John Gibson will be manning the pipes in Anaheim for a long time to come. The team announced that they’ve signed the goaltender to an eight-year contract extension through the 2026-27 season. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Eric Stephens of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the deal carries an AAV of $6.4MM. Gibson is already signed for next season with a $2.3MM cap hit with a $3.3MM salary so this new deal won’t kick in until July of 2019.
Per CapFriendly, there are no signing bonuses in the deal and there is no variation in the year-to-year salary. He also receives a ten-team no-trade list beginning in 2021-22 when he is eligible to have no-trade protection in his contract.
GM Bob Murray released the following statement on the move:
“I believe in John Gibson, as does everyone in the organization. This is obviously a major commitment by the club, but one we feel strongly about. John is equally committed to being a Duck. He is only now entering the prime of his career, and we are all confident his best is yet to come.”
Gibson was drafted in the second round (39th overall) with a pick they acquired from the Maple Leafs at the 2011 draft in exchange for trading down to allow Toronto to select winger Tyler Biggs. He has quickly emerged as one of the better young goalies in the game and the Ducks are clearly pleased with his progress given their commitment here.
Last season, the 25-year-old played in a career-high 60 games, posting a 2.43 GAA and a .926 SV% along with four shutouts. However, he did struggle in a postseason sweep at the hands of the Sharks which ended his year on a bit of a sour note.
In his career, Gibson has put up a .923 SV% and a 2.29 GAA in 178 games, numbers that put him among the better starters league-wide. The deal will make him the fifth highest paid goalie in the NHL in terms of cap hit for 2019-20 although it should be noted that veterans like Pekka Rinne and Sergei Bobrovsky are slated to become free agents next summer and should eclipse that mark on their next contracts.
With the signing, the Ducks quietly have a lot of money committed for 2019-20. Per CapFriendly, they now have 13 players locked up for that season at a combined cap hit of just over $66.5MM. Murray acknowledged last month that they would also like to lock up winger Jakob Silfverberg long-term but they may need to deal with restricted free agent wingers Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie first to see if they will still have enough room to do so.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Am I the only one that thinks it’s nuts to give eight years to a goalie?
He is really young so not in this case
He’ll be 37 when the deal ends. Pretty nuts imo.
35*
He’d be 34, but they’re not paying him for what he’ll be doing in 8 years. They’re paying him for what he’ll hopefully be doing in the next 4-5 years. If Gibson plays like a top 10 goalie the next 5 years, he’ll more than earn his value of this contract (as the cap goes up and new deals for goalies slightly go up). The cap hit also isn’t that restrictive. If the Ducks need to blow it all up in the next few years, it’ll be relatively easy for them to move him if he continues playing well. Plus finding players to match salaries (or help offset some of the costs, if the acquiring team is cap-strapped) would be easy as well.
Rick Dipietro was a young 24 when he signed that ridiculous deal he got.
GMs never learn…
Arguably the most important positions for a team is a #1 center and a franchise goalie. Sure you can temporarily patch up a hole with depth at another position, and you can get through the playoffs if your average goalie happens to get hot at the right time, but having a goalie who gives your a team a legitimate shot to win a game on his own is very important.
Gibson is one of the top 5-10 goalies in the league and is more than capable of winning of game on his own. Since the Ducks are essentially stuck with having to go for it all because of some of the contracts they’ve given out, they have to give a big contract to Gibson. They can’t let a player of Gibson’s caliber walk for nothing, they won’t get equivalent value via trade during the season since he would be a rental (or require an extension upon his trade), and I doubt he was willing to sign a short term deal unless the AAV was significantly higher than what this long term deal is giving him. So the only likely alternative to this 8 year deal would’ve been via trade. Again its unlikely they would’ve gotten equal value back and if Anaheim doesn’t have a young goaltender (idk how their farm system looks) they could hopefully turn to in the next three years, trading Gibson would’ve set the Ducks back 5 years while essentially slamming their competitive window shut.
I would put a #1 dman and #1 centre above a great goalie. Goalies are a dime a dozen. Seems like when u have one of the best goalies they always get over worked which leads to major injuries. Just look at guys like Crawford, Rinne and price have great moments but also now that they’ve gotten into there 30s have major injury issues. Next up is Freddy Andersen, but thankfully his contract is way better then paying a guy like price 10million to play half a year on the worst team in the league
It’s nuts to give anyone an 8 year deal.
8 years???
I’ll wager he’s injured during years 7 and 8.
Plus he needs to acquire the Eyes of the Tiger. He may be “elite” but he comes across as lackadaisical most of the time.
Gibson in the playoffs….. laughable at best.