The Ducks have handed out the largest total-value contract in franchise history to pending RFA defenseman Jackson LaCombe , Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. It’s an eight-year deal worth $9MM per season for a sum of $72MM.

It’s an astronomical pay bump for the 24-year-old, who emerged as Anaheim’s No. 1 defenseman just last season. LaCombe, a 2019 second-round pick, signed a two-year deal as an RFA following his rookie season in 2023-24 that pays him $1.85MM in total – one-fifth of what he’ll be making per year on his new deal. He’s entering the final year of that deal, which costs $925K against the cap and would have left him arbitration-eligible next summer.

LaCombe’s emergence wasn’t entirely out of nowhere – he’d been viewed as a higher-end prospect for quite some time –

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