The Ducks have signed Nikita Nesterenko and Jackson LaCombe to new contracts.

On Monday, the Ducks locked down their two remaining restricted free agents (RFAs). They signed defenseman Jackson LaCombe to a two-year, $1.85 million deal while winger Nikita Nesterenko accepted his qualifying offer.

Monday was the last day that Nesterenko could do so before the qualifying offer expired or the Ducks would have to have extended the offer time in writing.

LaCombe is coming off his first full season in the NHL. He appeared in two games at the end of the 2022-23 season after signing his entry-level contract (ELC) following the end of his collegiate hockey career at Minnesota.

This past season, he played primarily alongside veteran defensemen Cam Fowler and Radko Gudas. LaCombe began the season as Gudas’ partner, but an early-season injury for Jamie Drysdale pushed the left-handed LaCombe up the lineup to play on his off-side with Fowler on the top pairing.

Thrust into a much bigger role than anticipated early on, the Fowler-LaCombe pairing began to struggle as they accumulated more minutes. Fowler was not equipped to be playing so many minutes per game at this point in his career and LaCombe was having issues handling the puck on his off-side against NHL forechecking.

LaCombe and Fowler swapped sides in early January, which helped relieve some pressure off the latter. Olen Zellweger being promoted from the AHL gave the Ducks a couple of options and saw LaCombe reunite with Gudas as head coach Greg Cronin opted to play Zellweger alongside Fowler.

Zellweger was reassigned to San Diego after the All-Star Break and Cronin decided to play Urho Vaakanainen with Fowler instead of break up the LaCombe-Gudas pairing again. Vaakanainen had spent most of the season to this point playing alongside Gudas and the duo had become the Ducks’ shutdown pairing.

When Zellweger was recalled for good after the trade deadline, he resumed his top pair spot with Fowler, keeping the LaCombe-Gudas pairing intact and relegating Vaakanainen to the third pair.

This upcoming season will be a big one for LaCombe with a logjam of left-handed defenseman on the NHL roster. There’s the aforementioned Fowler, Vaakanainen and Zellweger along with Pavel Mintyukov, who impressed straight out of training camp last season.

There’s also Brian Dumoulin, who was acquired earlier this month from the Seattle Kraken. The two-time Stanley Cup champion has one year remaining on his contract.

With at least five left-handed defensemen competing for a job, at least two of them would have to play their off-sides if all five of them were in the lineup at once. LaCombe and Zellweger both did so at points during their rookie seasons. Fowler will likely be the top choice to do so and Dumoulin could be a candidate to do so as well.

Nesterenko spent a majority of the season in the AHL, playing in just three NHL games. He did score in one of those games, popping in his rebound off a deflection from a point shot.

The 22-year-old had 37 points in 70 games on a Gulls team that didn’t have a lot go right for them this past season. He was in a top-6 role for most of the season and the expectation is that his role would remain the same if he isn’t able to crack the Ducks’ roster out of training camp this upcoming season.

The bottom of the Ducks’ lineup will have a couple of spots ripe for the taking after Max Jones, Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Ben Meyers were let go. Trade acquisition Robby Fabbri could fill one of those bottom-6 spots along with free agent signing Jansen Harkins.

“When (Nesterenko) left training camp, he a major identity crisis,” Cronin said. “He was trying to toe drag people, beat people 1-on-1. He turned pucks over. (Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane) and his staff have done an unbelievable job getting him to play to an identity, which is put pucks deep (and) finish his check.”