ANAHEIM, Calif – There was a different approach to trade deadline season for Anaheim Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek.
For the first time in four-year tenure in running the Ducks, Anaheim was no longer open to being raided to bolster the rest of the league. The hunted had become the hunters. The seller had become a buyer.
With the Ducks not just in probable playoff position for the first time in seven seasons but in pursuit of a division title for the first time since 2017, Verbeek decided to leverage his collected assets for acquisition, landing veteran defenseman John Carlson on Thursday to improve the Ducks’ outlook.
“Had we not done anything, I would have felt comfortable the same way,” Verbeek said in a media call on Friday afternoon, “but I think when you have an opportunity to better your team, I think that's your responsibility and your duty to do that. I think we have enough draft picks, we have enough prospects coming, and is it worth it to give up a conditional first rounder? In my opinion, yes, it is.”
Verbeek did not take away from his current roster, and instead sent a conditional first-round pick and 2027 third-round pick to Washington for the 17-year veteran Carlson. It was the first time in Verbeek’s run at the helm that a trade was made with the sole intent of taking a step forward, and taking that step right now.It’s no longer “sit back and develop prospects” in Anaheim. It’s time to build a winner.
“I think, first of all, you look at the player that you're putting into the group, so it certainly is a big add. It's a big add. He's a heck of a hockey player,” Verbeek said. “They don't come along often, and I think what we've been doing the last three years is adding assets, and I thought this was a time to where we could, you know, I looked at giving this group another extra push. Another little aid in helping us make this push to where we want to go. And so, ultimately, if we can get into playoffs and we can have a nice run, I looked at it like it's worth it. It's worth it to give this group experience, give them a chance to make the playoffs, and to do well in the playoffs.”
Although Carlson is in the final year of his deal, and the Ducks cleared $5 million in cap space next season with their one other move of Ryan Strome to Calgary, Verbeek said any time to put into contract negotiations is in the summer–whether that’s John Carlson, Leo Carlsson or anyone in between.
Six of the Ducks’ eight defenseman are either restricted or unrestricted free agents in the summer, and Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier will be due big contracts in their first real negotiations. But again, the focus is on the now.
“It's kind of early,” Verbeek said. “I want the dust to settle here, and I want the players to really concentrate on playing good hockey. All that stuff will take care of itself at the appropriate time, and I just want him to concentrate and play hockey, and play the best hockey that he can, and help the team the best way that he knows how, and that goes the same for the rest of the rest of the guys as well.”
“I don't want any distractions for this group, and I think this stuff will work itself out in due time.”
Below is a full transcript of the media call with Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek on Friday (questions and responses edited for clarity):
Tell me about the process of landing John Carlson. That's a pretty big deal.
Process is similar every time you kind of work a trade. It's funny, when you calll around and you talk to general managers, you see what what's going on, what they're looking to do. Washington kind of expressed that they were looking to move John Carlson, and we started to engage in talks probably a couple days ago, and it became more serious as the day went along yesterday. There's a lot of back and forth, and then we finally settled on, obviously, the compensation that's been reported, and we're excited to add John to our group.
His abilities are pretty well known around the NHL, what he does well. What did you like about him in particular, for your team, for your group at this point where you're trying to make that breakthrough?
Obviously, he's run a good power play. He's been with a group that's been exceptional power play. I think there's things that he can help us in that area. I think probably the things that we've liked a lot about him is he's a very intelligent player, very good puck mover. I like how he joins the rush in a real cerebral way. His five on five numbers this year have been outstanding, and so I think moving forward, and whether it's a playoff run or a playoff push, five on five play becomes very important, and it'll be important for our group, o make sure that we can keep pushing, to make the playoffs. And I think that's probably where when I look at what he's done, I think that's probably the most important part of all. And obviously, now we can distribute the ice time in a different manner. We can get better matchups. There's a lot that went into acquiring him and allowing us to have different looks, different options for our coaching staff, and I think that went into a lot of it as well.
I wanted to ask you as far as the positional focus. You look at the team, there was no glaring need. Were you looking, primarily, to upgrade defense, and maybe right defense in particular? Or did you take “a best player available” approach to the deadline?
