Jake Guentzel Out Three Months After Ankle Surgery
Pittsburgh Penguins winger Jake Guentzel underwent successful surgery on Wednesday to repair a lingering right ankle issue, general manager Kyle Dubas said in a statement today. The 2017 Stanley Cup champion will be re-evaluated in 12 weeks, meaning he’ll miss around the first month of the 2023-24 season.
Guentzel underwent his surgery in Minnesota, where he’d been playing summer-league hockey up until the procedure. Dubas said as Guentzel was ramping up preparation for training camp, “it was apparent that his ankle injury was not resolving in a way that was satisfactory to [him] or the Penguins.”
Financially, this is quite an important move for Pittsburgh. Guentzel’s timetable for a return means his $6MM cap hit is a candidate for LTIR to start the season, which would give the Penguins some more offseason cap flexibility as they try and position themselves to acquire top-flight defender Erik Karlsson from the San Jose Sharks.
Regardless of any potential ulterior motives at play, Guentzel is a two-time 40-goal scorer whose presence is invaluable for a team likely to be stuck in a tight Eastern Conference playoff race. Pittsburgh surely has no plans of missing the playoffs for a second straight year, and they’ll need Guentzel’s best after he returns from injury to stay ahead. In the meantime, they’ll rely on veteran addition Reilly Smith, a member of last year’s Stanley Cup-winning team with the Vegas Golden Knights, to shoulder some of Guentzel’s load. He’s the most likely candidate to slide up to first-line duties alongside Sidney Crosby and one of Rickard Rakell or Bryan Rust.
Guentzel has become synonymous with first-line duties on the Penguins throughout his seven-year career there, stapled to Crosby’s wing for much of his NHL time. He’s averaged over 20 minutes per game over the past four seasons, routinely producing around a point-per-game clip since breaking out for 40 goals and 76 points in 2018-19.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Guentzel will miss a significant chunk of a season for injury-related reasons. He missed the last 30 games of the 2019-20 campaign thanks to a shoulder injury.
Notably, Guentzel’s injury guarantees them cap compliance to start the season, even if a Karlsson trade doesn’t pan out. The Penguins were more than $3MM over the cap after signing Drew O’Connor earlier this week, even if it was a slightly inflated figure thanks to three goalies currently on their NHL roster. Now, with Guentzel projected to land on LTIR to start the season, CapFriendly projects Pittsburgh to have roughly $2.75MM in space.
Latest On Trevor Zegras
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.
Pittsburgh Penguins Remove Interim GM Tag From Kyle Dubas
The Pittsburgh Penguins announced Thursday that they’ve removed the interim tag from Kyle Dubas‘ role as general manager, signifying they’ll continue with him serving as GM and president of hockey operations for the foreseeable future.
Pittsburgh also announced four other promotions, naming Andy Saucier their director of professional personnel, Erik Heasley their director of minor league and amateur scouting operations, and confirming the promotions of Amanda Kessel and Trevor Daley as special assistants to Dubas.
“At this time, I feel it is best for continuity that I formally continue in both roles as President and General Manager in the hockey operations department,” Dubas said, justifying removing the interim tag from his role. Pittsburgh brought Dubas in solely as the president of hockey operations when they hired him in June and initially aimed to name a separate general manager to work under Dubas later this summer. Dubas left the door open in his statement today on bringing a different general manager in down the line, but no such move will be made before next summer.
Saucier’s promotion is well-deserved, to say the least. He’s been in the Penguins organization for more than a decade, initially joining the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins as a video coach in 2010. After two seasons in the minors, he was promoted to Pittsburgh to serve in the same role, which he held until 2022. Last offseason, Pittsburgh promoted Saucier to hockey operations analyst. He’s now been promoted yet again to a new role under Dubas, which did not previously exist in the organization.
Heasley has also spent the entirety of his management career in the Penguins organization and had served as the GM of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for parts of the last three seasons. Now, he’ll oversee the entire scouting department as it relates to AHL, ECHL, and junior-league talents.
