Tristan Luneau is $43.2 million dollars richer.
The Ducks defenseman scored a historic six-year NHL deal on Thursday, worth an average of $7.2 million per year.
Luneau’s contract is the largest-ever handled out to a player with just 14 games of NHL experience on their résumé.
“Signing Tristan to a long-term contract was a priority as we see him as a top-four defenseman for years to come,” GM Pat Verbeek said in a statement. “Getting the deal done before the season started was a key part of our planning for now and the future.”
It’s a big bet on the 22-year-old, a 2022 second-round pick in the final season of a three-year, $2.85 million entry-level deal, who has posted a pair of goals and four points in his three-year pro career.
Over 135 games with AHL San Diego, Luneau has post 19 goals and 95 points while dealing with injuries. He’s set to start the season on the Ducks’ top pairing with Jackson LaCombe.
Anaheim, which snapped a seven-year playoff drought last season, is no stranger to handing out massive contracts to what it believes is young, rising talent.
Lacombe, for instance, received an eight-year $72 million extension that kicked in this season, which was the largest deal ever handed out by the franchise at the time.
It was later eclipsed this past offseason by an offer sheet-induced five-year, $90 million deal for 21-year-old Leo Carlsson that, at an $18 million AAV, that will be the largest in the league — only to be outdone at the start of next season when Cale Makar’s eight-year, $163.2 million deal and Macklin Celebrini’s five-year, $94 million extension kick in.
Winger Cutter Gauthier is set to enter the first season of a six-year, $81 million deal when Anaheim kicks off its season on Friday in Vegas.
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