October has been a busy month for NHL clubs in terms of locking up their futures between the pipes.
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Jeremy Swayman and the Boston Bruins ended their heated negotiations and agreed on an eight-year contract extension worth $8.25 million AAV.
The Minnesota Wild extended 21-year-old goalie prospect Jesper Wallstedt, who will enter the final year of his ELC, with a two-year contract that carries an AAV of $2.2 million.
On Wednesday, after his first season with double-digit games played in 2023-24, the Seattle Kraken inked netminder Joey Daccord to a five-year contract extension with an AAV of $5.5 million.
Shortly after Daccord signed his contract, it was reported the Ottawa Senators extended newly acquired goaltender and 2023 Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark to a four-year deal worth $8.25 million AAV.
Kevin Weekes from ESPN and the NHL Network reported Wednesday that Rangers’ netminder and 2022 Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin rejected an extension offer for eight years with an AAV of $11 million.
In 2024-25, Anaheim Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal (24) will enter the final year of his two-year contract with an AAV of $812,500. In his rookie season of 2023-24, he posted a .902 SV%, allowed 4.58 goals above expected, and logged his first career shutout.
Since, he backstopped Czechia to a gold medal at the IIHF World Championships in Prague, sporting a .939 SV%, zero regulation defeats, and three shutouts in eight games, including in the gold medal game vs Switzerland. For his efforts, he was a finalist for the IIHF Male Player of the Year, but finished third in voting.
The Ducks were set to open the season with designs of a tandem in goal with Dostal and veteran goalie John Gibson. Gibson required emergency appendectomy surgery during training camp and his timeline for return is set for one to four weeks from the start of the season.
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Dostal, in a contract year, has the opportunity to seize control of the crease in Anaheim and maximize his earnings when it comes to his eventual contract negotiations.
On July 1, 2025, Dostal will become an RFA with arbitration rights and will be UFA eligible on July 1, 2027. He is currently eligible to sign a contract extension with the Ducks.
“We’ll take our time on that,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek stated at the start of team training camp when asked about potential contract extensions for RFAs. “We haven’t really started thinking about that yet, but we’ll lay a plan out for when we’ll start talking about all that stuff. To me, that’s far down the road and we have to get through training camp and get a few games under our belt before you can start thinking about that.”
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In some situations, like Edmonton, Washington, and Calgary, less importance is placed on the goaltending position and they allocate less than 5% of the salary cap to their goalies. In others, as has been shown by the aforementioned recent signings and offers, goaltenders are still seen as valuable commodities.
It’s difficult to draw comparisons with Dostal and any of the recent goaltender signings as two of them were one year from UFA eligibility (Ullmark and Daccord), one (Swayman) had ample leverage in his negotiations, and one (Wallstedt) remains a rookie on his ELC.
As documented with the Ducks over the past half decade with John Gibson, a goaltender has a tough time turning a poor team into a good team. However, in the modern NHL, a goaltender can still turn a good team into a great team.
By the time the Ducks are likely to make the jump into the “good team” category, Dostal will be firmly in his prime and if his “big game” performances translate to the NHL playoffs, he will be an integral piece to their potential success.
In his tenure thus far, Verbeek has yet to sign an RFA to a contract extension during a season. However, if Dostal gets off to a hot start in the 2024-25 season, his price tag will likely only increase.
It will be a worthwhile situation to monitor as the Ducks, as a team, look to make the climb out of the cellar of the NHL league standings in 2024-25 with Dostal set to play a large role.
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