The Anaheim Ducks have locked up Cutter Gauthier for the long haul, agreeing to a six-year contract with the restricted free-agent forward on Tuesday.
The deal comes with a $13.5-million cap hit, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, and it instantly places Gauthier near the top of Anaheim’s pay scale. He now sits behind only Leo Carlsson’s $18-million AAV on the Ducks’ roster, while his cap hit is tied for fifth-highest in the NHL next season with Vegas Golden Knights star Jack Eichel. When the contract runs out in 2032, Gauthier will be an unrestricted free agent.
Friedman also reported that roughly $69.5 million of the $81-million agreement is in signing bonuses. That timing mattered: new rules limiting signing bonuses to 60% of a contract’s total value take effect Wednesday, which means Gauthier would not have been able to sign this same deal after Tuesday.
The 22-year-old just put together the kind of season that makes this move easy to understand. He led the Ducks with 41 goals and 69 points, helping Anaheim end a seven-year playoff drought. In the postseason, he added 12 points in 12 games as the Ducks knocked off the Edmonton Oilers in Round 1 and then pushed the eventual Western Conference champion Golden Knights to six games in Round 2.
“We are pleased to get Cutter signed to a long-term deal and have him in camp on time,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said in a statement. “He's a major part of our young core, a pure goal-scoring talent that will continue progressing into an elite NHL player.”
Gauthier’s scoring touch showed up in the league-wide numbers, too. His 41 goals ranked ninth in the NHL last season, and his 285 shots were sixth-most.
Because he was an RFA, Gauthier was not eligible for an offer sheet and did not have arbitration rights.
Anaheim created the room to make the deal happen by reaching a mutual termination of the final year of Chris Kreider’s contract last week, clearing $6.5 million in cap space.
The Ducks originally acquired Gauthier in a January 2024 trade with the Philadelphia Flyers for defenseman Jamie Drysdale. Philadelphia had selected Gauthier fifth overall in the 2022 draft.
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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 🡒]
Ducks Just Made Their Biggest Bet Yet On Cutter Gauthier
The Ducks have made their biggest commitment yet to Cutter Gauthier, locking up the young forward after a breakout stretch that quickly made him central to their future. Gauthier had reached restricted free agency coming off his entry-level deal, and Anaheim moved decisively to keep one of its most important pieces in place after he emerged as a key driver in the clubs push back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Originally drafted by the Flyers before landing in Anaheim ahead of his first NHL contract, Gauthier has already become more than just a promising name in the organization. The new deal reflects how much the Ducks believe in his trajectory, and it also puts a spotlight on the price of keeping a player who has already started to look like a foundational scorer as the roster tries to take its next step. [Read more 🡒]