"The Ducks have signed goalie Jonas Hiller to a contract extension worth $18 million over four years, securing the Swiss native who has won the starting job and could have been an unrestricted free agent this summer.

It is a clear sign that the club is committing to Hiller, who'll be 28 on Feb. 12, as the No. 1 goalie for the present and the future. Hiller, who will be the starter for Switzerland at the Olympics next month, is 21-15-2 with a 2.75 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.

Ducks general manager Bob Murray said there was no way he wanted to let Hiller get away and estimated that he could have possibly gotten more if he hit the market as a UFA on July 1.

"It was huge in the fact that he was going to be unrestricted at the end of the year," Murray said. "And I didn't want him getting into the open market. You couldn't allow that to happen because then you could lose somebody for nothing. We'd already done that once with [Ilya] Bryzgalov and that was a huge mistake.

"Jonas' numbers speak for themselves. He's a No. 1 goaltender who quite truly is going to get getter. He's young, he works hard and he's a good athlete. He competes. So this was a big move for us. This is part of the building blocks of continuing on and trying to remain competitive."

Speaking in an interview from the team's downtown hotel, Hiller said he viewed the deal as faith that the Ducks now see him as their go-to guy in net."