Insider confirms Ducks could retain salary to increase Gibson's trade value; it may interest the Leafs

The latest rumour comes from trusted insider Frank Seravalli, who stated on Wednesday that the Ducks are indeed open to trading Gibson, but the icing on the cake here is that Seravalli also stated that the Ducks could agree to eat some salary in the right deal.

Gibson has 5 seasons remaining on his current deal and carries a $6.4M cap hit. Seravalli did not specify just how much salary that the Ducks might be willing to retain, but given the term remaining on Gibson's deal, I cannot imagine that if would be anywhere close to 50%.

The Ducks really have nothing to lose here. They're already rebuilding and trading an asset like John Gibson, who does not fit into their eventual contention window, could bring in some very useful and valuable assets. If the Ducks are willing to eat, say, $1.4M of Gibson's deal to bring his cap hit down to a nice round $5M per season, I would imagine that saving the receiving team $7M over the course of the deal would be worth a premium asset.

In terms of how this might impact the Leafs, who have had previous interest in Gibson, if the Ducks would be willing to shave his cap hit down to whatever the Leafs would have been willing to pay Jack Campbell, I can imagine that might renew their interest. The question is; how much would the Ducks have to retain on Gibson to peak the interest of Kyle Dubas - and, more importantly, would Dubas be willing to pay the price?