With the clock ticking onto the inevitable Friday deadline, the Anaheim Ducks decided to finally get ahead of business and matched the Philadelphia Flyers' offer sheet for Leo Carlsson, the team announced on Thursday afternoon. Worth a whooping 90 million dollars and carrying an AAV of 18 million per season, Carlsson will be the highest paid player in the NHL, for now at least. In this flashpoint moment for the Ducks franchise though, lessons should be learned, as the team still has work to do before the season resumes in the fall.
The only logical decision
As we outlined when the Flyers' offer sheet was originally tendered, the Ducks could not let their number one center, Carlsson, walk away from the team. While four first round picks as compensation sound great on the surface, there was no way for the Ducks to recoup the kind of talent that Carlsson currently possesses and projects to eventually become. If the Flyers were to maintain or even elevate their current level of play, those first round picks would be middling at best. The Ducks would not find a talent equal to Carlsson's, that deep into subsequent drafts.
After finally exiting their rebuild phase and even making some noise in the 2026 playoffs, the Ducks would be underwhelming at the center position without Carlsson. As good as the veteran Mikael Granlund was for the Ducks, he is not a number one. Nor is Ryan Poehling or Tim Washe. While Roger McQueen may be that someday, the Ducks could not bank on hope or projections anymore, and did what had to be done.
Enough with the tough negotiator act
Ducks GM Pat Verbeek finally got his comeuppance, and his shtick almost cost the Ducks another franchise player. Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale were ostracized in their contract negotiations and were traded to the Flyers. Mason McTavish had his worst season last year as a Duck, after prolonged contract negotiations bled into the preseason and he was eventually traded to the St. Louis Blues. The Ducks almost had to deal with another rumored offer sheet, before Pavel Mintyukov signed his extension.
"“Matching the offer sheet was an easy decision, as Pat has intelligently left enough cap space to give us the ability to retain Leo,”"Henry and Susan Samueli, per the Ducks
The owners of the Ducks, Henry and Susan Samueli, rarely make comments publicly on player contracts. But after the Carlsson news broke, they issued a statement, via the team's website. "Intelligently" is an odd word, as "ignorantly" would have been a more applicable choice, as the Samuelis cannot be thrilled about having to shell out huge sums of the Carlsson contract in signing bonuses every calendar year. The bumbling from Verbeek almost cost the Ducks their franchise center and definitely cost the Samuelis more than they expected.
Lessons learned?
Cutter Gauthier, the Ducks' best sniper, is still without an extension, but as an RFA without arbitration rights or being offer sheet eligible, Gauthier is stuck in a similar situation as McTavish or Zegras before him. With nearly 9 million in cap space though, Verbeek would have to move out a contract or two, to make an honest offer for Gauthier. While Verbeek technically does not have to do anything about the Gauthier contract until the resumption of the upcoming season, the Carlsson offer sheet should serve as a warning. Beckett Sennecke is the next core piece in the line for an extension, after Gauthier, and Verbeek cannot afford to be a miser in every negotiation and hope to keep the Ducks competitive.
Final thoughts
Ducks fans should breathe a little easier now, as the doomsday clock stopped just short of midnight, with Verbeek finally deciding to do the right thing. The Carlsson contract fiasco should have never reached this apex though and was entirely avoidable. Hopefully, history does not repeat itself and Verbeek gets ahead of offseason business. But until the "Little Ball of Hate" can prove that he can change his stripes, we'll just await the next contract dispute with skepticism.
Add us as a preferred source on Google