The Utah Hockey Membership has signed ahead Dylan Guenther to an eight-year extension, in accordance with a staff announcement. The group doesn’t sometimes share monetary particulars, however Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports activities shares that it will likely be a $7.143M cap hit for Guenther making the full worth simply north of $57.14M.
It’s the richest deal the franchise has signed since being birthed from the ashes of the Arizona Coyotes. He’ll be the staff’s second-highest-paid ahead beginning subsequent season, trailing Clayton Keller’s $7.15M cap hit by a slim margin.
Guenther, 21, was projected as a future cornerstone piece for the Coyotes after they drafted him ninth general in 2021. That hasn’t modified for the reason that transfer to Utah this offseason, however it’s nonetheless a substantial chunk of change for a participant who’s but to stay on an NHL roster for a whole common season.
After spending his post-draft marketing campaign totally in juniors with the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings, Guenther cracked the Coyotes’ opening night time roster for 2022-23. He churned out stable numbers for a 19-year-old winger on a rebuilding staff, scoring six targets and including 9 assists for 15 factors in 33 video games.
However with Guenther averaging third-line minutes at finest, seeing 13:07 per sport, the Coyotes returned Guenther to juniors in February with the larger image in thoughts. That wasn’t shocking, however it was eyebrow-raising to see him left off the opening-night roster final season. The Edmonton native was assigned to the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners as a part of Arizona’s last cuts.
Shortly, the 6-foot-2 winger confirmed he’d outgrown the farm. He opened the marketing campaign with 28 factors in 29 video games for the Roadrunners earlier than being recalled in January.
Guenther spent the again half of 2023-24 within the NHL, the place he shortly proved he was able to shoulder top-six minutes. He scored 18 targets and 17 assists for 35 factors in 45 video games, posting above-average possession metrics whereas averaging 16:17 per sport. Had he spent all 82 video games within the majors, he would have scored 64 factors, inserting him second on the staff behind Keller’s 76.
There’s no query about Guenther’s standing within the Utah group coming into this season. He’ll be on the opening-night roster, probably slotting in behind Keller because the staff’s second-line proper wing. However a max-term dedication making him one of many staff’s highest-paid gamers is dangerous for somebody with lower than a full season’s value of expertise, excessive as his ceiling could also be.
It may actually find yourself being a discount deal for Utah if Guenther checks in as a perennial 70-point winger, particularly because the wage cap rises. Nevertheless, a looming extension locations quite a lot of rapid strain on Guenther to stay as much as that cap hit beginning this season.
An eight-year deal walks Guenther to unrestricted free company in the summertime of 2033, when he’ll be 30 years previous. If there’s any commerce safety coming as a part of the extension, it might probably’t go into impact till the 2030-31 season on the earliest, when he in any other case would have been eligible to first take a look at the UFA market.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the primary to report Utah and Guenther had been nearing an eight-year settlement with an AAV near $7M.
