies under the radar when talking about Anaheim’s next-generation core, which includes players like Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish and Leo Carlsson. Still, he’s a promising long-term piece for the Ducks. It’s not like Lundeström’s received terribly sheltered minutes, either – he skated an average of 14:20 per game last season and still managed to keep his head above water defensively.

His absence opens up a hole for some other prospects, potentially Benoit-Olivier Groulx or Nikita Nesterenko, to get some more ice time with the Ducks out of the gate. Groulx, who’s posted double-digit goal totals on the AHL’s San Diego Gulls for three consecutive seasons, was selected 31 picks after Lundeström in the 2018 draft.

Lundeström is in the second season of a two-year, $3.6MM contract signed following an arbitration filing in 2022. He’s eligible for arbitration once again next offseason, though missing a good chunk of the year due to injury certainly won’t help his case.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Arbitration Breakdown: Troy Terry

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With the Minnesota Wild settling with goaltender Filip Gustavsson today, the biggest name left yet to have his arbitration hearing is undoubtedly Anaheim Ducks forward Troy Terry. There are just a handful of days to go in this year’s arbitration calendar, and Terry is set to have his hearing on Wednesday, August 2, meaning he’ll have a contract for next season in place by this Friday at the latest. The Ducks still have franchise cornerstone center Trevor Zegras to sign for next season, although he was not eligible for arbitration.

Filings

Team: $4.5MM
Player: $8MM
Midpoint: $6.25MM

(via Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman)

The Numbers

Last season proved to be a pivotal year for Troy Terry, once again demonstrating his ability to be a high-end top-six scoring forward without much help around him. He showed his breakout campaign in 2021-22 was no fluke, tying his career-high in goals and setting new career-highs in even-strength assists and average time on ice.

Set to turn 26 in September, Terry’s journey has certainly not mirrored the temperate expectations Anaheim had for him when they selected him in the fifth round of the 2015 NHL Draft. He has unquestionably evolved into one of the most significant value picks of the last decade, transforming into a bonafide top-six winger after giving him plenty of time to develop at the University of Denver and in the minors with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. He’s a well-rounded offensive talent and far from a liability defensively – in fact, he’d posted above-average advanced results in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

With Terry just now teetering on the edge of unrestricted free agency next offseason, there’s little reason to be afraid of a setback in his abilities or production. The linearity of his development and the wide range of positive advanced indicators regarding his sustainability as a top-six scoring winger has left many Ducks fans puzzled about how arbitration may be required to get him under contract.

Arbitration isn’t something the Ducks likely desire – he’s only two seasons away from unrestricted free agency in 2025, and a short-term deal risks losing him for nothing at that point. At what lengths (one or two years) the Ducks and Terry filed is unclear.

2022-23 Stats: 70 GP, 23-38-61, -8 rating, 22 PIMs, 188 shots, 19:22 ATOI, 49.2 CF%
Career Stats: 274 GP, 75-101-176, -17 rating, 74 PIMs, 550 shots, 16:43 ATOI, 49.8 CF%

Potential Comparables

Comparable contracts are restricted to those signed within restricted free agency, which means UFA deals and entry-level pacts are ineligible to be used. The contracts below fit within those parameters. Player salaries also fall within the parameters of the submitted numbers by both sides of Terry’s negotiation. 

Jesper Bratt (New Jersey Devils) – Despite his solid play, the seemingly most comparable case to Terry’s isn’t all that favorable to him. Bratt and the Devils had to get a one-year contract awarded via arbitration last season, totaling $5.45MM. At the time, Bratt had slightly more NHL experience at 307 games played but had scored 203 total points, a similar career-scoring pace to Terry. However, it’s worth noting that Bratt hadn’t demonstrated the consistency immediately before his arbitration hearing that Terry has – Bratt had just seven goals in the 2020-21 campaign, while Terry had scored 20-plus goals in each of the two seasons leading up to his hearing. Unfortunately for Terry, this is one of the closest comparables out there for his situation, and it’s significantly lower than his midpoint of $6.25MM.

Kevin Fiala (Minnesota Wild) – This was another one-year pact dished out by an arbitrator, except it was one season before Bratt’s in 2021. The deal came in at a marginally lower cap hit of $5.1MM, but Terry had better career offensive numbers at the time of signing – remember, this Fiala deal was signed before he posted back-to-back seasons above a point per game. This strikes as a low-end comparable for Terry – it would be surprising to see the arbitrator side any further toward the Ducks than this.

