Salary Cap Deep Dive: Anaheim Ducks

Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM.  Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful.  Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2022-23 season.  This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL.  All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Anaheim Ducks

Current Cap Hit: $63,657,667 (under the $82.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

D Jamie Drysdale (one year, $925K)
F Mason McTavish (three years, $894K)
F Trevor Zegras (one year, $925K)

Potential Bonuses:
Drysdale: $850K
McTavish: $2.5MM
Zegras: $850K
Total: $4.2MM

Simply put, these three are the centerpieces of Anaheim’s rebuild.  Zegras played his first full NHL season in 2021-22 and finished second on the team in scoring, establishing himself as their top center in the process.  An early extension is always possible but with only 99 career games under his belt, GM Pat Verbeek might want to wait on that.  His next contract seems likely to check in around the $8MM range on a long-term deal, similar to the ones that Nick Suzuki and Josh Norris have signed recently.  Worth noting, he will still have five years of team control after next season.  As for McTavish, he didn’t look out of place in his limited NHL stint last year and his showing at the World Juniors shows that he’s ready for a full-time role in 2022-23.  It’s obviously too early to forecast his next deal but they’re hoping he does well enough to be in that $8MM range as well.

Drysdale had some struggles in his own end last season but that’s hardly uncommon for a 19-year-old and overall, he had a solid first full NHL campaign.  While it might seem that he should get a bigger role this season, that’s far from a guarantee with the veterans that will be ahead of him.  That makes his next contract a bit tricky.  Anaheim will certainly want to extend him on a max-term deal but it might be in Drysdale’s best interest to look for a two or three-year bridge deal; he also will have five years of team control remaining.  He’d get more of a chance to play top minutes in 2023-24 so locking in long-term before getting that opportunity would carry some risk from an earnings standpoint.

Signed Through 2022-23, Non-Entry-Level

D Simon Benoit ($750K, RFA)
F Max Comtois ($2.037MM, RFA)
F Derek Grant ($1.5MM, UFA)
D John Klingberg ($7MM, UFA)
D Josh Mahura ($750K, RFA)
D John Moore ($2.75MM, UFA)
D Kevin Shattenkirk ($3.9MM, UFA)
G Anthony Stolarz ($950K, UFA)
F Troy Terry ($1.45MM, RFA)

Bridge contracts are often overlooked as they’re often by-products of a salary cap situation.  That isn’t the case in Anaheim as the ones they signed were simply decisions to see how a player continues to perform before needing a big commitment.  They’ll certainly be needing that big commitment for Terry as he had a breakout showing in 2021-22, scoring 37 goals and 67 points.  For context, he had 15 goals in 128 contests heading into the season.  A repeat performance would push Terry well past the $6MM mark on a long-term deal which is basically four times what his qualifying offer would be next summer.  Anaheim will enjoy another season at a bargain price tag and will be paying up soon after.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Comtois.  He received a bridge deal even after leading the Ducks in scoring in 2020-21 and the first year of it didn’t go well.  He struggled with his production and consistency which resulted in him dropping down the depth chart and even being scratched at times.  Still just 23, they’re certainly not giving up on him but his contract is back-loaded which results in a $2.55MM qualifier next summer.  A repeat showing next season will make the decision regarding his future a little trickier.  As for Grant, he’s coming off a career year with 29 points and played like a capable third center.  That’s a good return for that price point and if Anaheim is out of the playoff picture in February, he’ll be a strong candidate to move as a rental at the trade deadline.

The addition of Klingberg this summer certainly raised some eyebrows.  His presence on the roster will make it a little harder for Drysdale to play an elevated role in the lineup but at the same time, the veteran is in a good spot to be productive and show that he’s worthy of the long-term commitment he was seeking this summer.  Even so, that long-term contract will likely check in at a lower price tag than this one unless he really has a standout performance.  It certainly wouldn’t be surprising to see him move at the trade deadline either.  The same can be said for Shattenkirk who has re-established himself as a top-three defender with the Ducks but might be in tough to put up the type of offensive numbers that he’s accustomed to with Klingberg now in the fold which could hurt his market in free agency next summer.  Moore was a cap casualty they had to take on in the Hampus Lindholm trade last season and he’ll be looking at a deal at or near the minimum next season while Benoit and Mahura will need to become full-time regulars if they want to make more than the minimum in 2023-24 as well.

Stolarz did well in his first full NHL season as a backup, posting an impressive .917 SV% in 28 appearances.  With the way that backups have seen their price tags go up in recent years, if he’s able to play at a similar level next season, he could push for upwards of three times his current deal.  Even if he takes a step back, double his current price could still be doable.

