Just a day after acquiring his negotiating rights in a trade with the Florida Panthers, the Ducks signed winger A.J. Greer to a four-year contract worth $17 million on Tuesday.
His $4.25 million cap hit means that General Manager Pat Verbeek still has more than $40 million in salary cap space to re-sign his top two scorers, Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson, as well as reconstruct a defense corps depleted by departures via free agency and trades.
One of those departures was that of Radko Gudas, whose own negotiating rights were swapped for Greer’s after two years as the Ducks captain.
Greer, 29, set career bests in every major offensive category last season. The Ducks hope he is a peripheral producer who can contribute in other areas, much like last year’s summer trade pickup Ryan Poehling. Poehling, 27, signed a four-year contract extension late last season that ultimately synchronized his timeline with Greer’s.
While Poehling kills penalties and creates tempo, Greer provides muscle and sandpaper. He has accumulated nearly 250 penalty minutes over the past two campaigns, each of which featured six regular-season fights for Greer. That would make him either a solid complement to or a suitable replacement for free-agent winger Jeffrey Viel, who remained unsigned on the eve of Wednesday’s free-agent bonanza.
Greer’s 6-foot-3, 225-pound frame means he can match up with heavyweights between the whistles and after them. He also brings a winning pedigree from the Panthers, with whom he won the Stanley Cup title in 2025, the year they repeated as champions.
Prior to his time in Sunrise, he plied his trade for Calgary, Boston, New Jersey and Colorado, which drafted him out of Boston University.
Greer returned to BU to complete his degree in 2024. Like former Kings forward Gabriel Vilardi, Greer has been an advocate for mental health, including through Bell Telecommunications’ “Let’s Talk” program in Canada.