{"id":366796,"date":"2026-06-19T05:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/366796\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T05:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:50:13","slug":"interest-in-hated-ducks-captain-heating-up-maple-leafs-in-the-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/366796\/","title":{"rendered":"Interest in Hated Ducks Captain Heating Up, Maple Leafs In the Mix"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> continue to look for ways to change up their defense core. Having already made a trade to acquire Emil Andrae<\/a> from the Philadelphia Flyers, there\u2019s another blueliner on their radar. This one might become available because there is a gap between what he wants and what the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> are willing to give. <\/p>\n

That defenseman is Radko Gudas<\/a>, and ESPN analyst and NHL insider Kevin Weekes<\/a> suggests that he could be coveted by at least two teams on the open market. <\/p>\n

Kevin Weekes posted, \u201cPer sources, I\u2019m told Anaheim Ducks Captain D Gudas is gaining interest in the marketplace. If him & Ducks can\u2019t get a deal done, @FlaPanthers<\/a> @MapleLeafs<\/a> are among potential fits. He\u2019s physical, experienced, playoff tested, on a 2-3Yr term between 3.5M-4M+AAV.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Gudas leaves the Ducks, it really won\u2019t be a huge surprise. He was made a healthy scratch during the Ducks\u2019 first-round playoff series with the Edmonton Oilers. He didn\u2019t play against the Vegas Golden Knights. The bad news, however, is that this could be the third defenseman the Ducks lose from the 2025-26 roster. <\/p>\n

John Carlson<\/a> has informed the team that he is headed to free agency and won\u2019t be back. He prefers to play out East. Jacob Trouba<\/a> might also be thinking about testing the market. If Gudas goes, that\u2019s three right-shot defensemen suddenly gone. As for what Gudas can get on the open market, that will be intriguing to see. If two teams are competing (maybe more), he might get close to the $4 million per season he was making last year in a rising salary cap situation. Given that he has played only 56 games last year and sat out the playoffs, that would be an overpayment. <\/p>\n

Also worth noting is that Toronto might be interested, given the players on the Maple Leafs roster\u2019s hatred for him. This is the same Gudas who went knee-on-knee with Auston Matthews<\/a> and knocked Matthews out for the rest of the season. <\/p>\n

For the Panthers, it would be a return for Gudas, who played there between 2020 and 2023. He had some of his better seasons in Florida, leaving just before they won back-to-back Stanley Cups. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs continue to look for ways to change up their defense core. Having already made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-366796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}