{"id":186061,"date":"2025-10-02T22:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T22:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/186061\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T22:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T22:52:11","slug":"ducks-sign-jackson-lacombe-to-max-term-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/186061\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks Sign Jackson LaCombe To Max-Term Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ducks have handed out the largest total-value contract in franchise history to pending RFA defenseman Jackson LaCombe<\/a>, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet<\/a> reports. It\u2019s an eight-year deal worth $9MM per season for a sum of $72MM. The contract is paid out entirely in base salary with no year-to-year variation, per PuckPedia<\/a>. It includes a full no-trade clause from 2028-31, a 15-team no-trade clause from 2031-33, and a 10-team no-trade clause in the final year of the deal in 2033-34.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s an astronomical pay bump for the 24-year-old, who emerged as Anaheim\u2019s No. 1 defenseman just last season. LaCombe, a 2019 second-round pick, signed a two-year deal as an RFA following his rookie season in 2023-24 that pays him $1.85MM in total \u2013 one-fifth of what he\u2019ll be making per year on his new deal. He\u2019s entering the final year of that deal, which costs $925K against the cap and would have left him arbitration-eligible next summer.<\/p>\n

LaCombe\u2019s emergence wasn\u2019t entirely out of nowhere \u2013 he\u2019d been viewed as a higher-end prospect for quite some time \u2013 but it was a more explosive breakout than most expected after his rookie campaign fell flat. Coming off four years with the University of Minnesota, LaCombe turned pro in 2023 and broke camp with the Ducks the following fall.<\/p>\n

Anaheim was bullish on the three-time Big 10 All-Star, and he spent most of the year in a top-pairing role alongside\u00a0Cam Fowler<\/a>. The duo really struggled to control play, though, even for the Ducks\u2019 lowered standards as one of the league\u2019s worst defensive squads. Averaging 19:23 per game, LaCombe had 17 points and a -24 rating in 71 appearances. In 55 games where he was paired with Fowler, they controlled just 39.5% of expected goals \u2013 the worst mark of Anaheim\u2019s seven D pairings to log more than 150 minutes together that year, according to MoneyPuck<\/a>.<\/p>\n

LaCombe\u2019s chemistry was much better in more limited usage with captain\u00a0Radko Gudas<\/a>\u00a0on his right side. The Ducks took note of that and made that their new top pairing heading into 2024-25, a move that was only solidified when Fowler was dealt<\/a> to the Blues a couple of months into the campaign. LaCombe flourished, getting an ice time bump to 22:18 per game while recording a 14-29\u201343 scoring line in 75 games, posting an even rating on a team with a -44 goal differential to boot. His 49.1% Corsi share at even strength led Ducks defenders, as did all of his offensive metrics.<\/p>\n

League-wide, LaCombe quietly moved into consideration as a top-25 rearguard. His 33 even-strength points were tied for 18th, and his 0.57 points per game were 27th \u2013 above other established No. 1 guys like\u00a0Drew Doughty<\/a>,\u00a0Colton Parayko<\/a>,\u00a0Moritz Seider<\/a>, and even\u00a0Miro Heiskanen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lack of sample size as a No. 1 will be cause for concern. Still, as the salary cap sharply increases, a $9MM AAV falls more into the \u201ctop-pair\u201d category for defenders than \u201ctrue No. 1.\u201d It\u2019s a matching cap hit to Devils rearguard Luke Hughes<\/a>, who signed a new deal yesterday<\/a> after posting comparable offensive stats last year. While there\u2019s some sticker shock compared to what his extension projection would have been at the beginning of the offseason, it\u2019s an in-line response to the recent spike in market values for premier defensemen.<\/p>\n

Getting LaCombe\u2019s contract done now is an important piece of business for general manager\u00a0Pat Verbeek<\/a>, who still has four other high-profile pending RFAs to contend with.\u00a0Leo Carlsson<\/a>,\u00a0Cutter Gauthier<\/a>,\u00a0Pavel Mintyukov<\/a>, and\u00a0Olen Zellweger<\/a>\u00a0are all entering the final years of their entry-level contracts. LaCombe was likely the highest-priority target as the only one of the group who had enough professional experience to qualify for arbitration.<\/p>\n

The Ducks now have LaCombe,\u00a0Luk\u00e1\u0161 Dost\u00e1l<\/a>,\u00a0Mason McTavish<\/a>, and\u00a0Troy Terry<\/a>\u00a0signed through at least 2030 as their new core continues to take shape. The club still has over $40MM in cap space to burn and 10 open active roster spots for 2026-27, according to PuckPedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ducks have handed out the largest total-value contract in franchise history to pending RFA defenseman Jackson LaCombe,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[766,43,93486,44,4247,41,39,42,40,4584],"class_list":{"0":"post-186061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-anaheim-ducks","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-jackson-lacombe","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newsstand","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories","17":"tag-transactions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}