Daley had spent the past three seasons in a senior advisor role for Pittsburgh, but he and Kessel (whose promotion was previously reported) will now work directly with Dubas in roles similar to what Jason Spezza had previously held when the two worked together last season with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Latest On Elias Pettersson
After the Vancouver Canucks wrapped up a busy offseason of UFA signings mostly focused on fortifying their defense, everyone is now watching Elias Pettersson‘s contract situation as the 2023-24 season approaches. The star center is heading into the final year of his three-year bridge contract, carrying a $7.35MM million cap hit, signed in 2021. While the Canucks will still retain his rights next summer as a restricted free agent if an extension isn’t reached soon, Pettersson’s potential eligibility for unrestricted free agency in 2025 if he only signs a one-year extension has given him tremendous leverage in upcoming negotiations. His agent, J.P. Barry, said early last month he doesn’t anticipate beginning those extension talks with Vancouver until the end of this summer.
Today, The Athletic’s Harman Dayal polled a number of NHL agents on what potential scenarios could arise in Pettersson extension talks. Obviously, the biggest question facing Pettersson’s camp is whether he should sign an extension immediately this summer or take a wait-and-see approach into the season. Waiting would offer him more clarity on the Canucks’ future and potentially enhance his earning power if he continues his upward climb. If the team can finally perform well after a long stretch of mediocrity, Pettersson may feel more comfortable committing long-term.
One anonymous agent suggested a wait-and-see approach could be sensible but said not to discount the mental challenges that a contract year can place on a player and, in turn, affect their performance. If Pettersson and his camp feel the outside noise of extension talks during the season would be too much of a distraction, signing now would almost definitely be a better choice to avoid lowering his value after a 102-point year last season. It’s likely something Pettersson will heavily consider after going through the contract-related pressure Pettersson faced in the final year of his entry-level contract in 2020-21, Dayal says.
Another factor affecting the timing of negotiations is whether Pettersson’s camp wants to wait for Auston Matthews‘ extension, as it could introduce a new comparable, another agent said. Pettersson’s value may have been tampered slightly by a recent comparable – Carolina Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho, who signed an eight-year extension last month carrying a $9.75MM cap hit. If Matthews’ extension in Toronto comes in north of $12MM, it could strengthen Pettersson’s case for an eight-figure cap hit on a long-term deal.
While eight-year deals are the norm for players with high cap hits, an agent Dayal spoke to said shorter contracts have become more attractive due to the expected rise in the salary cap. Signing a shorter contract could allow Pettersson to capitalize on a higher salary cap when he re-enters the market in his late 20s.
Of note, former Vancouver Canucks assistant general manager Chris Gear predicted a cap hit between $9.5MM and $10.25MM on Pettersson’s next deal last month.
Sven Baertschi Announces Retirement
August 3: Baertschi has confirmed his retirement in a statement from SC Bern, citing health concerns. “Like most players, I’ve had a number of injuries that are now taking their toll,” Baertschi said. “After months of training, I realized that my body can no longer perform as well as I need it to. And playing with less than 100 percent, I can’t accept that.”
August 2: Left winger Sven Baertschi left the NHL for Europe last offseason, and after just one year overseas, Swiss outlet Blick reports that Baertschi is retiring with two seasons left on his contract with NL club SC Bern. The Swiss forward is stepping away from the game at 30 years old after accumulating 138 points in 292 games with the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and Vegas Golden Knights between 2012 and 2022.
The first three and a half seasons of his career were spent in Calgary, who selected him with the 13th overall pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft after he put up 85 points in 66 games with the WHL’s Portland Winter Hawks. However, concussion issues quickly derailed a promising career after a trade to the Vancouver Canucks in 2015. He would never eclipse the 70-game mark in a single season with the club and never played more than 53 after his first reported concussion in 2016-17.
