The Anaheim Ducks went from one of the league’s most encouraging young teams to one of its biggest offseason cautionary tales in a hurry.
A month ago, the buzz around Anaheim was all about promise. The playoff run had put the Ducks’ young core on display, and the future looked loaded. Now the conversation has flipped, with Pat Verbeek’s front office drawing heat for a summer that left the roster thinner, the cap tighter and the margin for error much smaller.
The biggest blow came on the blue line. Anaheim already gave up the fourth-most goals in the NHL, and then lost John Carlson, Jacob Trouba, Radko Gudas and Olen Zellweger.
That kind of turnover would hurt any team. For a group that was already leaking chances, it’s a brutal hit.
But the real damage came with Leo Carlsson.
Philadelphia’s offer sheet forced Anaheim into a massive decision, and the Ducks matched it, locking Carlsson into a five-year, $18 million extension. That deal didn’t just keep a key young center in town - it also tied up a huge chunk of the team’s cap space and changed the financial picture in a major way.
Verbeek’s approach to young talent has been aggressive for a while now. He took a hard line with Mason McTavish, letting talks drag past the first week of training camp last season.
He did the same thing in negotiations with Trevor Zegras’ camp, and Zegras ended up missing a month of training camp before eventually becoming a Philadelphia Flyer. Those tactics can sometimes squeeze down the average annual value, but that logic looks a lot shakier when the player in question is already an established young star.
Carlsson fits that category. Instead of getting him done last summer after a strong sophomore season, Anaheim waited, and his value climbed again after a breakout year.
By the time the offer sheets came in, the Ducks were in a bind. Four teams reportedly sent offers to the 21-year-old, and according to multiple sources, Carlsson’s camp was willing to take an eight-year, $12.5 million extension.
Instead, the Ducks are now living with the highest AAV in NHL history at $18 million.
That number will be hard for any player to justify, even one with franchise-center talent. It also resets the market for everyone else in Anaheim.
Cutter Gauthier is next in line, and the price tag is already getting louder. He’s rumored to be seeking $15 million on a long-term extension, while the Ducks are sitting on a projected $9.07 million in cap space.
Anaheim could move out some expensive contracts to create room, but the bigger issue is what these deals signal to the rest of the roster. Once one young star gets paid at that level, the next negotiation gets a lot more complicated.
That matters even more with players like Beckett Sennecke moving toward extension eligibility.
The cap squeeze wouldn’t be as alarming if the defense looked stable. It doesn’t.
Anaheim’s projected group is Jackson LaCombe, Drew Helleson, Pavel Mintyukov, Nick Jensen, Tyson Hinds and Ian Moore. That’s a lot of uncertainty for a team that already finished with the sixth-worst expected goals against in the league last season, and it’s made worse by the fact that the Ducks lost their second, third and fifth defensemen in time on ice per game.
Verbeek, though, isn’t worried.
“I’m very happy. When I look at our defense, most of them played in the playoffs last year and got good experience there,” Verbeek said.
The Ducks may still be able to hang around the race for the Pacific Division’s final playoff spot. That division was historically bad last season, and Anaheim could outplay the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings. But the more likely outcome, based on the defensive depth chart alone, is a step backward.
That doesn’t mean the rebuild is doomed. One season won’t define it, and it won’t define Verbeek’s run either.
The real test is still ahead, over the next five to 10 years. But after this offseason, the road to that future looks a lot less clean than it did a month ago.
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For a team trying to build around its youth, this was never just about one contract. The Ducks had to weigh the value of keeping a high-end center in place against the broader ripple effects of an offer sheet, including how it would shape their future flexibility and the message it sent about protecting their own talent. One important wrinkle in the agreement also stands out, with a no-movement clause attached for the final year, a detail that underscores how much leverage comes with a player Anaheim clearly views as central to what comes next. [Read more 🡒]