Cutter Gauthier signed a six-year, $81 million contract with the Anaheim Ducks, a deal the club funded in part by terminating Chris Kreider’s contract, reportedly ending the veteran winger’s tenure without a buyout or a trade.
Gauthier, 22, will carry a $13.5 million average annual value, the second-highest cap hit on the Ducks behind Leo Carlsson’s five-year, $80 million deal. The extension rewards a 2025-26 season in which Gauthier scored 41 goals and 69 points and added 12 points in a playoff run that returned Anaheim to the post-season for the first time since 2018.
The price to pay it, however, came off another man’s contract. Anaheim terminated Kreider’s contract outright to create the cap room needed for Gauthier. The exact terms of the termination were not laid out. Gauthier led the Ducks in scoring last season, a 21-goal jump from the season before.
Kreider leaves, the room moves on
Carlsson, the Ducks’ highest-paid player after signing his offer sheet this off-season, described Kreider’s exit as an accepted cost of the business.
“Chris, he’s leaving, but he’s also really happy for me as well. It’s a hard business.”
Carlsson’s own five-year, $80 million offer sheet reset the restricted free agent market league-wide, and Gauthier’s $13.5 million AAV is the downstream effect. Before the deal settled, some speculation had put Gauthier’s number closer to $15 million or $16 million a year.