The wait is over for the Ducks and center Mason McTavish, who agreed to a six-year contract extension worth $42 million Saturday.
That signing comes more than a week after training camp opened, at which point McTavish, last season’s leading goal scorer (22) and power-play goal scorer (6), was back home in Ottawa training on his own. He and New Jersey Devils defenseman Luke Hughes had been the final A-list restricted free agents to remain unsigned.
McTavish, 22, was drafted third overall in 2021 and won gold at the U18 and U20 levels with Canada. As a Duck, his best play came last season as the Ducks grasped strings at the fringe of a playoff race. They’ve missed the playoffs in seven straight campaigns, the longest drought in the Western Conference.
They are banking on emergent talents like McTavish, Leo Carlsson, Jackson LaCombe and Lukáš Dostàl to right their ship. Last season, they flirted with a .500 record under Greg Cronin, who was replaced by four-time Stanley Cup champion Joel Qunneville over the summer.
The novelty of a big-name head coach was soon offset by the familiar feeling of a protracted contract dispute with a restricted free agent.
Two other top-10 selections for the Ducks, Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale, held out into camp two seasons ago. It set in motion a sequence that saw both players traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in separate deals made 18 months apart.
Now, with McTavish in the fold, fans can see what the Ducks will look like in the early part of the campaign. Despite still having considerable cap space, general manager Pat Verbeek said he was actively looking to add when camp began.