The Anaheim Ducks‘ search for right-side defense help keeps leading back to Calgary. A source tells The Win Column that Zach Whitecloud “continues to be a player the Anaheim Ducks call on,” and The Hockey News’ Ryan O’Hara reported Saturday that Anaheim remains among the teams showing significant interest — all while the front office is trying to move veteran salary with a 2027 second-round pick attached to fund Cutter Gauthier‘s next contract.
The fit is obvious on paper. Whitecloud, 29, is a right-shot defenseman who handles top-four minutes, plays a physical game and carries a $2.75 million cap hit through 2027-28, plus a Stanley Cup ring from Vegas’ 2023 run. Anaheim’s right side lost John Carlson, Jacob Trouba and Radko Gudas this offseason, leaving Jackson LaCombe and Pavel Mintyukov without an established partner. A cost-controlled veteran at $2.75 million is one of the few additions that works inside Anaheim’s cap math: the Ducks are down to roughly $9 million in space after matching Leo Carlsson‘s offer sheet, with Gauthier still unsigned.
The problem is the seller’s position. The Calgary Flames have been taking calls on Whitecloud and Morgan Frost for weeks, and O’Hara’s reporting frames Calgary as fully in control: the Flames hold about 30 draft picks over the coming years, including two first-rounders in each of the next three drafts, and face no pressure to shed the contract. Craig Conroy can hold his asking price all summer. For a Ducks team already offering sweeteners just to clear the Alex Killorn, Chris Kreider and Frank Vatrano deals, paying a premium in young assets for a defenseman is a hard sequence to pull off before the Gauthier contract is resolved.
The likely order of operations hasn’t changed: Anaheim moves a veteran forward first, signs Gauthier, then addresses the blue line with whatever room remains. But the persistence matters — this is now a weeks-long pursuit of the same player, not a name on a list, and Whitecloud’s price only rises as the free-agent market thins out.
For fantasy purposes, Whitecloud’s value lives in hits and blocks, not points, and that wouldn’t change in Anaheim — he’d step into steady top-four and penalty-kill minutes with little power-play time, since LaCombe and Mintyukov own those jobs. He’s a category-league depth piece and roughly neutral in dynasty formats wherever he lands.