While he never found his footing in Calgary, he did post some solid numbers in a middle-six role for the Canucks before injuries stunted his play. His career-best campaign came in that 2016-17 season when he recorded 18 goals, 17 assists and 35 points in 68 games while averaging nearly 16 minutes per game.
After four injury-riddled seasons with the Canucks, Baertschi continued to slip down the depth chart and spent most of the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns in the minors on assignment with the AHL’s Utica Comets. It looked like he had gotten his mojo back in that first campaign with Utica, recording 46 points in just 43 games, but he didn’t make the Canucks out of camp in 2020-21, and his production quickly trailed off.
He signed with the Vegas Golden Knights as a free agent the following offseason, where he again provided solid but unimpressive production for their minor-league affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights. He did get into one game with Vegas in November 2021, skating 13:54 in a 5-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings. That will be his final NHL game. Playing in his home city of Bern last season, he produced well below expectations with just four goals in 36 games.
PHR extends its best wishes to Baertschi in retirement, especially in regards to his long-term health.
Snapshots: Lindholm, Wild, Islanders
Calgary Flames center Elias Lindholm is one of the biggest potentially available names on the trade market. Potentially is the operative word there, as things still remain up in the air about whether the 28-year-old will consider re-signing in Calgary with his contract set to expire next summer. If he does hit the trade market, however, The Athletic’s Julian McKenzie and Shayna Goldman today examined some potential fits for his services.
The most obvious of these is the Boston Bruins. As we mentioned last week, the team is not shy about looking to replace the roles of David Krejčí and Patrice Bergeron by any means possible. Lindholm, who finished second in Selke Trophy voting in 2022 and posted positive relative Corsi for percentages in the first four of his five seasons in Calgary, is easily the closest stylistic replacement for Bergeron available in terms of his two-way acumen. However, as McKenzie and Goldman rightly note, the likelihood of the Bruins being unable to pony up the assets needed to win a bidding war for Lindholm is high, given the rather ghoulish state of their prospect pool and draft pick stash. McKenzie and Goldman also mentioned the Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Vancouver Canucks as teams with a need for center help and assets available to spend.
More from around the NHL today:
- The Minnesota Wild’s offseason hasn’t been dominated by the moves they’ve made, but rather the moves they can’t make because of $14.75MM in dead cap allocated to the buyouts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. With their combined cap hits set to decrease to just $1.67MM ahead of the 2025-26 season, Joe Smith and Michael Russo of The Athletic examined what options the additional cap space might open up for the Wild in two seasons. They note the biggest use of that cap space will undoubtedly be an extension for star winger Kirill Kaprizov, who will be entering the final season of his five-year, $45MM contract and will require a hefty extension to avoid him becoming a free agent.
- While we covered some New York Islanders items of interest from The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz in a notes piece yesterday, Kurz also mentioned in his mailbag that he envisions 2023-24 being the last season of ‘The Identity Line’ on Long Island. Made up of Matt Martin, Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck, the line has been in existence for the better part of a decade, coming together in 2014-15 and taking a two-year break from 2016 to 2018 while Martin was a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In that time, they’ve been recognizable as the team’s most consistent unit, providing a desirable mix of defensive acumen, fighting skill and forechecking that set the tone for a number of deep playoff runs over the past while in New York. Martin and Clutterbuck are now both in their mid-30s, and as they’re set to become UFAs next summer, Kurz thinks it’s a strong possibility that one (or both) don’t return to the team. Clutterbuck especially has become injury-prone in his twilight years, not playing more than 70 games in a season since 2018-19.
Winnipeg Jets Sign Rasmus Kupari
The Winnipeg Jets and forward Rasmus Kupari have agreed to a two-year deal worth $1MM per season, according to a team release today.
Winnipeg acquired Kupari’s signing rights from the Los Angeles Kings just over a month ago as part of the trade return for center Pierre-Luc Dubois. Kupari was due a $874,125 qualifying offer from Winnipeg after completing his entry-level contract, which the Jets issued him a few days after the trade.
