1. How will Leo Carlsson‘s contract affect the Ducks moving forward?
After forward Leo Carlsson signed a five-year, $90 million offer sheet with the Philadelphia Flyers on July 3 that was matched by the Ducks on July 9, Anaheim is somewhat strapped with his $18 million average annual salary cap charge. How will that factor into their future plans and contracts, including signing restricted free agent forward Cutter Gauthier? The 22-year-old led the Ducks with 41 goals and 69 points last season and is a player they can’t afford to be without heading into the season.
“I think that the nice part is we’ve drafted well, and we have more support coming up underneath from the players that we have currently on our roster,” general manager Pat Verbeek said July 9. “Certainly, you’re going to have to look for different ways how to build the team and I think that I’m not really too concerned about it, because ultimately you have your core players and you have to build around them. And we will find those players that can kind of fit the contracts and the talent to go with them, so I’m not worried about it at all.
“The intention is to get Cutter signed. I think that obviously, wherever Cutter comes in (salary-wise), I’m going to have some work to do to make sure that we can fit everyone in. I’ve got two-and-a-half months to figure that out, and we’ll go through that process for the rest of the summer.”