Projection

This is one of the more complex cases this summer to predict. It’s partially because of the wide gap in filings between the two parties (leaving lots of room for error around the midpoint) but also the lack of an excellent comparable for a player with as little experience and as old as Terry, already deep into his mid-20s.

That said, things don’t look promising for Terry to get anything close to his sky-high wish of $8MM. It’s become clear that deals settled by an arbitrator rarely carry such an exorbitant price, and he likely doesn’t have the many seasons of experience under his belt to justify a change in pace, even if things do look promising for him to continue his solid trajectory in the future.

This may be one of the first deals we predict to fall below the midpoint this summer. While both Anaheim and Terry have gone for extreme filings here, Terry’s comparables are not kind, and there’s little argument based on past arbitrator decisions for him to receive anything above the $6.25MM midpoint here. A deal in the $5.5MM-$6.25MM range seems much more realistic when considering the stagnant cap over the past few seasons and the lack of willingness from arbitrators to dish out deals high into the $6-8MM range.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Finding A Match For A John Gibson Trade

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There has been trade speculation around Ducks goaltender John Gibson for several years now with that only intensifying following a trade request that was reported back in early June.  His agency denied a report earlier this month which suggested he had informed the club he wouldn’t play for them again but it’s still believed he wouldn’t mind a change of scenery.  However, most of the annual goalie shuffle is now complete and the veteran remains with Anaheim, at least for the time being.

The 29-year-old had posted a 3.99 GAA last season, leading the league in goals allowed (200) and losses (31) while putting up a .899 SV%.  Over the last four seasons, Gibson’s best save percentage has been .904 after putting up four straight campaigns of .917 or better so it’s not as if this was a one-time dip.  Of course, that also coincides with Anaheim entering a rebuild so at least some of the decline in performance could be attributed to that.  It’s possible that in a better situation, he could rebound.

That said, it won’t be a cheap gamble to make.  Gibson has four years left on his contract with a $6.4MM AAV.  That will be difficult for most teams to fit in now; fewer than ten teams in the league have that much cap space and several of those are of the rebuilding variety.  On top of that, the Ducks aren’t going to give their starter away either; there will be a fairly sizable price to pay in terms of assets to get his services.  What teams might those be?  Let’s look at some possible options, some admittedly more speculative than others.

New Jersey

The Devils have a tandem of Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid which, on the surface, isn’t all that bad.  Vanecek had a career-low 2.45 GAA with a career-high .911 SV% last season in 52 games, perfectly reasonable numbers for a starter.  Schmid, meanwhile, was even better in limited duty and even took over as the starter at one point in the playoffs.

That last point is why they’re on this list though.  When it mattered most, Vanecek struggled and with a core group that’s clearly built to win now, a possible upgrade between the pipes could be the missing piece to the puzzle.  A package that includes Vanecek would offset Gibson’s net added cost to no more than $3MM which would be affordable within their cap space, assuming they fill out their roster with low-salaried options.  More importantly, he’d cost less moving forward on the cap than Connor Hellebuyck based on his asking price.

Winnipeg

While the Jets have moved out Pierre-Luc Dubois and bought out Blake Wheeler, that shouldn’t be construed as them heading for a rebuild.  Look no further than the return they received for Dubois – one that had multiple roster pieces as they look to stay in the playoff mix.  Moving Hellebuyck would open up a big hole to fill in goal and Gibson would be a logical one to turn to, assuming either Winnipeg isn’t on his 10-team no-trade list or he’d be willing to waive to go there.

One thing the Jets don’t have in this scenario is another netminder of some significance to flip the other way so their return would likely have to be more futures-based.  Considering where Anaheim is in their rebuild cycle, that might even be preferable on their end.  The Hellebuyck domino has to fall first for this to be an option though.

Buffalo

The Sabres have been speculatively linked to a veteran goaltender for a few months now.  Craig Anderson has called it a career and Eric Comrie isn’t the solution as the starter either.  Meanwhile, the team has high hopes for Devon Levi and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen but the pair have 54 career NHL appearances between them.  There seems to be an expectation of Buffalo making a real playoff push in 2023-24 after really making it interesting in April before just coming up short so while there is an element of upside if Levi and Luukkonen do well, there is certainly some risk as well if they struggle.

Gibson could be a way of hedging that risk, giving Levi a veteran partner to work with and allow him to try to ease his way into a longer-term starting role.  Luukkonen, meanwhile, could be an intriguing part of a swap for Anaheim to start a young tandem of their own alongside Lukas Dostal.  Buffalo has enough cap space to take on Gibson’s contract outright but with pricey extensions a year off for Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, either seeking some retention or sending some sort of salary offset would be beneficial.

