The Anaheim Ducks head into the 2024 offseason with seven RFAs in need of new contracts. Pat Verbeek has an interesting history with RFAs in his tenure as Ducks GM. How will Bo Groulx fare this summer?
The Anaheim Ducks head into the 2024 offseason with seven RFAs in need of new contracts. Pat Verbeek has an interesting history with RFAs in his tenure as Ducks GM. How will Bo Groulx fare this summer?
Bo Groulx (24) just wrapped his rookie season in the NHL. He was drafted by the Ducks with the 54th selection of the 2018 NHL Draft from the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL. Though he's produced moderately at the AHL level since the end of his junior career, he hasn't deciphered how to crack the Anaheim Ducks NHL lineup consistently.
Groulx's one-year contract carrying an AAV of $775k expired at the end of the 2023-24 regular season and he is now a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. If the Ducks intend to keep his rights, they must extend an $813,750 qualifying offer before July 1. If they elect not to, he will become an unrestricted free agent who can sign with any team that offers him a contract.
Heading into the summer of 2024, the Ducks have seven RFAs whose futures need to be decided upon before July 1.
The San Diego Gulls, the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate, have seen turnover every year since 2020-21 behind the bench. Lack of consistency can be seen as a contributing factor toward the less-than-optimal development of several players looking to earn their way onto the Ducks roster. Groulx may have been one of those players.
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Groulx had been one of the more consistent producers for the Gulls during his three years there despite inconsistency around him. The 6-foot-2, 201-pound center scored 39 goals and 90 points in 145 games at the AHL level.
Groulx made the Ducks' opening night roster in 2021-22, but only managed a goal and two assists in 18 NHL games. He was called up to the NHL at the end of the 2022-23 season for a pair of games but didn't manage to find the scoresheet in either.
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2023-24 was Groulx's rookie season. He made the Ducks' opening night roster out of training camp and his rookie number was upgraded from "50" to "24". He cracked the lineup 45 times but only managed two assists while averaging 12:11 TOI in a fourth-line role.
Groulx is a detail-oriented forward who battles and competes over the entire 200-foot ice surface. Defensively, he's rarely out of position and consistently below the puck. Offensively, he extends plays and gets to small areas of the ice. He's at his best on the cycle and in front of the net battling for position for tips and screens.
He may lack the elevated propensity to create dangerous looks for himself or teammates at the highest level of the sport, limiting his offensive ceiling.
Perhaps with more consistency within a role or with linemates, Groulx could yet prove to be a meaningful contributor to the bottom-six forward group of an NHL team.
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Groulx's qualifying offer is reasonably modest, but Ducks GM Pat Verbeek has stated he wants more production from his bottom-six. Verbeek hasn't been shy about letting RFAs reach free agency without a qualifying offer.
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Several players are vying for few roster spots available on the Ducks' opening night roster and Verbeek intends to add more in the offseason. It wouldn't be surprising if Groulx wasn't extended a qualifying offer before the July 1 deadline.
With whichever organization Groulx signs during this offseason and if he signs an NHL contract, he will need to pass through waivers if he is to play in the AHL.