Following the conclusion of the second day of the NHL Draft, Ducks General Manager Pat Verbeek discussed the trade earlier in the day in which Anaheim acquired goaltender Petr Mrazek, a 2027 second round and 2026 fourth round selection from the Detroit Red Wings for goaltender John Gibson.
On the Gibson trade
Well, I think just trying to make sure that we got fair value for John Gibson. He's a really good goalie and 1A, 1B, whatever you want to talk about. I think the circumstance of John and [agent] Kurt Overhardt and myself working together to give John a fresh start and a new place was something that we worked for. It was much like Cam Fowler looking for a fresh start. And so we were able to kind of provide John with a fresh start.
On the role Petr Mrazek will play
Well, I mean we're certainly going to be counting on him for at least 30 starts. And so I think the cool thing is Lukas [Dostal] and Petr [Mrazek], they were teammates at the World Championships. They're very familiar with one another. They're good friends and I think Petr's very competitive, and so having that relationship, I feel that they're going to push each other real hard to be the best and I think it'll be a good tandem.
On how the trade came about
Well, it was discussions over the last couple of years. I think the relationship with myself, John, and the agent, I think it was such where if there was an opportunity to move he would welcome it, but there was always a caveat that it had to make sense for the Ducks as well. And so they both understood that and we worked on that premise, and so today it just happened to get to the finish line. So I think it's a good thing for John and for the team.
On the trade making sense at this time
The way the contract set up, John had two years left, I think that made sense for both Detroit and for us to kind of move forward from that perspective. Detroit obviously gets two years of a number one goaltender, and for us we're able to give ourselves a little more flexibility with Mrazek coming back on a one-year contract. And then the future picks were something that we were able to acquire, which makes sense. So at some point hopefully we'll be able to use those assets for other things to improve our team in other areas that we feel that we need to shore up.
On the rise of Lukas Dostal making the trade easier to make
I think seeing Lukas play 54 games probably helped last year. I'm not sure I want him to play that many. It's a lot of games and so bringing in Mrazek, he's carried the load for different teams at different times, so that experience that he has in that area made it more comfortable to be able to do that. We had a really good tandem last year, and I wasn't really crazy about breaking up the tandem, but I think with getting a goaltender that I felt comfortable with coming back that could support Lukas made the difference.
On the obstacles of the trade
Yeah, certainly with [Gibson’s] no trade list, I mean you guys can look around the league, you can look around who's got number one goaltenders. So you have to overcome that obstacle. And then there's another obstacle with the no trade list. So certainly at some point Gibby opened up his list for other opportunities after they’d arisen. So it allowed us to kind of expand the discussions with other teams, which ultimately Detroit ended up stepping up in the last couple of days to push through to get a deal done
On Anaheim’s goaltender pipeline
I think the pipelines is in good shape. It's a matter now of finding a good third goaltender for us. And ultimately if we're able to do that, sign that now that it will allow, if we have any injuries up top, it allows us to be able to call that third goaltender up to support either goalie. It also allows us in San Diego to have a good goaltender to carry a lot of the load and allow our younger guys to keep maturing. They just take longer. It's a difficult position to play, and they just need more time. And so I feel comfortable with how things are kind of set up at this point to allow our younger guys to keep competing, keep developing for that next spot in San Diego.
On how the trade affects contract negotiations with Dostal
I don't think it’s going to affect it at all. Lukas is a good goalie, and we'll go about going through the process that we normally do when we negotiate contracts.
