How signing bonuses play a factor into Cutter Gauthier’s new contract
The Anaheim Ducks were big spenders this summer, and their final bit of business ahead of training camp saw them reward one of their top young stars.
On Tuesday, the Ducks re-signed forward Cutter Gauthier to a six-year contract, with an AAV of $13.5 million carrying through the 2031-32 season. While the deal itself is big, totaling $81 million, the contract structure is the last under the previous collective bargaining agreement that can load up on signing bonuses.
On this week’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss how the bonuses affect Gauthier’s first big NHL contract.
Tyler Yaremchuk: nNot a full eight-year deal; it is a six-year deal for the 22-year-old who’s coming off a 41-goal campaign with the Anaheim Ducks last season. He gets a $13.5 million AAV. For the people who are wondering, ‘Whoa, why was the deadline important for this Cutter Gauthier contract if it wasn’t going to be an eight-year contract?’ Well, the difference was signing bonuses. It wasn’t just the seven- or eight-year term that was getting limited with the new CBA kicking in at midnight last night. It was actually how much of the contract could be signing bonus.
So for Gauthier, he gets $69.4 million of his $81 million contract available to him in signing bonuses. If they would have waited until after midnight, only $48.6 million of that contract would have been available as signing bonus, so that’s a difference of over $20 million that he was able to get in signing bonus because they got this contract done before the new CBA kicked in. But all the nerd talk aside, a very important piece of business for a Ducks team that’s lost a handful of pretty important pieces over the off-season.
Carter Hutton: This was one that had to get done, right? There were just so many question marks because of the Leo Carlsson offer sheet, because of the terms and the way the market was going. And then Cutter Gauthier’s side of dragging his heels in the sand, trying to get his payday, which he got. This takes care of the rest of his life. … These are the prices that are going for guys, right? He hit 40. He’s going to continually produce. They’re betting on the future, and he’s a guy that at this point, if the Ducks were to lose him, they would be totally toast, right?
We’re talking about an Anaheim Ducks team…we had high regard for this team early on, and then the way that these contract structures have gone, we’re going to break down a few other teams that are on the opposite end of the spectrum. They got ahead of these situations. The Ducks are a team now where they’re going to have to work around the edges. They’re going to have some other guys blossom into players.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…
