Anaheim has no choice regarding Leo Carlsson's offer sheet after Elliotte Friedman's report
Photo credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
Elliotte Friedman says the Anaheim Ducks must match the Leo Carlsson offer sheet.
The reason is buried in Anaheim's own transaction history.
Friedman framed it as a talent problem, warning the Ducks would spend five years searching for a replacement.
Re Leo Carlsson offer sheet/Ducks: "If they give up Carlsson, they will spend the next five years looking for Carlson; I think you have to match it; I don't think they have a choice."
- Elliotte Friedman
- Elliotte Friedman
The Philadelphia Flyers tendered Carlsson a five-year, $90 million offer sheet on July 3, an $18 million cap hit that would make him the highest-paid player in hockey.
Anaheim has until Friday to match or accept four Philadelphia first-round picks.
Those picks are the problem, and the reason is structural.
Anaheim already turned its centers into picks
On June 26, general manager Pat Verbeek traded Mason McTavish to the St. Louis Blues for the 15th and 29th selections in the 2026 draft.
He used the 15th on Nikita Klepov.
A year earlier he sent Trevor Zegras to Philadelphia. In January 2024, Jamie Drysdale went there too.
Each of those players hit friction with Verbeek in contract talks, according to Associated Press reporting.
Each was converted into future assets.
Anaheim's shelf is already stacked with draft capital and empty of centers.
The compensation is the wrong currency
Four more first-rounders would pay Verbeek in exactly what he has spent eighteen months accumulating.
What he cannot buy back is a 21-year-old who scored 29 goals in 70 games and pushed the Ducks past the Edmonton Oilers in April.
That is why matching is not a choice. It is the bill for a strategy that already sold the alternatives.
There is a second layer. Danny Brière has twice bought players who reached an impasse with Verbeek, and this offer sheet is the version Verbeek cannot decline on his own terms.
Cutter Gauthier, the forward Philadelphia originally sent to Anaheim, is next in line for a raise and cannot be offer-sheeted himself.
The Ducks project to roughly $9.97 million in space if they match.
Whatever happens Friday, the lesson travels league-wide. Contract standoffs are no longer private matters between a general manager and a player.
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