- Elliotte Friedman says there has been progress on a Cutter Gauthier extension and that the number is going to be enormous
- Anaheim is carrying roughly $9 million in cap space with an unsigned 41-goal winger
- Read below for the move Friedman expects the Ducks to make before camp
Cutter Gauthier is going to get paid. Pat Verbeek has to find the room first.
Elliotte Friedman was asked on NHL Network about where things stand between the Anaheim Ducks and their unsigned restricted free agent, and he had heard movement. He also had a warning attached to it:
“I had heard rumors of some progress, but it’s going to be a big number. It’s going to be a really big number.”
Then came the part that should worry anyone on the Anaheim roster with a real salary. Friedman was talking about how the Ducks actually fit a contract that size:
“I think one of the things we’ll be watching over the next couple of weeks is what Anaheim tries to do to create some cap room. They are going to have to do some roster surgery to get this done.”
Roster surgery is a polite way of saying a good player leaves so a better one can stay.
Paul Shaheen reported on Aug. 16 that Anaheim put four years at $13 million a season in front of Gauthier and that the winger and agent Kurt Overhardt said no:
The awkward part has not changed since. Anaheim is sitting on roughly $9 million in space, which means the offer Gauthier already turned down does not currently fit either. Matching Philadelphia’s five-year, $90 million offer sheet on Leo Carlsson in July put an $18 million cap hit on the books in a single afternoon, and Verbeek has been working around it ever since.
We laid out the same squeeze when the rejection went public, and the math has only gotten tighter since:
Nine million does not stretch to a raise this size by shaving depth contracts. It takes a veteran with term and a cap hit, which is why the three contracts standing in Gauthier’s way have been getting mentioned all summer.
Gauthier earned the leverage. He scored 41 goals and put up 69 points in 76 games last season, then added 12 points in 12 playoff games, all on an entry-level deal worth less than a million.
Anaheim drafted him fifth overall in 2022, and he is coming off the kind of season that resets an agent’s asking price. The Ducks open their schedule Sept. 29, and their leading goal scorer still does not have a contract.