Signed Through 2023-24

F Sam Carrick ($850K, UFA)
F Adam Henrique ($5.825MM, UFA)
F Max Jones ($1.295MM, RFA)
F Isac Lundestrom ($1.8MM, RFA)
F Jakob Silfverberg ($5.25MM, UFA)
D Urho Vaakanainen ($850K, RFA)

Henrique had a rough 2020-21 season to the point where he cleared waivers but he was much better last season with 42 points in 58 games while winning over 55% of his faceoffs.  That’s not a great return on his price tag but those are second-line numbers which is a better outcome than seemed possible just a season ago.  He won’t be able to command that type of money two years from now though.  The same can be said for Silfverberg, who’s coming off an injury-riddled year that saw him score just five times in 53 games.  While he was a top-six winger at the time his deal was signed, he isn’t now.  Carrick very quietly put up decent numbers in a depth role last season with 11 goals in 69 games after having just four in parts of five seasons before that.  His contract is cheap enough to give Anaheim good value if he’s on the fourth line while if young players push their way into his spot, it can be buried in the minors.

As for the younger forwards in this group, Lundestrom did well in his first full NHL season, picking up 29 points and playing a big role shorthanded.  Still just 22, he’s more of an unheralded part of their future plans and should be more of a bottom-six player moving forward but this was still a promising season.  The bridge deal makes sense and if he can produce at a similar rate these next two years, his AAV could jump into the $3MM range.  It’s safe to call the first year of Jones’ bridge contract a write-off as a pectoral injury limited him to just two appearances last season.  If he can return as a capable bottom-six winger, there’s room for his price tag to go up a couple of years from now.

Vaakanainen was part of the Lindholm trade as well and while he hasn’t played up to the level of a first-round pick as he was in 2017, he showed some signs of progressing into a regular NHL defender.  This contract has a chance to be a bit of a bargain as a result but with limited offensive upside, he’s not going to be someone to command big money down the road.  Doubling his current AAV could be achievable if he can hold down a regular spot.

Signed Through 2024-25

F Frank Vatrano ($3.65MM, UFA)

Vatrano has largely gone under the radar but he very quietly has scored at least 16 goals in each of the last four seasons and is coming off his second straight 18-goal campaign which wasn’t bad considering he played just over 13 minutes a night.  That type of money for someone whose role is that limited is a bit on the high side but he has been able to produce with some consistency with less ice time than players that hover around 20 goals typically get.  That made for a pretty strong market for him last month which yielded this contract.

Signed Through 2025-26 Or Longer

D Cam Fowler ($6.5MM through 2025-26)
G John Gibson ($6.4MM through 2026-27)
F Ryan Strome ($5MM through 2026-27)

Strome has had a decent career but has never been able to stay in one spot for too long.  It looked like the Rangers would be a long-term fit for him with Artemi Panarin but they opted to go in a different direction this summer which is how he got to Anaheim.  His presence allows them to ease McTavish in but within a few seasons, it wouldn’t be shocking to see him on the wing.  If Strome can keep putting up 45-50 points, they’ll get some value out of this deal.

Fowler is coming off a career year offensively but at the same time, it’s safe to say he hasn’t emerged as the high-end two-way defender it looked like he could become at one point.  He’s still a quality top-pairing player though and has provided the Ducks with a steady presence for a long time now.  With so much of their back end getting turned over in recent years, he has been the one consistent part of it and there’s little reason to think he won’t be in their plans for the foreseeable future.

Gibson has been in decline the last few years after being statistically one of the top goalies for a few seasons.  His contract is on the higher end for starters but his numbers have been closer to backup level as of late.  That will make him tough to move and at the moment, there is no clear-cut netminder of the future behind him so he may stick around for a little while with the hopes that with an improved team in front of him, he can rebound closer to the end of the deal.

Buyouts

F Corey Perry ($2MM in 2022-23)

Retained Salary Transactions

None

Still To Sign

None

Best Value: Terry
Worst Value: Silfverberg

Looking Ahead

With more than $18MM in cap space for Anaheim, things are looking up for them.  They have the flexibility to take advantage of a market where it’s quite difficult to move money as long as they have the budgetary space to work with.

However, that’s going to change quickly.  Zegras, Terry, and Drysdale are up next summer and at least two of those three are getting big-money, long-term deals.  Those contracts could add anywhere from $15MM to $20MM to their current price tags.  There is some money coming off the books as well but as Anaheim looks to eventually start to supplement this core as they emerge from their rebuild, things could get expensive pretty quickly.  They’re still in very strong shape compared to many teams around the league, however.  It wasn’t all that long ago that the Ducks were typically near the top of the league in cap costs but that is certainly no longer the case now.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.