Edmonton

After signing Jack Campbell last summer with the hopes of finally finding themselves a legitimate starting goaltender, they find themselves in a familiar spot – still looking for that goalie.  Campbell had his moments last season as did Stuart Skinner but neither are in a spot where they can be counted on as a sure-fire starter when it matters most.  For a franchise that has two of the top players in the league in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, their contention window is now.  They improved the defense at the deadline so finally landing that reliable starter could be the final piece of the puzzle.

Cap space is at a premium for Edmonton, however, with most of their remaining cap room heading to RFAs Ryan McLeod and Evan Bouchard.  To make a move work, they’d need to match money.  That would mean Campbell and his $5MM AAV would almost certainly need to be part of the swap.  The Oilers could ask Anaheim to retain enough on Gibson’s deal to get him down to that same $5MM price point although that will only increase the acquisition price.  Fit-wise, Gibson would certainly be an intriguing addition but it would take some creativity to make it work.

Los Angeles

If you look at the Kings’ roster right now, there is one big question mark and that’s between the pipes.  Pheonix Copley has been more of a third-stringer than a legitimate NHL option for most of his career and veteran Cam Talbot is coming off an injury-plagued campaign that saw him struggle when he was in the lineup.  David Rittich is also in the mix but his track record isn’t the greatest either.  Going cheap at that position has certainly given Los Angeles the flexibility to bolster their lineup but it’s not without its risks either.

To get Gibson (assuming he’s open to going to a long-term division rival), they’d be in a situation where they’d need to match money like Edmonton.  A veteran on an expiring contract like Viktor Arvidsson or Matt Roy could help on that front while someone like Copley would need to be involved as well.  But none of those players will be of much interest to the Ducks so they would need to find a futures-based package to add to those players to include to make it worth Anaheim’s while.

Columbus

This one is admittedly a bit off the board but things did not go well in goal for the Blue Jackets last season as Elvis Merzlikins certainly struggled which played a big role in Columbus plummeting down the standings.  Their offseason activity so far has been geared toward shoring up the back end in the hopes that upgrades there will also help in goal and Mike Babcock is certainly not a rebuilding type of coach.  There’s an internal expectation for big improvement so it wouldn’t be shocking to see them at least kick the tires.

Merzlikins is signed for four more years like Gibson is at $1MM less so if Anaheim was open to taking him back in a swap, the Blue Jackets can fit Gibson onto the books.  They have a strong prospect pool that they could deal from, giving them an edge over some other teams who don’t have as deep of a group to work with when it comes to building a futures-based package.

Of course, it’s still quite possible that Gibson remains with the Ducks at the start of 2023-24 and they revisit the possibility of a trade in-season or next summer when teams will have more cap flexibility at their disposal.  But if there is still mutual motivation to find a deal that works for both sides, there are at least a few teams that could be an option for the veteran netminder.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.  Cap information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Anaheim Ducks Sign Noah Warren

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The Anaheim Ducks have signed 2022 42nd overall pick Noah Warren to a three-year entry-level contract. The financial terms of the contract were not disclosed as part of the announcement, nor have they been reported on at this time.

Although the deal technically gives Warren the right to make the NHL club and potentially play for the Ducks next season, seeing as he just turned 19 years old a few days ago, that’s unlikely to be the outcome for him this fall.

What’s more likely is Warren gets to head to NHL training camp, gain some experience there (as well as a taste of what it’ll take to eventually make a more realistic push for an NHL job) and then head back to the QMJHL to play another season of junior hockey.

The Ducks nabbed Warren in the middle of the second round of the draft in 2022, and at the time he was projected by some outlets to be right on the first-round bubble. For Warren, his draft value was all about projection.

With just 24 points in 62 games, Warren’s offensive production wasn’t what one might expect for an early draft pick out of major junior hockey. But Warren’s intriguing six-foot-five frame and impressive set of physical tools gave many scouts the impression that he could become a difference-making defenseman at the NHL level.

While the Anaheim Ducks have arguably the NHL’s best crop of left-shot defensive prospects, headlined by Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov, their right side isn’t quite as highly-regarded. Sure, they have 2020 sixth-overall pick Jamie Drysdale and QMJHL defenseman of the year Tristan Luneau on that side, but even with those two Warren won’t face as tall of a task making the NHL roster as he would if he played on the left.

This entry-level contract is an indication that the Ducks are believers in Warren’s NHL upside and a recognition of the progress he’s made to his point in his development. Now, the goal will be to develop some more offense to his game and continue to translate his impressive physical tools into all-around value.

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