The Ducks on Thursday morning signed Hampus Lindholm to a six-year contract worth $31.5 million, ending the talented defenseman's lengthy holdout.
TSN hockey reporter Bob McKenzie first reported the signing of the restricted free agent and the Ducks later confirmed it. Lindholm's new deal does not contain a no-movement or no-trade clause.
"I'm really happy to be back in Anaheim," Lindholm said. "There's where I've been all my career so I'm really happy to be back with the team and everyone. Excited about that."
Seen as the potential leader of the Ducks' blue line, Lindholm, 22, led the defense corps with 10 goals and 115 blocked shots last season. Lindholm had 28 points in 2015-16 and his plus-6 rating led the Ducks in their playoff series against Nashville.
Lindholm's average annual salary is $5.25 million, around the amount the Ducks were willing to do on a long-term deal. He will make $3 million this season, $6 million in 2017-18, $6.75 million in 2018-19, $5.25 million in 2019-20, $3.75 million in 2020-21 and $6.75 million in 2021-22.
Lindholm has remained in Sweden, missing all of training camp and the first eight games of the season as Ducks general manager Bob Murray and Lindholm's agent, Claude Lemieux, continually worked to close what had been a wide gap in negotiations.
Using other young defensemen such as Toronto's Morgan Rielly, Columbus's Seth Jones and Buffalo's Rasmus Ristolainen as comparables, Murray ultimately held firm on not going to the $5.4 million annual range that Jones and Ristolainen are making.
"It's a business and Claude Lemieux, he had a job to do and we had a job to do," Murray said. "We wanted to get it at a fair number for the organization so we can try to move forward with this group as best we can because, as I said before, I wanted to give this group another shot.
"I'm going to do everything in my power to keep it that way."
Withholding his services was the only leverage Lindholm could use as the defender was not eligible for salary arbitration. Both sides were focused solely on going long term, with the Ducks being able to buy up one year of unrestricted free agency.
"I was hoping to get this done in the summer of course," Lindholm said. "That's just how it is. Can't do too much about that. You just have to try to get to the point where you agree and we were happy. And I think I'm really happy."
Pressed up against the salary cap ceiling, the Ducks created space by putting defenseman Simon Despres and center Nate Thompson on long-term injured reserve. Thompson was moved there Wednesday, while Despres was put there Sunday.
More moves ultimately will be needed to stay cap compliant. Eventually, the Ducks will have to clear more space as the cap hits of Despres ($3.7 million) and Thompson ($1.6 million) must be added back when they are able to return.
But a growing possibility exists that Despres could be sidelined for much of the season because of a suspected recurrence of concussion issues. And with Thompson not back until March because of a torn Achilles' tendon, the Ducks were able to make those moves and not have to make an immediate trade.
Cam Fowler has long been seen as a potential cap casualty once Lindholm signed, but the Ducks do not want to trade him, given Fowler's ability and meaning to the team. Fowler, who's off to a hot start with three goals and four assists in eight games, has two years left on his deal at $4 million per season.
In his conference call, Lindholm stressed that he hoped to get a contract done that would not force the Ducks to make that type of move for cap reasons.
"It was good this way because now I could play and they didn't have to move anyone, so we still have the same team," Lindholm said. "Which is really good because I think we got a real strong back end and we have the guys back from last year, a core group. So it's going to be an exciting year."
Lindholm will miss more games as he'll need a work visa before coming to Southern California, similar to what teammate Rickard Rakell had to secure. Rakell, who signed a six-year, $22.8 million contract on Oct. 14, practiced with the Ducks for the first time Wednesday.
But with Lindholm back in the fold, the Ducks are glad to put contract discussions behind them.
"He's a good player," Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said. "Anytime you can add somebody like that, it's going to help. I'm just glad they got it worked out sooner than later."
On the Despres situation, Murray voiced concerned over the defenseman's welfare. The Ducks signed him to a five-year contract extension before last season. Despres has been seeing specialists and Murray called it "a very sensitive issue."
"And it's one that my whole goal is to hopefully make it so that Simon in the end of all this lives a happy, healthy normal life and it's going to take some time before we get to that point," Murray added.
