The Three Ducks Contracts Most Likely to Move Before October
Anaheim needs cap room for Cutter Gauthier and possibly Leo Carlsson. Chris Kreider, Alex Killorn and Frank Vatrano are the names on the table.
Anaheim’s cap problem has two names attached to it: Cutter Gauthier, who wants closer to $15 million a year than the $13 million the Ducks already offered, and Leo Carlsson, who could cost Anaheim $18 million annually if the front office matches Philadelphia’s offer sheet. Solving either one means moving money out before either deal is finalized, and three veteran names keep coming up as the way to do it.
Chris Kreider
Kreider is the most straightforward cap-relief candidate of the three: a proven veteran scoring winger whose contract is easier for another team to project than a younger, cheaper player’s would be. Moving him clears real money without touching a piece of Anaheim’s actual timeline with Gauthier and Carlsson.
Alex Killorn
Killorn occupies a similar bucket, a veteran forward whose value is more about a known role than upside, which makes him a tradable complement to a young core rather than a piece of it. Any team retooling its bottom six on a budget is a plausible trade partner.
Frank Vatrano
Vatrano’s finishing ability is the kind of skill set that holds trade value even on an expiring or mid-term deal, which makes him the name most likely to return an actual asset rather than simply being paid to leave.
Why it probably has to be one of these three, not a young piece
Anaheim’s entire offseason argument, fighting to keep Gauthier rather than let him walk, reportedly ready to match Carlsson’s offer sheet, is built on protecting the core it just spent two years assembling. Trading a young piece to fund a deal for another young piece defeats the purpose. Moving a veteran is the only version of this that doesn’t cannibalize the rebuild it’s meant to protect, and it explains why these three specific names, not younger ones, are the ones being connected to a deal before camp opens.
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