Where will John Gibson tend goal in 2022-23?

Will John Gibson stop pucks for the Anaheim Ducks next season? He’s under contract for five more years at a $6.4-million cap hit, but reports recently surfaced that he wants a change of scenery. Days later, he publicly refuted those rumors. Bottom line: whether Gibson has requested a trade or not, Ducks GM Pat Verbeek will decide what happens. Gibson has a 10-team no-trade list but the rest of his fate is out of his hands.

This week’s question for the Roundtable: whose jersey will Gibson wear the next time he tends goal in an NHL game?

MATT LARKIN: I’ll say the Edmonton Oilers, assuming the allure of Connor McDavid keeps them off Gibson’s no-trade list. Ken Holland overpaid for Duncan Keith and signed Evander Kane in the middle of a season, so Holland has established that he’s clearly not afraid of taking risks. They say term is the killer when it comes to valuing contracts in trades –  but not to Holland. Have you seen the deals he handed out in his latter days with Detroit and early days as Edmonton GM? His strategy is to get his guy and worry about the term later. So I could see the Oilers taking on Gibson’s five remaining seasons, albeit the Ducks would have to absorb some salary. The Oilers saw how far McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s brilliance could take them this postseason. Now they need a reliable goaltender to anchor them for years to come. Is that goaltender Gibson? Maybe, maybe not, but Holland isn’t known for betting on sure things. Not by a longshot.

MIKE MCKENNA: I don’t know where Gibson is going to end up, but if I’m Pat Verbeek, I’m moving him. Gibson has been a below-average goaltender in the NHL for several years and I haven’t seen any updates to his game from a technical standpoint. His contract is huge in both dollars and term. But Gibson has a reputation of being one of the top goaltenders in the NHL. GM’s still seem to love the guy and I’m sure Gibson would command a nice return on the trade market. The gripe has always been the team around him in Anaheim. But I challenge that. Gibson has very real shortcomings to his game. He plays too far from the net for my tastes and ends up chasing the game. He reaches for pucks rather than pushing. And he ends up on his backside way too often. Gibson is such a naturally gifted goaltender. But whatever team ends up with him better have supreme confidence in their goalie coach. Because in Anaheim, Gibson has either been unwilling to change, or unable to change. Now, all that said, Gibson could still backstop an NHL team to the playoffs. He’s that good of a pure puckstopper. But I don’t think his game has enough precision, and it’s hard to be consistent without a detailed approach. Buyer beware.

CHRIS GEAR: My guess is that John Gibson starts the 2022-23 season as a member of…the Anaheim Ducks. For one thing, I don’t know how many teams are lining up to take on five years, a $6.4-million cap hit and more than $31 million in actual cash dollars to acquire the services of a goaltender who appears to be in decline. It’s true that he has played in front of a weak team and he might have a rebound year in a new uniform, but I’m going to trust goalie guru Mike McKenna when he says Gibson is on the other side of his best years. Even if the Ducks agree to retain some salary, which they might not be willing to do given the length of the term, they would need to find a team who is committed to making Gibson their starter for the foreseeable future. I’m not sure that team is out there. The second reason I think he stays in Anaheim is that the Ducks still need some bona fide NHL players as well as some leadership and continuity in their dressing room. After trading away Hampus Lindholm, Rickard Rakell and Josh Manson at the trade deadline, the Ducks are young and thin. They are already going to be hard-pressed to compete in games next season. Trading their No. 1 goalie could make them even less competitive, and getting shelled every night won’t do much for the culture of the dressing room or the confidence and happiness of young stars such as Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry. There’s a delicate balance between losing enough games to be in the Connor Bedard sweepstakes and losing so many games by big margins that losing becomes the culture and expectation. I think Gibson can at least be counted on to set a tone, hold his young teammates accountable and keep them in games while the organization is rebuilt.

SCOTT BURNSIDE: This is a tough one. First, if you’re Pat Verbeek and you don’t believe that John Gibson is part of the rebuild plans in Anaheim even though he’s under contract through 2026-27, then you’ve got to move on. And Verbeek has already shown he’s not afraid to make the hard call, moving core pieces Josh Manson, Rickard Rakell and Hampus Lindholm. But Gibson is a different kind of asset with his $6.4 million annual cap hit, which matches the real dollars that go out with the contract. So is there a market for a goalie who has played in a total of 26 post-season games in his career at this price point and with this term? Lots of teams are looking for goaltending help, including Toronto, Edmonton, Buffalo, maybe Montreal, Ottawa, Chicago and San Jose. And help for many teams will include a certain level of certainty moving forward which makes Gibson’s term attractive. But he possesses a partial no-trade (10 team no-trade list) so that complicates matters. And there’s the hard question about whether he’s the kind of goalie that has the tools to take a team another step or two along the evolutionary curve. Is Gibson at his price point and term a better option for Toronto than Jack Campbell at a similar price point and term? Discuss amongst yourselves but I don’t think the answer is clear cut. So, Gibson represents a big gamble for an acquiring team. And that’s to say nothing of what would be required in assets coming back to the Ducks. Would Anaheim make a deal to move the 28-year-old Gibson if it meant eating some salary? Or taking on a bad contract? Does that help the Ducks get where they need to go? Too many moving parts in my mind to see this happening. So I’ll go with Chris and believe that Gibson remains a Duck at least into next season.