- Pierre LeBrun says the Ducks and Cutter Gauthier met over the weekend and had substantive talks
- LeBrun expects a six-year deal somewhere in the $13 million to $14 million range
- Read below for the CBA deadline pushing both sides and where Gauthier’s numbers sit
Cutter Gauthier and the Anaheim Ducks are finally getting somewhere.
Pierre LeBrun reported Monday in his NHL rumblings column for The Athletic that the two sides met over the weekend, had substantive talks, and planned to keep the dialogue going Monday. He also floated where it could land: six years, somewhere between $13 million and $14 million a season.
Nothing is signed yet. This is still the first real movement on the last big piece of Anaheim’s offseason.
LeBrun hedged on the specifics in the column, then gave his read on the term and the money anyway.
“I’m not 100 percent sure, but I think it will land as a six-year deal if it gets done. I’m also not sure if Gauthier will get Connor Bedard’s $15 million per year, but something in the $13 million to $14 million range wouldn’t surprise me.”
Here is LeBrun on where the talks stand:
The calendar is doing some of the work here. The new collective bargaining agreement kicks in at midnight ET Tuesday night, and it drops the maximum extension for a team re-signing its own player from eight years to seven.
What matters more in this case is structure. The new agreement also limits how heavily a contract can be front-loaded and how signing-bonus money gets arranged, and that is the piece LeBrun pointed to as the thing creating momentum in Anaheim.
Gauthier has earned whatever the Ducks end up paying him. The 22-year-old winger scored 41 goals and put up 69 points in 76 games last season, his second full year in the league. He then added 12 points in 12 playoff games as Anaheim knocked out Edmonton in the first round before Vegas ended the run in six.
Six years at $13 million adds up to $78 million. That sits in the same neighborhood as the five-year, $90 million offer sheet Philadelphia tendered Leo Carlsson in July, which the Ducks matched a week later.
Take a look at what Carlsson and Gauthier did to drag Anaheim into the playoffs last season:
Pat Verbeek has taken a beating all summer for how the Carlsson offer sheet played out, and the cap math that followed has not helped his case. LeBrun did offer one point in the general manager’s defense. Verbeek made offers to both Carlsson and Gauthier last fall, early in the season, and neither one turned into an extension.
The agents won that round. Matt Keator represents Carlsson and Kurt Overhardt has Gauthier, and both of them were clever enough to wait out a rising cap.
Anaheim opens the preseason at home against San Jose on Sept. 20 and starts the regular season at Vegas on Oct. 2. Getting Gauthier’s signature before the first of those dates would clear the longest-running item on Verbeek’s desk.
