The Calgary Flames have signed winger Johnny Gaudreau to a six-year contract extension, the team announced Monday.
Gaudreau’s new deal is expected to have an average annual value of $6.75 million, $400,000 higher than teammate Sean Monahan.
In August, the team signed Sean Monahan to a seven-year contract extension worth a reported US$44.6 million, leaving Gaudreau as the last remaining domino to fall.
He had been a restricted free agent since his entry-level contract expired back on July 1.
“We knew going into the summer how important both of these players were for us,” Flames’ general manager, Brad Treliving said Monday.
He credited both Monahan and Gaudreau for their willingness to negotiate. “They’re both well compensated – they’ll be the first to tell you that. But in the marketplace these are very reasonable deals. They do that to make sure that we can continue to build our team, put people around them, help support them, and ultimately, win the year,” Treliving said.
“In a cap system you need to have a little bit there for everybody to eat in order to win.”
The 23-year-old New Jersey native played the last two full seasons with Calgary, finishing last year with a career high 78 points, which tied him for sixth in the NHL.
Gaudreau was a fourth-round pick of the Flames in 2011 NHL Draft and won the award as the NCAA top men’s hockey player in 2014.
He tweeted about the contract extension Monday:
“We know how important Johnny is and I know I will sleep a little better tonight.”
“To make a deal everybody’s got to give a little,” Treliving said. “At the end of the day, these all take different lengths of time to get done. The most important thing is that it did get done – and it got done before the end of the season.”
The Flames begin their regular season on the road against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.
With files from Paul Haysom