No, I looked at, like, I looked at forward. Obviously, I looked at everywhere we could probably try to improve. John's is a big improvement for us. So, I think that we looked at that as an opportunity. I looked at being able to create a deeper team on the defense side. I think when you start to look the way the schedule is going, the last 20 games of the season, you're playing every other day, and it becomes a grind. And so, injuries become a major factor, and I think with adding John to our group, without having to subtract, it certainly adds a lot of depth to our group, and if certain things happen in the last stretch of the season, and nto the playoffs, we're positioned to have a lot of players that can still go in the lineup that are NHL ready.
In your discussions with Q, have you talked about where John might fit as far as the power play? Obviously, the big commitment to Jackson before the season, but Carlson's been a PP1 guy for the most part.
When you kind of look at power plays, you need two good power plays. You can have one, but, obviously, there might be one that's running hot one night, and not the next, so I think giving the coach options and different chemistry options, I think is very important, and John certainly adds to that mix. And so, Jackson's there, you know, we also have Pavel Mintukov. There's a lot of, there's just a lot of options that we can now put on the ice.
On Ryan Strome, that trade, it gives him an opportunity to play regularly, gives you guys a lot of cap flexibility in what is gonna be an important summer. But can you just clue us in a little bit more on the process?
Ryan is an ultimate professional. He showed a lot of character. I think in this instance, he got injured at the start (of the season), and ended up being six weeks out of the lineup. Then, obviously, the team, we were winning, and it's difficult for any player to kind of come into that scenario and try and carve out a role. And so, Ryan was kind of, a lot of it, he was chasing it. He was in a tough position, and being healthy and being scratched from time to time. It's certainly, it's not the best for the player. You know, at times, it gives us depth, but I thought for Ryan, he's been just an outstanding person and like I said, great character. From my perspective, we looked at it to give Ryan an opportunity to go to a team to where he's gonna be able to play and contribute to that team in a meaningful way, and as a player, I've been in his chair, and I understand exactly where he's coming from. It's important to play, and not sit out even, even though we're a team that's in a playoff push and run, from his perspective and from his family's perspectives, it's important that he keep continuing and have the opportunity to play.
What what led you to conclude that surrendering a first-round pick and that kind of price that this was the right time to do it? Was it more the fact that you had this kind of a player that became available? Or was it more the fact that you guys have played yourself into a position where maybe the division is there for the taking, and maybe even that side of the bracket, once you get into the postseason?
I think, first of all, you look at the player that you're putting into the group, so it certainly is a big add. It's a big add. He's a heck of a hockey player. So, to your point, they don't come along often, and I think what we've been doing the last three years is adding assets, and I thought this was a time to where we could, you know, I looked at giving this group another extra push. An other little aid in helping us make this push to where we want to go. And so, ultimately, you know, if we can get into playoffs and we can have a nice run, I looked at it like it's worth it. It's worth it to give this group experience, give them a chance to make the playoffs, and to do well in the playoffs. And that's kind of how I looked at it. And, you know, with the hope that we'll be able to re-sign him when this season's over.
You led right into what I was gonna ask, in terms of, is it too early to broach (re-signing) with (Carlson), or will you maybe start talking with his representation?
It's kind of early. There's other pre agents with the group, and, we've got RFAs, we got UFAs, and I want the dust to settle here, and I want the players to really concentrate on playing good hockey. All that stuff will take care of itself at the appropriate time, and I just want him to concentrate and play hockey, and play the best hockey that he can, and help the team the best way that he knows how, and that goes the same for the rest of the rest of the guys as well. I don't want any distractions for this group, and I think this stuff will work itself out in due time.
When it comes to going into this deadline, the mindset, the last few years, it's been a selling mindset of trying to get assets and continue to build a team. How did that change for you going into this one where your team is doing well, It's an opportunity to reward them with this opportunity. Is that how you saw that?
Well, absolutely. I mean, had we not done anything, I would have felt comfortable the same way, but I think when you have an opportunity to better your team, I think that's your responsibility and your duty to do that. I think we have enough draft picks, we have enough prospects coming, and is it worth it for to give up a conditional first rounder? In my opinion, yes, it is. And so to get the quality of a player that with John Carlson, then it made sense to not only to us, but to our organization. So that's how I viewed it.
