Source: Ducks' McTavish lands 6-year, $42M deal

The Anaheim Ducks and restricted free-agent halfway Mason McTavish person agreed to a six-year, $42 cardinal hold to extremity a contentious negotiation, an NHL root told ESPN connected Saturday, confirming reports.

McTavish, the 3rd wide prime successful the 2021 NHL Draft, is entering his 5th season. He had his astir productive play successful 2024-25 with 22 goals and 30 assists successful 76 games.

His caller declaration carries a $7 cardinal mean yearly worth against the wage cap. That matches Troy Terry and Mikael Granlund for highest headdress hits among Ducks forwards. But it's a little AAV than the 2nd declaration signed by Buffalo defenseman Owen Power ($8.35 million, signed successful 2023) and Seattle guardant Matty Beniers ($7,142,857, signed successful 2024), who were selected close up of McTavish successful the 2021 draft.

McTavish, 22, was called retired by Ducks wide manager Pat Verbeek for not reporting to Anaheim's grooming campy arsenic declaration talks grinded on.

"It's disappointing that he's not here, obviously. We person virtually a full caller coaching staff, and the radical is truly excited similar I've ne'er seen before," said Verbeek, via the Associated Press, successful notation to caller manager Joel Quenneville. "There's a caller strategy that's getting implemented. There's a batch of things to learn, and it takes a batch of reps to get it nether each player's belt. So erstwhile Mason gets here, he's got a batch of catching up to do."

In 229 NHL games, McTavish has 60 goals and 80 assists for 140 points, skating to a minus-39. While McTavish's stalemate with the Ducks created commercialized speculation astir the NHL, the squad views him arsenic a foundational portion of their rebuild.

McTavish and 20-year-old Leo Carlson person fixed the Ducks a coagulated acceptable of young centers, arsenic Anaheim seeks to instrumentality to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the archetypal clip since 2018.

This wasn't the archetypal clip Verbeek had a prolonged declaration dialog with a young standout. Both defenseman Jamie Drysdale and guardant Trevor Zegras missed clip successful the Ducks' 2023 grooming campy arsenic restricted escaped agents. Both are present members of the Philadelphia Flyers, acquired successful abstracted trades astir 17 months apart.