Ducks sign Gauthier to 6-year, $13.5M deal — SkimNews
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Cutter Gauthier signed a six-year, $13.5M AAV contract with the Anaheim Ducks — the deal includes an $18.6M signing bonus plus $850K in salary for Year 1, netting him nearly $19.5M up front.
- Gauthier led Anaheim with 41 goals and 69 points in his breakout season, then added 12 points in 12 playoff games as the Ducks upset the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of their first postseason appearance in eight years.
- Anaheim matched an $18M-per-season offer sheet for center Leo Carlsson in July — a deal that briefly made him the NHL's highest-paid player before being surpassed by Macklin Celebrini and Cale Makar.
- The Ducks waived veteran Chris Kreider for 'salary cap flexibility' before finalizing the Gauthier deal; Kreider subsequently signed a one-year contract with the Montreal Canadiens.
- The contract landed on the final day of the NHL's old CBA, which allowed eight-year deals; under the new agreement, teams can re-sign players for a maximum of seven years, and rules around signing-bonus structure are changing.
- Gauthier, originally drafted No. 5 by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2022 and acquired by Anaheim in a 2024 trade, was born in Sweden to a professional hockey-playing father and developed through the U.S. national team development program and Boston College, where he was a Hobey Baker Award finalist.
Why it matters: The Ducks have now locked in two young cornerstones — Gauthier at $13.5M AAV and Carlsson at $18M — after waiving veteran Chris Kreider for cap space. Carlsson's deal was already the NHL's richest before being topped twice by Celebrini and Makar, underscoring how quickly the league's salary ceiling is moving.
Ask SkimNews
