Things are a bit more stabilized on the left with Jackson LaCombe<\/a> locked up long-term.\u00a0 But he\u2019s the only one under contract, as Olen Zellweger<\/a> and Pavel Mintyukov<\/a> are pending restricted free agents.\u00a0 And with neither of them really establishing themselves as a full-time top-four defender, both have been part of trade speculation over the past year or so.\u00a0 Both could be retained but there\u2019s a case to make to keep one and move one, then bring a different type of defender in to fill the third spot.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not too often that a playoff team could overhaul half of its back end.\u00a0 Depending on what happens over the next few weeks, it could happen to Anaheim so Verbeek is going to need to be aggressive to try to keep some of his players and be active on the trade front and in free agency to fill out the rest of his group.<\/p>\n Re-Sign Core RFAs<\/p>\n There have been some difficult contract talks in recent years between Verbeek and several of his core youngsters.\u00a0 With the team holding more leverage coming off an entry-level deal, the team has used that to their advantage to avoid setting big precedents.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that they won\u2019t sign a player long-term coming off their rookie contract \u2013 they did just last year \u2013 but it\u2019s not a given like it is for many other teams.\u00a0 Two more potentially difficult contract talks loom as center Leo Carlsson<\/a> and winger Cutter Gauthier<\/a> will have their first contracts end at the end of the month.<\/p>\n His camp will be looking to get paid with that in mind.\u00a0 The price tag for young impact centers keeps going up with Logan Cooley<\/a> (eight years, $80MM) being the recent standard for comparison.\u00a0 While Verbeek has been able to keep $7MM as the high standard for forwards, that\u2019s going to change as realistically, even a short-term bridge deal could surpass that.\u00a0 Meanwhile, AFP Analytics pegs<\/a> a max-term eight-year contract at around $11.4MM per season.\u00a0 As a quick comparison, Cooley has 152 points in 211 NHL regular season games as he starts his second deal.\u00a0 Carlsson is at 141 in 201.\u00a0 The double-digit AAV range is where Verbeek will need to go to get a long-term deal done with his top pivot.<\/p>\n As for Gauthier, his sophomore season was also a big improvement on 2024-25.\u00a0 He led Anaheim in scoring, tallying 41 goals and 28 assists in 76 games, a jump from the 20 goals and 24 assists the year before.\u00a0 He appears to be well on his way to becoming the scoring winger that Philadelphia thought they were getting when they drafted him fifth overall.\u00a0 Of course, when he wouldn\u2019t sign with them, he was moved to the Ducks for a package that included Jamie Drysdale<\/a>, one of the recent post-entry-level negotiations that felt a little contentious at the time.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that, unlike Carlsson, Gauthier isn\u2019t eligible to sign an offer sheet since he only played in one game in his first season.\u00a0 That gives Verbeek a bit more leverage in talks with there being no potential outside threat.\u00a0 Accordingly, the projections are a bit lower; AFP Analytics<\/a> has a seven-year contract checking in a little over $8.8MM per season while a three-year bridge could check in around $6.3MM.<\/p>\n Cap space isn\u2019t going to be a factor here.\u00a0 The Ducks have over $38MM at their disposal, per PuckPedia<\/a>, which is more than enough to re-sign both core youngsters, reshape the defense, and have plenty left over.\u00a0 But it wouldn\u2019t be shocking if history repeats itself and these two contracts take a while.<\/p>\n Examine McTavish Options<\/p>\n McTavish was one of the other trickier contract negotiations in recent years but he was one of the exceptions in that he received a longer-term contract, a six-year, $42MM pact.\u00a0 The $7MM AAV tied him for the team lead (at the time, LaCombe has since passed it) and the thought was that one of Anaheim\u2019s core pieces was locked up for the long haul.<\/p>\n One year later, his status isn\u2019t as certain.\u00a0 Yes, McTavish is still locked up for five more years but his status as a core piece is now in question.\u00a0 This season, he played in 75 games, notching 17 goals and 24 assists.\u00a0 It was his fourth straight season surpassing 40 points but he also saw his production dip from 52 in 2024-25 in a year where Anaheim\u2019s offensive output as a team increased considerably.\u00a0 Then, in the playoffs, he wound up being healthy scratched a couple of times.<\/p>\n McTavish is still just 23 years old and is a natural center, elements that should be particularly appealing to other teams.\u00a0 Given Anaheim\u2019s center depth, McTavish saw a bit of time on the wing this year which isn\u2019t as ideal from a trade perspective.\u00a0 While he\u2019s coming off a down year, the demand for quality pivots is high enough that they could still land a strong return.\u00a0 Is that the right approach to take or should they hold onto him for another season?\u00a0 Verbeek needs to investigate what\u2019s out there offer-wise to make that decision.<\/p>\n Backup Goalie Upgrade<\/p>\n Some eyebrows were raised when Verbeek decided to sign Ville Husso<\/a> to a two-year, $4.4MM contract to essentially serve as the third-string option behind Lukas Dostal<\/a> and Petr Mrazek<\/a>.\u00a0 With Mrazek ultimately dealing with injuries and undergoing hip surgery (limiting him to 10 games), Husso wound up being the second-string option for most of the season.<\/p>\n But the results weren\u2019t great.\u00a0 The 31-year-old made 19 starts but posted a 3.25 GAA and a .884 SV%, numbers that were well below league average.\u00a0 This is something that can certainly be upgraded on and with Dostal struggling with his biggest workload (his SV% was only .888), getting a more reliable option here becomes that much more important.<\/p>\n In terms of finding a reliable backup who could cover 30-35 starts, the UFA market isn\u2019t the deepest.\u00a0 Stuart Skinner<\/a> can shoulder that workload but he has run hot and cold over the last few years.\u00a0 Connor Ingram<\/a> had a decent season and might have some upside but he might be looking to go somewhere with a shot at a bigger workload than what the Ducks have to offer.\u00a0 Frederik Andersen<\/a> and Cam Talbot<\/a> have been those types of goalies in the past but are getting up there in age.<\/p>\n Speculatively, Boston\u2019s Joonas Korpisalo<\/a> feels like a good fit here.\u00a0 He has been a starter before and can handle the workload the Ducks would need him too.\u00a0 His numbers haven\u2019t been great but were better than what Anaheim\u2019s netminders put up this past season.\u00a0 At $3MM, he wouldn\u2019t cost much more than Husso (who would probably go back to the third-string role) while the Bruins could benefit from the cap relief and might want to give Michael DiPietro<\/a> a shot at the full-time backup role.<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s a free agent, Korpisalo, or someone else altogether, getting more of a stabilizing presence at the backup goalie spot is a good way to try to get a few extra points in the standings and take some pressure off Dostal in the process.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of John Jones-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The offseason is now in full effect following Carolina\u2019s Stanley Cup title.\u00a0 Accordingly, it\u2019s now time to examine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,136558,31413],"class_list":["post-369677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-offseason-checklist-2026","tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369677","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=369677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/leo-carlsson-ducks-222x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Carlsson took a big step forward toward reaching his potential this season.\u00a0 After putting up 20 goals and 25 assists in his sophomore year, the 2023 second-overall pick finished second on the Ducks in scoring this season, tallying 29 goals and 38 helpers in 70 games.\u00a0 He upped his faceoff percentage by three percent as well; while it was still fairly low, it was ten percent better than his rookie year which is a step in the right direction.\u00a0 The big breakout hasn\u2019t necessarily come yet but Carlsson appears to be on his way.<\/p>\n