ANAHEIM, Calif. – The future in net for the Anaheim Ducks was secured on Thursday.

The Ducks locked up restricted free agent goaltender Lukáš Dostál to a five-year, $32.5 million contract, which will keep the 25-year-old Czech as Anaheim’s No. 1 goaltender through 2030.

Dostál’s contract comes in with a cap hit of $6.5 million per season, and heading into his unrestricted free agency seasons, he earns a 10-team no-trade clause in the final three years of the deal.

“Lukáš has proven he is a No. 1 goaltender and we are so pleased to get this deal done,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said. “He is just entering the prime of his career with his best hockey ahead of him.”

Dostál filed for arbitration rights at the end of June, with the league’s arbitration hearings scheduled to begin on Sunday, July 20, and run through Aug. 4. Dostál said that “every player doesn’t want to go to arbitration” and that he let his agent fully handle the process, which the netminder went smooth and professional and left both sides happy.

Instead of an acrimonious arbitration process, the Ducks and their starting goaltender will be happy partners for years to come.

“It’s a big honor (being a No. 1 goaltender),” Dostál said on a media call. “I always look at myself in the mirror and I always see myself being a kid from the village that has 300 people in it. It’s always a good reminder that  if you have a dream and you want to chase it, like there’s always the possibility to reach it. Obviously for me, it’s a big milestone, and all the work that has happened, this is kind of the reward.”

Dostál said the contract got finalized near midnight in Czechia, and he wanted to get to sleep and not hurt himself before a double-workout day for him. However, when the deal was signed, his first call at midnight to announce the news was to his father.

“I called my dad, ‘hey, it’s done like, these are the numbers and, you know, we can chat more next day,’ and my dad didn’t want to hang up on the phone.” Dostál said, “and he just wanted to talk to me and he was very speechless. So, obviously, it’s a big moment for my family, and I’m super, super excited and I’m still trying to soak it in because it basically just happened. So, I think I’m going to really realize it like a week after what happened.”

The five-year term is a solid commitment from both the Ducks and Dostál. The 25-year-old Czech said he wanted to make the commitment because he sees the vision of the future in Anaheim.

“We are the raising team. I truly believe that,” Dostál said. “I really trust the young core that we have here. I really believe it’s going to be a very exciting time to be a Ducks fan in the future… It’s always about trusting the process, and I really trust the process that’s going on in Anaheim right now.”

Part of that future for the Ducks will be securing the rest of their restricted free agents.

Drew Helleson also filed for his arbitration rights, and at this point, the 24-year-old right-handed defenseman will likely work a contract out through that process. 

Mason McTavish, Sam Colangelo and Tim Washe remain Anaheim’s last unsigned restricted free agents after San Diego Gulls goaltender Calle Clang and center Jan Mysak signed one-year two-way contracts on Tuesday.

Speculative rumors about McTavish’s future in Anaheim have peppered social media every few days of this offseason, and that chatter will only grow louder as the summer progresses without movement. However, Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek has remained confident Anaheim will lock up its No. 2 center soon enough.

Verbeek has put together a track record of being a hard negotiator with restricted free agents, including finalizing a deal with Troy Terry minutes before their scheduled arbitration hearing and taking discussions with then-Ducks now-Flyers Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale into training camp.

Dostál takes over as the clear-cut No. 1 goaltender in Anaheim after he posted a career-highs last season and the Ducks shipped out longtime netminder John Gibson to Detroit last month.

“Once I got the notice, my first reaction was right away reaching Gibby because, me and Gibby, I believe we had a good professional relationship and learned so much from him,” Dostál said. “Always sad to see your friend go somewhere else. But I wish him all the best.”

Dostál, a third-round pick in 2018 by Anaheim, played in a career high in games played (54), games started (49) and wins (23) with career-bests in goals against average (3.10) and save percentage (.903). The 25-year-old also earned one shutout in the season opener at San Jose, also matching a career high.

The Czechia native was also analytically strong in net sitting in the upper quartile of NHL goaltenders for goals saved above expected (14.3 total and 0.281 per 60 minutes) while facing the eighth-most shots against in the league.

Last summer, Dostál also backed his home country to IIHF World Championship gold on home ice in Prague, icing two shutouts and a 1.98 goals against average in eight games. With ongoing negotiations, Dostál did not play for Czechia this summer, but he was named to the nation’s preliminary Olympic roster for the return of NHL players to the Winter Games in Milan this February.

“It’s a massive honor,” Dostál said. “Obviously, the NHL players are coming back, and it’s nice that I can actually be part of that wave now that it’s been approved again. At that time I’m going to be 25 and representing the Czech Republic at the Olympics while being 25, I think it’s really cool.”

Anaheim’s goal crease will be all-Czech this upcoming season, with Petr Mrázek coming over from the Red Wings in the Gibson trade to back up Dostál. Czech prospect Tomas Suchanek will also be in the goaltending mix in AHL San Diego this season after rupturing his ACL last September.