{"id":782458,"date":"2026-07-06T10:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/782458\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T10:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:33:17","slug":"how-mintyukov-signing-puts-more-pressure-on-ducks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/782458\/","title":{"rendered":"How Mintyukov signing puts more pressure on Ducks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Anaheim Ducks<\/a> have locked up one of their top young defencemen, but the contract puts more pressure on general manager Pat Verbeek as he navigates the off-season.<\/p>\n

Restricted free agent Pavel Mintyukov<\/a> and the Ducks finalized a five-year, $36-million contract on Sunday that carries a cap hit of $7.2 million.<\/p>\n

Mintyukov, 22, scored 28 points as a rookie and has not eclipsed that total in the two seasons since, but will now be the second-highest-paid defenceman on the Ducks behind Jackson LaCombe.<\/p>\n

That’s notable as Anaheim ponders what to do with the offer sheet signed by centre Leo Carlsson<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

Carlsson signed a five-year, $90-million contract with the Philadelphia Flyers that would make him the highest-paid player in the NHL, at $18 million AAV per season. The Ducks have until Friday to match the offer sheet or let Carlsson go to the Flyers in exchange for four first-round draft picks.<\/p>\n

With Mintyukov now signed, the Ducks will be left with $9,973,395 in cap space if they choose to match Carlsson’s contract, according to PuckPedia.<\/p>\n

That likely won’t be enough to sign their other top restricted free agent, Cutter Gauthier<\/a>, who is coming off a 41-goal season. Gauthier isn’t eligible to sign an offer sheet but will be seeking a significant raise after completing his entry-level deal.<\/p>\n

Anaheim has already lost veterans Jacob Trouba and Radko Gudas to free agency, but could be forced to cut ties with other players to retain all three young stars.<\/p>\n

Last season, the Ducks snapped a seven-year playoff drought and reached the second round before falling to the Vegas Golden Knights. That success could be short-lived if Verbeek can’t figure out how to get out of this salary-cap bind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Anaheim Ducks have locked up one of their top young defencemen, but the contract puts more pressure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-782458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}