Cutter Gauthier is asking for $15 million a year: Good luck to the Ducks

Michaël Petit
Cutter Gauthier is asking for $15 million a year: Good luck to the Ducks
Credit: Capture d'écran / X

The Anaheim Ducks have seen a lot of changes since the start of the offseason.

On defense, John Carlsson, Jacob Trouba, Olen Zellweger, and Radko Gudas have all left. On the other hand, A.J. Greer and Nick Jensen have joined the team.

In addition, Leo Carlsson came very close to leaving for another team, and Cutter Gauthier has yet to sign a contract.

The 22-year-old forward had a great season, and after seeing Carlsson land an $18 million-per-season deal, we can expect his salary demands to be quite high.

David Pagnotta discussed the situation during his appearance on The Sheet podcast with Jeff Marek.

Pagnotta mentioned that initially, Gauthier wanted between $10 million and $11 million per season, but now his asking price is around $15 million annually.

At this rate, it's going to cost the Ducks dearly: A total of $33 million for two young players? That would account for nearly a third of next season's payroll.

Pat Verbeek will certainly have his work cut out for him if he wants to keep Gauthier.

Currently, the Ducks have only $9.07 million in cap space, so they'd be short nearly $6 million to sign Gauthier to a $15 million deal.

So, players will have to go—and likely at very low prices.

Players like Ryan Poehling ($3.75 million), Frank Vatrano ($4.57 million), Alex Killorn ($6.25 million), and Chris Kreider ($6.5 million) are all names that could be sacrificed in order to sign Gauthier.

For Poehling and Vatrano, it will be a bit more difficult, because they have four more seasons left at that salary, and trading just one of those two players wouldn't be enough.

As for Killorn and Kreider, trading just one of them would be enough to create the necessary cap space. Furthermore, they each have only one season remaining on their contracts.

Verbeek will have a lot of calls to make to resolve the situation.


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