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Ducks’ Biggest Question: Is their window already starting to close?

Ryan Kesler

Ryan Kesler

AP

In a young man’s league, is the Anaheim Ducks’ window to win the Stanley Cup already closing on them?

The Ducks have a dynamic one-two punch in Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf while the presence of Ryan Kesler gives them a great anchor for their second line. But Getzlaf and Perry are 30 years old now while Kesler will be celebrating his 31st birthday on Aug. 31. To be clear, they’re still very much in their prime, but their long-term deals mean that the Ducks will be paying top dollar for them well into their 30s.

Starting with the 2016-17 campaign, Getzlaf, Perry, and Kesler will be consuming approximately $23.8 million in combined cap space and that will persist through 2020-21. In other words, about a third of their cap by the standard of the 2015-16 ceiling will be consumed by just three players and while that’s not inherently a problem, it does mean that those three need to continue to be the team’s stars as the Ducks will have a hard time compensating with their remaining cap space if the trio starts to decline.

Of course, they might prove to be players that can excel into their late 30s, making the length of those contracts a non-issue, but we can’t know that will happen and with every passing year, the risk of diminished returns increases. So while Anaheim might end up being very competitive for the next five or even 10 years, they shouldn’t count on that being the case.

That means that there should be a sense of urgency for the Ducks going into the 2015-16 campaign even if their defense and Frederik Andersen remain relatively young. If they can win the Stanley Cup in the next couple of seasons, then paying for the potential long-term ramifications of Getzlaf, Perry, and Kesler’s contracts will seem like a fair tradeoff given what the trio accomplished together. Otherwise, this era of the Ducks might be remember as one where they came close, but could never seal the deal.

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