The Anaheim Ducks will take one of their restricted free agents off of the market. The club is nearing a multi-year extension with defenseman Pavel Mintyukov per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The new deal is expected to land in the realm of Brandt Clarke‘s five-year, $37MM contract signed with the Los Angeles Kings in late-June. This move will remove Mintyukov from offer sheet eligibility after multiple teams approached the defender with interest.

Anaheim will win their race to pull Mintyukov off of the market after a record-setting offer sheet was tendered to star center Leo Carlsson by the Philadelphia Flyers. Even though they’ve pulled Mintyukov back into the future plans, Anaheim will pay the cost of waiting until early July. Mintyukov’s next deal will pay in-line with Clarke, who is emerging as the Kings’ top defenseman after years of gradual improvements.

While Mintyukov carries exciting potential, he has far less wind behind his sails. The 22 year old scored just 22 points in 73 games this season. He has failed to match the 28 points he scored in 63 games of his rookie season in 2023-24, following that performance with 19 points in 2024-25. Mintyukov has stuck to Anaheim’s bottom pair while sorting through that scoring, averaging just 18:17 in ice time through 204 games in the NHL. He has shown signs of promising upside through those struggles. Mintyukov has averaged 82 hits and 103 shot blocks per 82 games played in his NHL career. He also earned routine power-play minutes this season, finishing with the third-most power-play ice time on the Ducks blue line behind Jackson LaCombe and the recently-traded Olen Zellweger.

Those incremental improvements could set up Mintyukov for a big season next year. He will hold an unrivaled, second-pair role in the lineup now removed from competition with Zellweger. He also boasts the third-most career points (69) on a young Ducks blue line behind Nick Jensen (172) and LaCombe (118). While Mintyukov won’t rival the top-defender role – or, even a top-pair role – behind fellow left-shot LaCombe, the young Russian could still emerge as a focal point next season. A pricey extension will ensure minutes while Anaheim banks on the untapped offensive potential of their 2022 10th-overall selection.

More to come…