after a report<\/a> that the Ducks were aware of a looming offer sheet for Mintyukov from at least two other teams. This time, instead of calling the player\u2019s bluff on an offer sheet, Ducks GM Pat Verbeek stepped up his offer to get the deal done. Right now, it appears the pressure of an offer sheet had an effect, and the Ducks cap situation continues to get a bit more strained. With that being said, let\u2019s dive into what Mintyukov\u2019s deal might mean for the Flyers\u2019 chances with Leo Carlsson.\u00a0<\/p>\nDid the Ducks overpay for Mintyukov?\u00a0<\/p>\n
For sure, the Ducks could not really afford to lose Mintyukov on their blueline. He\u2019s penciled into a top-4 role, and while he hasn\u2019t quite lived up to the hype yet, he\u2019s an important part of their future moving forward. The blueline is already pretty thin with Mintyukov, but without him? You\u2019d be looking at Jackson Lacombe, Nick Jensen, and four other really young defenseman who haven\u2019t proved anything yet. It gets risky really quickly for a team that\u2019s just prying open their competitive window. <\/p>\n
Per Evolving-Hockey\u2019s contract projection tool, Mintyukov\u2019s projection on a 5-year deal would have carried a $5.1 AAV. The Ducks aren\u2019t going to be upset with keeping Mintyukov around, but this number certainly has to be more than they were envisioning. For a player whose career high is 28 points and has middling play-driving numbers, Mintyukov got quite the deal for himself. That\u2019s not to say that Mintyukov won\u2019t eventually live up to this contract, but at Mintyukov\u2019s current impact, it\u2019s a pretty bad deal for Anaheim. At the very least, Danny Briere has forced Anaheim to give millions more to each of their RFAs than they originally wanted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Ducks\u2019 cap situation now\u00a0<\/p>\n
If the Ducks match the Leo Carlsson offer sheet, the Ducks will have $9,973,395 in cap space left. Still having to sign RFA Cutter Gauthier to a deal, the organization is right up against it. Considering what we know about Gauthier, the fact that he\u2019s already one of the better goal scorers in the league, and what this level of player typically gets paid, the Ducks will probably need to move money to sign him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Per Evolving-Hockey\u2019s contract projection tool, Gauthier\u2019s most likely deal is in the 8-year, $9.7 million range. At a five year length, the AAV falls to a flat $8 million. The thing is though, Gauthier and his team are clearly operating at a higher value than that. Even prior to the Carlsson offer sheet, reports came out that the Ducks were looking to keep both Carlsson and Gauthier in the $10-12 million range. Gauthier and the Ducks were probably already negotiating at a salary above $10 million, and the Carlsson deal is going to likely change everything for that deal. The odds feel very low that Gauthier isn\u2019t asking for at least $13 million or $14 million now. He\u2019ll have lots of leverage over the Ducks in his negotiations, even though he\u2019s ineligible to sign an offer sheet this offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are definitely ways for Verbeek to maneuver his way out of this, but it requires the Ducks to completely rework their cap around Carlsson. He\u2019s the franchise center, but that\u2019s still quite the ask for a GM to work around. Massive contracts like this are something you have to plan around, and the Carlsson\u2019s deal being over budget by 4 or 5 million is throwing a big curveball Pat Verbeek\u2019s way. In the short term, there are plenty of veterans on the roster that Verbeek can move to acquire a little more cap space, but the entire league knows the Ducks are up against it. They\u2019ll likely have to attach sweeteners to move on from players, but it\u2019s possible. There are plenty of teams who will take on a player like Chris Kreider ($6.5 million, Frank Vatrano ($4.57 million), or Alex Killorn ($6.25 million).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Troy Terry\u2019s also on injured reserve right now, and is expected to miss the first month of the season. Perhaps the cap savings the Ducks will earn with Terry on IR will be enough to fit Carlsson, Mintyukov, and Gauthier, but it will be tight as it stands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If Verbeek decides to match the Carlsson offer sheet, we\u2019d have to think that we will really get a good indication in the next couple of days. If he starts to move off players like Kreider or Vatrano, we\u2019re heading towards a match. There\u2019d be no real reason to deal away from the little forward depth that the Ducks currently have unless they were matching Carlsson. Other teams might really squeeze the Ducks here and wait until the last second to make a deal, but we\u2019re probably going to hear rumblings about this over the next few days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mintyukov\u2019s deal probably doesn\u2019t make it more or less likely that the Ducks match the Carlsson offer sheet, but it really illuminates the situation the Ducks are in. Whatever happens from here on out, Danny Briere has created chaos in Anaheim, and a cap that is quickly becoming a disaster.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Flyers put the entire Anaheim Ducks\u2019 organization and cap structure into a total mess with the record-breaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-387758","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\/387758","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=387758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}