Three-way trade involving Leo Carlsson gains steam after proposal goes viral online
Photo credit: Simon Fearn-Imagn Images
Leo Carlsson's future is tangled in a three-team fantasy that skips over two rules already written into the NHL's rulebook.
The circulating idea has Anaheim declining to match Carlsson's offer sheet, banking four first-round picks, then flipping those assets to Detroit for Dylan Larkin before sending more picks to Vancouver for Elias Pettersson.
It's a fun chain on paper.
It also ignores two facts that make the whole sequence collapse before anyone debates pick value.
The first is Anaheim's own posture.
Elliotte Friedman reported weeks ago that the Ducks were already guaranteed to match any offer sheet on Carlsson, which is exactly why general manager Pat Verbeek stayed quiet through free agency instead of scrambling for cap room.
That single report undercuts the entire premise, since the chain only works if Anaheim walks away.
The second problem belongs to Larkin himself.
The no-trade clause nobody mentioned
Larkin carries a full no-trade clause, and his approved list has run through Florida, Minnesota and Vegas, with Dallas and Tampa Bay the more recent names in expansion talk.
Anaheim has never appeared on that list in any report.
Larkin would have to add a rebuilding-adjacent Pacific team to a list built around contenders, something nothing so far suggests he's willing to do.
What actually decides Carlsson's fate
Carlsson is 21, coming off 29 goals and 67 points in 70 games, plus four goals and 11 assists in a 12-game playoff run.
That production is why Anaheim's real decision was made the moment the offer sheet landed, not something three franchises need to negotiate in sequence.
July 10 is the date that matters, and it has nothing to do with Detroit or Vancouver.
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