Anaheim Ducks sign C Ryan Strome to five year, $25 million contract

Anaheim Ducks GM Pat Verbeek struck again in free agency on Wednesday evening, signing C Ryan Strome to a five year, $25 million contract ($5 million AAV). The 29-year-old center joins his Rangers teammate from last season, LW Frank Vatrano, on a journey from the often frigid and unforgiving tri-state NY area to the sunnier and warmer environment of Orange County.

As alluded to above, Strome played for the Rangers for the past three seasons, amassing 71 goals and 124 assists over 263 games during that span. His 2021-2022 tracking data (shown below and provided by Corey Sznajder as part of the All Three Zones Project) indicates that Strome, like Vatrano, is skilled at defensive zone puck retrievals. He also excelled last season at high danger assists, indicating his penchant for playmaking in the offensive zone.

Strome’s three year RAPM charts from 2019-2022 (shown below courtesy of Evolving Hockey) further show off his playmaking potential. He excelled at generating chances both at even-strength and on the power play. This is an enticing player profile to pair with the plethora of talented young forwards on the Ducks roster already (e.g., Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry) and in their prospect pool (e.g., Jacob Perrault and Mason McTavish).

Evolving-Hockey projected Ryan Strome’s most likely contract outcome at seven years and $7.1 million AAV based on historical comparables, making this a good value for the type of production he brings to the table.

The duo of Strome and Vatrano will add a valuable veteran presence to the Ducks roster for years to come without sacrificing substantial cap flexibility. A key point to note is that the contracts of Ducks veteran forwards Adam Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg ($5.825M AAV and $5.25M AAV, respectively) will expire by the start of the third year of the Strome and Vatrano deals. Verbeek undoubtedly knew this and realized that consequently, the pacing of the cap hits of the Strome and Vatrano contracts would not be damaging to the team long-term given these other similar veteran contracts expiring along the way.