Two surprising teams could pursue Johnny Gaudreau if he hits free agency
The Calgary Flames and Johnny Gaudreau have made it known that there is mutual interest in having "Johnny Hockey" in Calgary for a very long time. The issue that stands in the way is, of course, his next contract. The term is not the issue - Gaudreau will get the max if he remains in Calgary - it's the AAV that will be the contentious part.
Gaudreau is coming off of a 6-year deal that paid him an AAV of $6.75M per season and is coming off of a 40 goal, 115 point campaign that raised his value tremendously. Gaudreau will likely be seeking somewhere north of $9.5M and possibly north of $10M per season. At 28 years old, this is going to be his "one big ticket" so he will try to squeeze every dollar out of it.
Should the Flames and Gaudreau be unable to find common ground, TSN's Pierre LeBrun reported that the New Jersey Devils and Seattle Kraken would make strong pushes to sign the free agent. The Devils have some key RFA's to sign in Miles Wood and Jesper Bratt, but would still have plenty of cap space to pay Gaudreau huge money on a max 7-year term. They also have something to offer Gaudreau that nobody else does. The chance to play alongside 2019 1st overall pick, Jack Hughes.
Seattle on the other hand, is desperate to find some skill at all positions, but after passing on the likes of Vladimir Tarasenko and other highly productive forwards in the expansion draft, Seattle needs some top end talent. They have just under $23M in cap space but need to fill out almost half of their roster. That said, the chance to play alongside 2021 2nd overall pick Matty Beniers might also be enticing to Gaudreau.
LeBrun called Seattle a dark horse in the Gaudreau race should he hit the open market, but based on their cap and roster size, they will need to make a few moves to fit Gaudreau in under the cap.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 9 | 264 ANSWERS Two surprising teams could pursue Johnny Gaudreau if he hits free agency Where does Gaudreau sign? | ||
| Calgary | 101 | 38.3 % |
| Seattle | 40 | 15.2 % |
| New Jersey | 47 | 17.8 % |
| Other | 76 | 28.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