When you look at the mix in the defensive side now, you have all the veterans there on the right and all the young guys on the left. What do you make of that?
It’s kind of the way it works out, man. (*laughs*) So, you know, I guess at some point here in the next few years the left side's gonna be the veteran inside, and the right side's gonna be the younger side. So, we're gonna take turns. It's just kind of how it's worked out.
You touched on it a little bit, but when you're looking at the summer and you're looking at the guys that you have coming up, obviously you get Poehling done the other day. Was there any thought to getting more of these guys done before the deadline or just waiting?
No, I think we reached a point early, well, maybe late October, early November that we just decided to table talks with any of our young players, and just focus on playing hockey. And if they play hockey well, then all this other contracts and all that stuff will take care of itself. I just wanted their mindset to be worried on playing good hockey and helping this team win and to get into the playoffs.
And I wanted to go back to an earlier trade. Jeffrey Viel comes in. He was a guy that wasn't playing much of if at all in Boston. How do you even scout a guy like that to have him come in and then be as successful as he has been with your group so far?
We have lots of scouts that do their job and they do it well. I watched him play against us early in the season, and I thought he had a pretty good game against us when we played in Boston. He was on what I call a fourth line grind line, and I thought he did a good job. I'm watching him, like, what you're seeing now out of him, we saw in the minors with his skill level, and his doggedness to get in on the forecheck, to finish checks. We saw all of that stuff. He's a quiet, tough customer. He's always been there for his teammates, which I love. And he's actually starting to feel really comfortable with our group, and with our system, and he's been kind of a little bit of a pleasant surprise for us, but we've seen some of the things that he's showing now in the minors, and he looks like he's just getting confidence to be able to do it at the NHL level now.
There hasn't been a ton of movement between San Diego and you guys this year. Obviously, a lot of injuries to account for in the bottom six and all that. What are you seeing from the development down in San Diego in terms of these young guys and giving their spots, whether it's the forwards or the defenseman?
Well, I think things are going good. We're in a good spot with San Diego. They're in a playoff spot. The big thing is, you know, now our younger guys are starting to take more of a leadership role in the sense of production and with our young–I look with Luneau and Hinds and now Solberg, those guys, they're progressing very nicely. Learning to win and to get into the playoffs is crucial for our young forwards and our young defense. I'm looking to get them a playoff experience just at a different level to help progress them along for next year and for the year after. We're at a really good development stage with those players in San Diego.
Now that it's been a couple months, how would you assess the deals that you made this off season to bring in Poehling and Mrazek?
Well, Mrazek, he's done for the season. That was just part of the, you know, with the deal with John Gibson, with Mrazek, we had to secure a backup goaltender, and Mrazek, he filled that spot. Obviously, now he's done for the rest of the season, but I think, looking back on it, I think with the experience last year, where we had all our goaltenders get hurt, it was crucial for us to sign Ville Husso Hughes. We ended up getting Ville for a two-year deal, and now, he's our backup. And now the emergence of Calle Clang has kind of really taken over. Looks like he's got the–if we needed him as a number three, then he could start to fill that spot and he's progressed this year. So, we've been fortunate from my perspective to have Ville in the wings. He did a good job helping San Diego win. And now, he's doing a good job here at the NHL level to help us win, especially with the win he had the other night. It's been good. I view it as a good deal.
It was kind of a general one on the trade deadline. It seemed like prices were high. Activity was a little low, but I wanted to get your read on the market overall. and ask, without getting any specifics, were you guys close, maybe on something else?
Not really. For me, I was kicking tires. I was targeting players that, if we did something, that they'd be part of the future moving forward, looking for our team. Overall, it was quiet. Really didn't feel like there was anything else gonna happen with that, and some of the teams that we were talking to got focused on other things. And so, that's kind of how every trade deadline goes. You start to pivot things, and things shake out. So, I was happy with what we got accomplished. There'll be certain things that will get reviewed later in the summertime.