ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) Forward Rickard Rakell agreed to a six-year, $22.8 million deal Friday to stay with the Anaheim Ducks.
Rakell has 29 goals and 49 assists in 165 games for the Ducks, who drafted the Swede in the first round in 2011. He scored 20 goals for Anaheim last season while ranking fourth on the team with 43 points, emerging as one of the Ducks’ top young offensive threats.
The restricted free agent didn’t participate in training camp while technically holding out for a new deal, although he would have been unable to play anyway after surgery last month related to his appendectomy last spring.
The surgery kept Rakell out of the World Cup of Hockey, but the 23-year-old is working out again in Sweden, with hopes of returning to hockey before the end of October. He is expected to play on one of the Ducks’ top two lines.
Rakell’s contract, which runs through the 2021-22 season, absorbs two potential seasons of unrestricted free agency.
The Ducks still haven’t signed defenseman Hampus Lindholm, Rakell’s fellow restricted free agent. Lindholm is still at home in Sweden, depriving the Ducks of an elite young defenseman as they begin their first season under returning coach Randy Carlyle.
The Ducks lost their season opener at Dallas on Thursday night. They play at Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Anaheim also assigned forward Joseph Cramarossa to its AHL affiliate in San Diego on Friday, a day after the Ducks claimed veteran forward Emerson Etem on waivers from Vancouver.
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