Johnny Gaudreau's next contract rumoured to be INSANE

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Ryan
April 20, 2022 (5:12 PM)

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Back in the 2018-19 season, Johnny Gaudreau set a career high when he hit 99 points in 82 games, which at the time was his career high. The year before when Jaromir Jagr had a short stint with the Flames, Jagr said that Gaudreau had the skill to win a scoring race.

Jagr on Gaudreau: «I talked to him many times. I told him he's got such a great talent, but it's up to him how he's going to take it. With his talent he can win the scoring (race) every year. It's just up to him. It's tough to shut him down one-on-one."� Aaron Vickers (@AAVickers) November 10, 2017

So after his 99 point season, everyone thought we were about to see the Gaudreau that Jagr was talking about. Unfortunately the next 2 seasons Gaudreau only put up 58 and 49 points. There was even quite a few discussions in the offseason about trading Gaudreau and starting a rebuild with the Flames roster.

Well, thank goodness that didn't happen as Gaudreau has exploded this season and currently has 108 points in 77 games, only 3 points behind Jonathan Huberdeau for the league lead.

This being a contract year for Gaudreau, who is in the final year of a contract that pays him $6,750,000, this is amazing news for him, horrible news for the Flames.

Here is what GM Brad Treliving recently said about resigning Gaudreau:

"We want him back here. We're going to move heaven and earth to do everything we possibly can to get Johnny back here." -Brad Treliving on After Hours on Johnny Gaudreau, pending UFA. #Flames� Ryan Pike (@RyanNPike) April 17, 2022

According to HockeyFeed his next contract could be $10 million or above. They may be able to get him down to $9 million on an 8 year deal, but with Gaudreau being in the running for the Art Ross this season, I doubt he is signing for anything less than Mitch Marner money at $10,903,000.

This is going to be tough for the Flames as they also have RFA's Matthew Tkachuk, Andrew Mangiapane and Oliver Kylington and not to mention a few UFA's needing new deals this offseason as well.