Per Elliotte Friedman, the Ducks are willing to take on bad contracts for assets

Sportsnet’s Saturday Night Headlines segment contained a very important piece of Ducks news this week. See the link for the video. Below is the quote from Elliotte Friedman:

“And finally Anaheim. The Ducks have let it be known that they have cash and cap space, they are willing to listen to you if you want to use them to help you clean up your cap problem, however its going to cost you good young assets”

The Ducks currently have a projected $2 million in cap space by the end of the season, per Capfriendly, but that does not include the possibility of placing Kesler and/or Eaves on LTIR, which would allow the Ducks to exceed the $81.5 million salary cap ceiling by a significant margin.

For the Ducks as a franchise, weaponizing their cap space is a step in the right direction . Carolina this past summer were able to gain a 1st round pick by taking Patrick Marleau off of Toronto’s hands. Carolina also in years past picked up Teuvo Teravainen for taking on Bryan Bickell’s contract. This has become a trend in the NHL, and an efficient way to add young talent to the system without losing someone from the NHL roster or prospect pool. That cap space is not going to help the team make the playoffs or contend this year, so take advantage of it and improve the team in the long term.

This is only the first step of many that need to be taken, but it appears the rebuild that is needed is about to be in full swing.