As we enter the quiet days of the NHL offseason (we think), the focus turns to teams locking up their restricted free agents. We’ve seen two offer sheets take place in the NHL so far this summer, including the massive $18M offered to Anaheim Ducks centre Leo Carlsson. In both situations, their current teams matched their offer sheets. From the Ducks’ perspective, that 18M price tag certainly took a toll on their offseason agenda. They were also forced to lock up Pavel Mintyukov to a bigger deal than they should have given the looming threat of an offer sheet there.
The Ducks’ focus now turns to Cutter Gauthier. PuckPedia projects the Ducks at $9.07M in remaining cap space. That doesn’t seem like enough to sign the 22-year-old 41-goal scorer. So, what do the Ducks do now, given the losses they have taken this offseason? All love to AJ Greer, who got paid, but do the Ducks regret signing him to a four-year, $4.25M deal in free agency already? Something is going to have to be cut loose in Anaheim before they can sign Gauthier.
The Anaheim Ducks have continuing interest in Zach Whitecloud
A source tells The Win Column that Zach Whitecloud continues to be a player the Anaheim Ducks call on. I had someone pose a question about whether the Flames could work a bigger deal. Maybe the Flames could take on one of Frank Vatrano, Chris Kreider, or Alex Killorn in a Zach Whitecloud deal to increase the return, but I would imagine the Flames feature on all three of the Ducks players’ trade protections.
Losing John Carlson, Jacob Trouba, and Radko Gudas has left their entire right side of defence depleted. Their one free agent signing was Nick Jensen, who is 35 years old. They can hope that Tristan Luneau or Noah Warren takes a step and that Drew Helleson becomes something, but that’s a lot of ifs. Whitecloud would give them a cost-controlled surefire top-four defenceman they could pair alongside Jackson Lacombe or Mintyukov.
On the free agent market, their only options are John Klingberg or Nick Blankenburg. Neither exactly strikes the same confidence as a Whitecloud acquisition. The reality is the Ducks probably aren’t going to find a competitive top-four defenceman at 2.75M anywhere else. That gives the Flames a ton of leverage, since they are keen on keeping him for next season.
The Flames hold the cards as they don’t need to trade Whitecloud
Since the Rasmus Andersson deal last season, the Flames have received a lot of calls about Whitecloud. And it’s no wonder, as Whitecloud fit perfectly in tougher minutes and impressed the organization immediately with his off-ice stewardship. To most fans, including myself, Whitecloud seemed like a stopgap RD that also made the cap work in the Andersson deal.
He immediately showed he was much more than that, pretty much from day one.
From the Flames’ perspective, you don’t have to act on Whitecloud unless the Ducks blow your socks off. As mentioned, he’s become an important figure both to the team and especially to the local community. Your right side includes the likes of Zayne Parekh, Simon Nemec, and Hunter Brzustewicz, who are all under the age of 22. Whitecloud can play up or down the lineup and take on the hard defensive situations. He signed through the 2027–28 season at an AAV of $2.75M. He is the perfect stopgap on the right side while those aforementioned names continue to develop.
What the Flames would be looking for in return to act on moving Whitecloud is unknown. The Ducks do hold all of their high picks in the coming drafts, including three 2027 2nd round draft picks, as well as a decent prospect pool. The reality is the Flames are in a good place. They can listen to deals for guys like Whitecloud, Morgan Frost, etc. and only have to act if the deal makes sense long-term. The one factor that leads me to believe the team might consider a Whitecloud move if the price is right is the number of bodies on defence.
