Ducks Sign Benoit-Olivier Groulx
- Much like Damiani, the Anaheim Ducks signed a similar restricted free agent forward today, securing a one-year, two-way deal with Benoit-Olivier Groulx. Drafted 54th overall in the same year as Damiani, Groulx has more experience at the NHL level, scoring three points in 20 total games. Having spent much of his time at the AHL level, Groulx has 39 goals and 51 assists in 145 games played for the San Diego Gulls.
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Anaheim Ducks Sign Leo Carlsson
The Anaheim Ducks showed they believe in Leo Carlsson‘s potential when they selected him second overall just two weeks ago, and today they’ve affirmed it. He’s signed a three-year, entry-level contract, the team announced, although they didn’t disclose financial details.
While Carlsson was considered a lock to go top-five on draft day, few thought he’d go second overall ahead of reigning Hobey Baker Award winner Adam Fantilli. The Ducks and general manager Pat Verbeek had made their choice internally, though, believing they were getting a better player in Carlsson. They opted to pass on Fantilli, who the Columbus Blue Jackets were happy to select at third overall.
The second overall selection is by no means a reach for Carlsson, though – he would have been in the discussion for the first overall choice in many past drafts. He was named the Swedish Junior Hockey Player of the Year last season playing for Orebro HK in the SHL, posting strong totals for a draft-eligible talent with ten goals, 15 assists, and 25 points in 44 games.
It’s impressive scoring for an 18-year-old against professional competition, especially when you consider his 25 points rank as the fifth-highest for a draft-eligible player in SHL history, trailing only Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Elias Lindholm, and Nicklas Backstrom. In addition, Carlsson led all SHL players aged 20 and under in points per game, ranking second in goals and third in total points and assists.
The Karlstad product also made history at the 2023 IIHF World Championship as the youngest player ever to score a goal for Sweden at 18 years and 138 days old.
Where Carlsson actually suits up next season remains unclear. His agent said earlier this month that there was no rush to decide where he’d play in 2023-24, and he now has four options with his entry-level contract out of the way: the NHL, AHL, SHL, or a combination. Being a first-round pick, his ELC with Anaheim takes precedence over the contract he’d signed in Sweden next season with Orebro, although Anaheim could still opt to loan him back to Sweden if that’s what Carlsson and the team believes is best for his development. They can also keep him in North America the entire year if they want, as he’s eligible for assignment to the minors with the San Diego Gulls.
Ducks Hire Brent Thompson As Assistant Coach
Continuing to round out their bench, the Anaheim Ducks have announced that they have hired Brent Johnson as an assistant coach. Much like their approach with hiring Greg Cronin as head coach, Thompson is another coaching veteran with over 20 years of experience behind the bench.
Over the course of his coaching career, Thompson has primarily spent it developing players into NHL talents, and the Ducks have no shortage of those players. The team did sign several veterans this offseason, but the team is clearly building around young talents such as Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry, and Jamie Drysdale.
No Decision Yet On Carlsson's 2023-24 Plans, Clara Declined CHL Interest For Import Draft
The Ducks drafted center Leo Carlsson with the second-overall pick in the draft last month and he is widely considered to be one of the most NHL-ready prospects of this draft class. However, Carlsson’s agent Matt Keator told Jim Alexander of The Press-Enterprise that there is no rush for him to make a decision on where the youngster will play in 2023-24. Carlsson is under contract for two more years with Orebro of the SHL but as Carlsson is a first-round pick and Sweden has a transfer agreement with the NHL, a contract with Anaheim can supersede that. Carlsson had 25 points in 44 games last season in Sweden’s top division and a decision on where he plays next season will be jointly made between him and the team.
- There were a total of a dozen NHL-drafted players in the recently-completed CHL Import Draft. One name that wasn’t on that list was Ducks goaltender Damian Clara. Lisa Dillman of the Orange County Register notes that several CHL squads expressed an interest in bringing over the 18-year-old Italian but that the netminder remained committed to playing on loan in Sweden’s second-tier Allsvenskan next season with Brynas. He has two years remaining on his deal over there but if things don’t go as planned for him next season, Clara would be eligible for selection in the Import Draft next summer as well.
Anaheim Ducks Sign Robert Hägg
The Anaheim Ducks have signed former Detroit Red Wings depth defenseman Robert Hägg to a one-year contract, per a team announcement. According to CapFriendly, the deal is a one-way league-minimum contract.
Hägg, 28, spent last season as a depth defenseman for the Detroit Red Wings, skating in 38 games and averaging 15:31 time-on-ice per night.
The former Philadelphia Flyers has never been much of an offensive defenseman (he has just 63 points in 338 career NHL games) but he’s been valued by clubs for his physicality and ability to lay down big hits on the opposition.
The Ducks have a glut of young, relatively unproven left-shot defensemen set to compete for lineup spots in the fall, with top prospects Olen Zellweger, Pavel Minytukov, and Jackson LaCombe in the running to win a job in new head coach Greg Cronin’s defense.
