After massive Carlsson contract, are the Ducks good enough to be competitive again?
Make no mistake, these are exciting times to be an Anaheim Ducks fan. The team is coming off their first playoff series win since 2017, and they boast a young core of talent few other teams can rival. This offseason, however, has not gone as smoothly as the Ducks would have preferred.
The big blow came in early July, when the Philadelphia Flyers signed Anaheim’s 21-year-old number-one center Leo Carlsson to a whopping five-year offer sheet with a cap hit of $18 million. Ultimately, the Ducks were compelled to match, keeping their franchise cornerstone but throwing their salary structure out of whack. Carlsson’s major payday likely raises the price for 22-year-old winger Cutter Gauthier, who is currently a restricted free agent coming off a 40-goal season.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk discussed Anaheim’s outlook for next season following their turbulent summer.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s live in a glass-half-full world. Cutter Gauthier signs for $9.5 million on a one-year deal and you’re good for a year. Does that blueline scream confidence? (Jackson) LaCombe is unbelievable, he’ll win a Norris at some point. (Pavel) Mintyukov at $7.2 million, you’re certainly hoping that’s a guy that can handle second-pairing minutes. Nick Jensen is 35 years old, top-four minutes for Nick Jensen? Ian Moore was playing forward in the playoffs last year. Drew Helleson, Tyson Hinds, Tristan Luneau, they’re all fine pieces, but that’s not a group of seven that inspires a ton of confidence in me.
Lukas Dostal with the duo of (Ville) Husso or (Laurent) Brossoit in net is probably fine. Dostal is great, can he give you 55 games next year? I would be hesitant to lean on him that hard because if you want to be a playoff team, you probably want to keep him fresh, but maybe Dostal’s ready for that. Goaltending’s probably fine.
The forward group could be fine depending on how this Gauthier situation plays out. The fact that it’s Gauthier negotiating against this Pat Verbeek front office leads me to wonder; are they just going to sit there and butt heads, and is he going to miss the first month of the season over this? I don’t know.
Ducks fans. For a handful of reasons, the blueline, the cap situation, Gauthier being unsigned, you should be a little bit on edge.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Wednesday’s episode here…