The Ducks and goaltender Alex Stalock agreed to a one-year contract worth $800,000 for the upcoming season, the team announced Monday.
Stalock, 36, joins the Ducks after spending last year with another one of the NHL’s worst teams by record, the Chicago Blackhawks, and seeing action in 27 games. His .908 save percentage, which is also his career figure, was respectable behind an inexperienced and ineffective roster.
He made his top-level debut way back in 2010-11 as a San Jose Shark but set a career high for games played, 38, a decade later with the Minnesota Wild. Stalock also had a second stint in San Jose before heading to Chicago. He’s made five playoff starts, four with Minnesota in 2020’s bubble, as well as Game 6 against the Kings of 2014’s first round in which San Jose completed a collapse after leading the series 3-0. That 2014 campaign was also Stalock’s strongest statistically.
With a career record of 70-65-20 in 179 appearances, Stalock figures to continue to be a secondary option in goal for the rebuilding Ducks. Last season, their goalies faced barrages routinely as the Ducks allowed more than 39 shots per game, the highest total that the NHL has on record since 1960.
Starter John Gibson posted the weakest numbers of his career and also dealt with a lower-body injury. Olle Eriksson-Ek made one start with Anthony Stolarz and Lukas Dostal, who showed promise for stretches, splitting the balance of playing time. Gibson had reportedly demanded a trade ahead of the July 1 opening of the free-agency period, but he and his agent Kurt Overhardt vehemently refuted the rumor. Stolarz signed a one-year pact with the Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers. Dostal’s fresh two-year extension is a two-way deal for the upcoming season, affording the Ducks greater flexibility to continue developing him in the American Hockey League before it becomes a one-way arrangement for 2024-25.
Stalock offers not only depth in net but another veteran presence to compliment the Ducks’ budding core of players and prospects in their early 20s. Stalock joined winger Alex Killorn and defenseman Radko Gudas, both 33, among the Ducks’ additions in free agency this summer. Per CapFriendly, they still have the most available cap space of any NHL franchise as of Monday.