The Ducks used the cap room they created last week and spent it on one of their biggest young pieces. Anaheim announced Friday that it has signed winger Cutter Gauthier to a six-year contract, locking in the 22-year-old after a breakout season.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported the deal comes with a $13.5 million average annual value. GM Pat Verbeek said in a statement:
We are pleased to get Cutter signed to a long-term deal and have him in camp on time. He’s a major part of our young core, a pure goal-scoring talent that will continue progressing into an elite NHL player.
Friedman also reported that roughly $69.5 million of the $81 million total will be paid in signing bonuses. That kind of structure would not have been permitted after Wednesday, when the new CBA takes effect.
Gauthier’s path to Anaheim has already been unusual. Philadelphia took him fifth overall in the 2022 draft, but he made it clear soon after that he did not plan to sign there.
The Flyers then moved him to the Ducks in a deal that sent defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a 2025 second-round pick back to Philly. Three months later, Gauthier signed with Anaheim and appeared in the final game of the 2023-24 season, burning a year off his contract.
He has made that decision look better and better. In 2024-25, Gauthier put up 20 goals and 24 assists in 82 games, good enough for fifth in Calder Trophy voting.
Last season, under new head coach Joel Quenneville, he took another jump, finishing first on the Ducks in both goals with 41 and points with 69. He added 12 points in 12 playoff games, a run that set him up for a major raise.
That raise ended up landing well above what many would have expected only a few months ago. Philadelphia’s five-year, $90 million offer sheet to center Leo Carlsson earlier this summer, which was matched, reset the market and pushed Gauthier’s price even higher. Gauthier did not have offer-sheet leverage himself, but his production still carried him to a contract that ties him for the fifth-highest-paid player in the league.
By present-day value, it is hard to call the deal anything other than an overpay. But Anaheim clearly believes the scoring is real and repeatable, and the six-year term gives the Ducks control through all five of Gauthier’s RFA seasons plus one year of UFA eligibility. He will be set to reach the open market at age 28.
The signing also changes Anaheim’s cap picture. A year ago, the Ducks looked like a team with a bright young core and plenty of room to spend.
Now, with Carlsson’s deal helping set the table for Gauthier and the possibility of a costly second contract for Pavel Mintyukov looming, the books are tighter. Beckett Sennecke, who becomes extension-eligible next summer, could also see his number climb with Gauthier’s contract now available as a future comparable.
For now, Anaheim has a little over $2 million in cap space for the upcoming season, according to PuckPedia. That number can improve if one of the team’s goaltenders, Ville Husso or Laurent Brossoit, is sent down after losing the backup job to Lukas Dostal. If injuries hit early, the Ducks could also move Troy Terry to LTIR for some temporary relief.
In Other News...
Ducks Just Made A Massive Cutter Gauthier Statement
Cutter Gauthiers breakout season gave the Ducks a legitimate cornerstone to build around, and Anaheim wasted little time treating him like one. The club re-signed the restricted free-agent forward on a long-term deal after he led the team in goals and points, a strong follow-up to the trade that brought him over from Philadelphia in January 2024.
The contract also says plenty about where the organization sees him in the pecking order, since it makes him the clubs second-highest-paid player. There is a timing element to the agreement, too, with a significant chunk of the money structured in signing bonuses before the leagues new limits come into play, which only adds to the sense that the Ducks moved decisively to lock in one of their most important young pieces. [Read more 🡒]
Ducks Face Growing Pressure To Get Cutter Gauthier Signed In Time
The Ducks are back in the spotlight on the contract front, and this time the focus is Cutter Gauthier, one of the most important restricted free agents on Anaheims list. With a CBA deadline looming, the club has been working to get a deal done while a few other teams around the league juggle their own pressing business, from Minnesota extending John Hynes to Detroit shifting into an interim GM setup.
For Anaheim, though, this is the kind of negotiation that can quickly become a must-watch subplot because it sits right on the edge of the leagues rules calendar. The Ducks have been trying to bridge the gap with Gauthier before time runs out, and the sides have continued talking as the pressure builds, with the specifics of the structure still carrying the weight in the talks. [Read more 🡒]
Ducks Just Made A Huge Cutter Gauthier Commitment
The Ducks made their commitment to Cutter Gauthier official with a six-year extension, a deal that puts a major piece of their future squarely in place. It is the kind of move that says Anaheim is not waiting around to see what he becomes, but betting on him now as part of the core around which the roster keeps taking shape.
The timing matters, too, because the contract was finished before the new collective bargaining agreement takes effect, giving the team some flexibility in how it can be structured. Gauthier has said he is excited to sign long term with Anaheim, and the organization clearly views him as more than just another young scorer, even if the full financial and roster implications will keep being felt well beyond this season. [Read more 🡒]