This addition of Hägg is less about adding a blueliner who’ll play meaningful NHL minutes and more about bringing in some experienced competition for those younger players. Should none of them manage to beat out Hägg for a regular role on the Ducks’ back-end, Hägg can log time on the Ducks’ defense and not look out of place, even occasionally wowing fans with a big hit.
But this signing was likely made with the hope that Hägg will end up taking a back seat to one of the Ducks’ prospects, and the team will now have to wait and see if their young defensemen are up to the task.
Also, even if one or two of the Ducks’ prospect defensemen takes a regular job, Hägg will still have the opportunity to compete with 26-year-old Colton White for the team’s seventh-defenseman role, the role he occupied in Detroit last season.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
More On Alex DeBrincat, Vladimir Tarasenko
Ottawa Senators winger Alex DeBrincat was expected to be one of the hottest commodities on the offseason trade front for the second season in a row. After heading over to the Sens by way of Chicago last season, his offensive production took a small step back in 2022-23, and he then informed Ottawa he wasn’t willing to sign a long-term extension with them – or anywhere in Canada. Yesterday, general manager Pierre Dorion admitted to Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch that he’d granted DeBrincat’s camp permission to speak to teams about an extension on “multiple occasions,” but that proposed deals had fallen through at that point.
Garrioch was able to independently confirm that today, saying that DeBrincat’s desired contract extension is what’s holding up a trade going through – not the offers Ottawa is receiving for trade returns.
DeBrincat’s agent, Jeff Jackson, has been granted permission by the Senators to engage in contract extension talks with at least three different teams, Garrioch said. He’s reportedly seeking an eight-year, $70.2MM deal, coming in just under the $70.4MM extension Timo Meier signed with the New Jersey Devils last month. That would be an $8.775MM cap hit for DeBrincat, with Garrioch saying teams are trying to get him signed to a contract closer to the $8MM mark.
Obviously, the ongoing delay in resolving DeBrincat’s contract situation is hampering other important business for the Senators. Clearing his $9MM cap hit for the upcoming season would free up significant cap space, enabling the team to sign other players ahead of a 2023-24 season where the expectation is to unequivocally turn a corner in their rebuild – including, potentially, Vladimir Tarasenko, who The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta says is nearing a decision on where to sign. Ottawa remains in the running for his services, as do the Carolina Hurricanes (who’ve already added Dmitry Orlov and Michael Bunting as UFAs).
The New York Islanders and Anaheim Ducks have shown interest in acquiring DeBrincat, Garrioch reiterates, with offers likely to include a roster player that can contribute immediately.
Latest On John Gibson
7:20 p.m.: Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has somewhat contradicted Seravalli’s earlier report, saying Gibson indicated today that he hasn’t outright refused to play another game for Anaheim “if it comes to that.” Gibson’s agent, Kurt Overhardt, also called Seravalli’s statement “false, unjust and inflammatory” and said Seravalli did not reach out to him or Gibson before making the claim. He confirmed Gibson has not told the Ducks’ front office that he’d refuse to report for a game, although he didn’t refute reports of a trade request.
5:00 p.m.: The goalie trade market has sorely been lacking high-end names in recent years, but this summer, we have two: Winnipeg Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck and Anaheim Ducks goalie John Gibson. The former has made it clear he won’t be re-signing with Winnipeg when his contract expires next summer, while the latter is locked in longer-term but has told the team he’d like a change of scenery.
Now, it appears Gibson has given Anaheim more of a trade demand than a request. Per Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, Gibson’s indicated he is “not playing another game for the Anaheim Ducks.” Whether that means a potential refusal to report if Anaheim hasn’t moved him by the start of training camp remains to be seen.
If interest in Gibson wasn’t spiking already, it likely will be now. It’s also poor timing for something like this to leak, at least from Anaheim’s side. With the trade market for Hellebuyck shrinking after teams backed away due to his salary demands, more and more teams looking for goalie help would likely have turned to Anaheim and Gibson, who’s got four seasons left on a deal earning him $6.4MM per season. Now, with less leverage on Anaheim’s part, they might not be able to recoup as much value in a deal.
The New Jersey Devils have been the team with the most reported interest in Hellebuyck, but they’ve also balked at the $9MM-plus he desires on an extension. With Gibson as a more affordable option, could the two sides engage in trade talks soon? No team has been specifically named in Gibson trade talks yet; in fact, it’s been eerily quiet on that front. But New Jersey is the best contending team with long-term goalie uncertainty.
Neither traditional nor advanced metrics have been kind to Gibson since his eight-year extension kicked in for the 2019-20 season. The Ducks haven’t been terribly good in that timeframe, but even accounting for the team’s poor defense, Gibson’s come in below average over the life of the deal. It’s why you’ll find vastly split opinions of him depending on who you ask.