Los Angeles selected the now-23-year-old with the 20th overall pick in 2018, but he hasn’t quite yet panned out into an everyday NHLer. He got awfully close this past season, though, skating in just 11 games with the AHL’s Ontario Reign while playing in 66 NHL games with the Kings. Kupari also played in all six playoff games for the Kings during their first-round playoff loss against the Edmonton Oilers.
After recording a career-high 15 points last year, though, it’s now obvious Winnipeg envisions him as an everyday player in their lineup after dishing out a seven-figure deal. A natural center, Kupari is likely penciled in for fourth-line duties behind Mark Scheifele, former Kings teammate Gabriel Vilardi, and Adam Lowry, so he may not see a significant uptick on the 10:05 of ice time he averaged per game last season. However, a potentially looming Scheifele trade could elevate Kupari in the lineup.
The Finnish youngster will be a restricted free agent in 2025 and eligible for arbitration.
Previewing The Top 2024 Unrestricted Free Agents
This year’s free agent class was underwhelming. There’s no disrespect intended here to players like Alex Killorn, Dmitry Orlov and Vladimir Tarasenko. However, we’ve grown accustomed to at least one true star being available on the market every year – at least a top-ten player at their position. But a flurry of extensions took some potential game-breakers, such as Boston Bruins sniper David Pastrnak off the market, limiting the amount of star power available.
With the salary cap finally expected to jump significantly by about $4MM next offseason, some NHL general managers will undoubtedly look to spend that extra cash on a shiny new toy on the UFA market. As 2023 is mainly in the rearview mirror, let’s take a look at some of the best players slated to hit the open market next summer, whether or not they may extend, and offer some way-too-early contract projections in the process:
F Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) – The unquestionable crown jewel of the 2024 free agent class might also be one of the least likely to hit the market. Matthews is more than just a superstar – he’s a season removed from back-to-back Rocket Richard Trophies, he’s led the league in even-strength goals in four out of his seven NHL seasons, and he’s coming off a “down season” in which he still managed 40 goals despite a career-low 12.2 shooting percentage. Toronto is still plugging away at an extension with Matthews, a process that was surely elongated by a change at the GM position earlier this offseason. While multiple reports suggested it likely won’t be a long-term deal to keep Matthews in Toronto, seeing his name available for anyone to pursue next July would be shocking.
Extension Likelihood: Very Likely
Projected Contract: Five years, $62MM ($12.4MM AAV)
F William Nylander (Toronto Maple Leafs) – Another star in Canada’s largest city is also headed for the open market next season. Nylander is coming off a strong season with a career-high 40 goals and 87 points, but multiple reports indicate contract talks are currently at an impasse between the two sides. The Swedish winger reportedly wants an eight-figure cap hit on his next deal, one he’s increasingly unlikely to receive after sub-$10MM extensions for players like the Carolina Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho. He will be in his prime at 28 years old next summer, though, and he currently holds the undisputed title of the best pure winger slated to hit the market. Given the slated cap increase, Nylander may be able to garner the money he desires elsewhere if Toronto isn’t willing to fork over another eight-figure deal.
Extension Likelihood: Somewhat Unlikely
Projected Contract: Seven years, $70MM ($10MM AAV)
F Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay Lightning) – Including Stamkos on this list seems like more of a formality than anything else. The captain of back-to-back Stanley Cup championship teams in Tampa and likely to go down as the greatest player in franchise history when he retires, it’s nearly impossible to imagine him wearing another jersey. Barring an unforeseen breakdown in communication, Stamkos will be re-upping with the Bolts on what could potentially be the final contract of his NHL career as he enters his mid-30s. After yet another point-per-game season, Stamkos will undoubtedly be sticking around in Tampa as long as they’ll have him, likely at a slight discount to help them replenish their depth reserves.
