Two Ducks players could be heading out shortly after Anaheim matched Leo Carlsson's offer sheet

Pat Verbeek matched Philadelphia's five-year, $90 million offer sheet on Thursday, handing Carlsson the largest cap hit in hockey at $18 million.

That left Anaheim under $10 million in space with Cutter Gauthier, last season's leading scorer, still unsigned.

David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period has reported that Alex Killorn and Frank Vatrano are both surfacing in trade talks, and that the Ducks are willing to attach a draft pick.

Pagnotta later specified on Sekeres & Price which player the pick is going with.

Killorn and Vatrano are not the same problem. Killorn carries a $6.25 million cap hit for one more season and becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2027.

Vatrano's cap hit is smaller at $4.57 million through 2027-28, but the deal is worth $18 million in real dollars.

Roughly $3 million was deferred, payable at $900,000 a year for ten years beginning in 2035.

A team trading for Vatrano is not renting a winger for two seasons. It is accepting a payroll line that runs to 2044.

That is what the draft pick is for. Not the down year, and not the $4.57 million. The tail.

Danny Briere kept his four first-round picks and close to $30 million in space. He also forced Verbeek to sell off the middle of his forward group in July.

Both veterans hold trade protection. Vatrano can block seven teams, Killorn fifteen.

So Verbeek is paying a pick to enter a market his own players have already shrunk.

The lesson is league-wide. An offer sheet no longer has to go unmatched to succeed, and every general manager holding a young star just watched what saying yes actually costs.

Anaheim kept Carlsson. Two veterans are the receipt.

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