The Anaheim Ducks announced on Saturday that they secured one of the bigger pieces to their overall puzzle, extending defenseman Sami Vatanen with a 4-year, $19.5 million deal. Vatanen was scheduled to become a restricted free agent on July 1st, which may have subjected him to an offer sheet, but those were few and far between.The Ducks' top defenseman in 2016 finished the year with 9 goals and 38 points in 71 games with the club last season, 29th among all defenders and 211th overall in pool scoring. The 25-year old Finn has come a long way in a short period of time and if the Ducks could really string together a strong offensive regular season, Vatanen would definitely be one player that would be right in the thick of the action.
As we see Vatanen mature with this Ducks team, his overall hockey pool stock is going to go up, but it will take a little bit of help, no doubt. He has been a 21-minute guy for the past two seasons and he has yet to push over the 40-point mark, which should be his goal for next season.
Anaheim's cap situation is quite positive, heading into the off-season, which is a big positive for them, so getting this deal done was very important moving forward. With Vatanen now on the books as a pool worthy defender, I have their penciled in roster in at 13 players and $55.8 million, leaving them plenty of room for those 10 spots (max) to fill. Even without seeing what next year's cap number is so far, they are in good shape, as they re-tool for a better playoff run.
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