Extension Likelihood: Very Likely
Projected Contract: Four years, $31.5MM ($7.875MM AAV)
F Jake Guentzel (Pittsburgh Penguins) – The Penguins have exhibited a strong tendency toward keeping the band together in recent seasons, but it’s a trend that may change under the front-office leadership of Kyle Dubas. Still, it’s hard to imagine the Penguins won’t field a competitive offer to keep Guentzel in the fold. He’s been one of the most successful and consistent linemates to Sidney Crosby in the entire illustrious career of the future Hall-of-Famer, he’s a two-time 40-goal scorer, and he’s an incredibly clutch playoff performer. While contract extension talks haven’t begun between the two parties yet, reporting indicates the Penguins’ core shares the public’s view of Guentzel and would like to keep him around.
Extension Likelihood: Likely
Projected Contract: Eight years, $75MM ($9.375MM AAV)
F Mark Scheifele (Winnipeg Jets) – The first of two Jets on this list hasn’t been in trade rumors quite as much as his netminding counterpart, but there’s still a very good chance Scheifele is sporting a different jersey by the 2024 trade deadline. Speculation has immediately run rampant about Scheifele as a stop-gap fix down the middle for the Boston Bruins, who are without their number-one center after captain Patrice Bergeron announced his retirement last week. There are plenty of question marks about how highly Scheifele is actually valued around the league, given his significant defensive lapses, but he’s consistently produced the offense you’d want out of a number-one center. Despite scoring a career-high 42 goals last season, 2022-23 was actually Scheifele’s first campaign falling short of a point per game since 2015-16, when he was just 22 years old.
Extension Likelihood: Unlikely
Projected Contract: Seven years, $66MM ($9.4MM AAV)
D Devon Toews (Colorado Avalanche) – Toews may be the most unheralded defenseman in the league thanks to his partner, Cale Makar. On almost any other team, Toews would be a legitimate number-one defender with very few holes in his game. Little has been made of his impending free agency, but he’ll be due a major raise on his current bargain-bin $4.1MM cap hit. Combined with the potential loss of captain Gabriel Landeskog‘s LTIR relief should he return to play in 2024-25, it could be incredibly difficult for Colorado to retain him even with the cap going up. Not only does Toews consistently rank among having some of the best defensive impacts in the league, but he’s also coming off back-to-back 50-point campaigns and has finished top-15 in Norris voting during each of his three seasons in Colorado.
Extension Likelihood: 50/50
Projected Contract: Seven years, $61MM ($8.7MM AAV)
D Brandon Montour (Florida Panthers) – A pair of prominent Panthers defenders are up for UFA status next season in Montour and Gustav Forsling, but Montour’s the one we’ll cover more in-depth here after he led the Panthers’ defense in playoff scoring with eight goals and 13 points in 21 games despite playing through a shoulder injury which will cost him the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign. His stock has never been higher after exploding for 73 points in 80 regular season games, along with a career-high 107 penalty minutes. While he’s still a rather one-dimensional player and likely to be somewhat of a liability defensively, he’s finally shown legitimate top-pair ability at 29 years old. Committing any term to Montour as a UFA may be a case of buyer beware, however, as his track record is far from consistent.
Extension Likelihood: Somewhat Unlikely
Projected Contract: Four years, $26MM ($6.5MM AAV)
G Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets) – It seemed very unlikely a few months ago that Hellebuyck would be on this list today. While there’s no chance he’ll be signing an extension with the Jets, a trade followed by an extension with a new team seemed rather likely this offseason. However, some outlandish financial demands from Hellebuyck’s camp dried up trade interest, and there hasn’t been a lot of movement on that front lately. While small, the possibility that Hellebuyck lands on the open market next season seems to be increasing without a trade or extension any closer to fruition.
Extension Likelihood: Very Unlikely
Projected Contract: Seven years, $61.25MM ($8.75MM AAV)
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Anaheim Ducks Sign Troy Terry To Seven-Year Deal
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
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.