It’s worth wondering, though, if the toll of Anaheim’s rebuild has affected Gibson’s play beyond just poor defense. It can’t be particularly motivating to give your best every night when you know your team isn’t anywhere near a playoff race, and with Gibson still having plenty of term left on his deal, there was no quick or easy way out of his situation. With Anaheim posting one of the worst defensive seasons in recent memory in 2022-23, it likely changed Gibson’s tune on wanting to try and stick around for a rebuild – a sentiment he echoed as late as the summer of 2022.
Anaheim is in a position to retain a small amount of salary to facilitate a deal, but they likely wouldn’t be interested in retaining more than 25% ($1.6MM) of his cap hit. With a slew of quickly developing prospects slated to come into the fold over the next few years, the Ducks could envision being competitive again by the time his contract expires. It’s a factor that surely impacts league-wide interest or the value of a return package.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Anaheim Ducks Sign Alex Killorn
The Anaheim Ducks are working on signing forward Alex Killorn, per Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, the deal carries a four-year, $6.25MM AAV. Anaheim would soon make the deal official. The contract carries a full no-trade clause in the first two seasons before dipping to a 15-team NTC in the final two.
Tampa Bay expressed a desire to keep the 11-year veteran in the fold but their salary cap situation made such a move extremely difficult to accomplish. In the end, Killorn opted to take the biggest contract given to a forward thus far in free agency.
The pricey contract is one that’s well-earned for the 33-year-old who has found a new gear offensively in recent seasons. After putting up a surprising 25-goal, 59-point showing in 2021-22, Killorn improved on those numbers last year, picking up 27 goals and 37 assists, both career highs. He followed that up with a productive playoff performance, collecting five points in their first-round exit to Toronto, good for a tie for third in team scoring. In doing so, he basically priced himself out of being able to stay with the Lightning.
Instead, Killorn joins an Anaheim team at the other end of the competitive spectrum. The Ducks have amassed one of the strongest prospect pools in the NHL and have several impact young forwards on their roster, including middlemen Trevor Zegras and Mason McTavish. GM Pat Verbeek will be counting on Killorn to provide some leadership and stability on one of their wings to help in their development. While it’s unlikely that Killorn will be able to put up the same level of production he had in Tampa Bay, they can afford to carry an above-market contract on their books for the time being as they still have nearly $29MM in cap room, per CapFriendly, with Zegras, Troy Terry, and Jamie Drysdale in need of new contracts as restricted free agents.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Anaheim Ducks Sign Radko Gudas, Trevor Carrick
The Anaheim Ducks have signed bruising defender Radko Gudas to a three-year, $12MM contract worth $4MM per season, says Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. Additionally, Trevor Carrick has signed a one-year, $775K, two-way deal with the team as well.
A ferocious, at times chaotic defenseman, Gudas enhanced his value significantly during the Panthers’ run to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final. His brand of highly physical, often agitating play from the blueline looked even better under the bright lights of the postseason, and it’s likely that his play there drove his price tag up quite a bit.
Now 33 years old, it’s fair to question whether Gudas will play up to a $4MM valuation as he gets deeper into his thirties. But in the immediate term, Gudas is a massive upgrade for the Ducks’ defense and with their slate of young talent developing on their roster could still be on this contract by the time the Ducks push to make the playoffs.
While there isn’t much of an offensive game to speak of with Gudas, he’ll be a penalty-killing anchor for the Ducks and potentially serve as a valuable mentor for young blueliner Jamie Drysdale.
With lots of offensively-focused up-and-coming young left-shot blueliners in their pipeline, such as Olen Zellweger, Pavel Mintyukov, and Jackson LaCombe, the addition of Gudas gives the Ducks a veteran partner for one of those players.
Gudas’ defensive abilities will free up one of those players to take more risks offensively and more aggressively develop his offensive game in the NHL, and in the end his impact on the Ducks’ younger blueliners could be the most positive aspect of this free-agent signing.
Carrick will rejoin his brother in the Ducks organization, making his return to the team after spending last season playing for the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL. Carrick was quite good for the Crunch last year, scoring 15 goals and 31 assists in 60 regular-season games.
Kevin Shattenkirk Set to Enter Free Agent Market
Speculation regarding a potential reunion between the Anaheim Ducks and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk has been put to rest. A league source tells Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic that the 34-year-old is expected to hit the free-agent market this Saturday.
Some had wondered whether a Shattenkirk return made sense for Anaheim, given the patchwork state of their largely inexperienced defense. Aside from longtime Duck Cam Fowler, none of Anaheim’s projected top six defensemen to start the year are over the age of 25, and Simon Benoit leads the rest in NHL games played with 137. Shattenkirk is finishing up a three-year, $11.7MM deal he signed with the Ducks in 2020, and he won’t command a raise on his previous AAV of $3.9MM. Still a serviceable defender, there are much worse options out there for teams looking to bolster their second or third pairings and special teams units.
After lifting the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020, Shattenkirk went on to record 14 goals, 63 assists, and 77 points in 212 games with the Ducks, averaging 20:37 per game and posting a -37 rating across three seasons.