ANAHEIM, Calif. – Leo Carlsson’s NHL-record offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers, which the Anaheim Ducks matched to the tune of five years and a league-high $18 million per season, became the flashpoint in the hockey world last week.
From the Flyers’ announcement of the offer sheet on July 3, there had been criticisms thrown towards Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek here at The Sporting Tribune, other outlets and around social media on his perceived handling of the situation.
How had Verbeek allowed his franchise player to reach July 1 and the start of free agency without a contract? Why had the Ducks mishandled another core restricted free agent?
It wasn’t until the Ducks matched the offer and signed Carlsson last Thursday and Verbeek addressed the media that some clarity could be found.
“I made serious and fair offers (last September in training camp) as you saw that I was able to get Jackson LaCombe signed at that particular time,” Verbeek said. “When the season ended, I immediately picked up discussions with Matt Keator, who's Leo's agent, and continued to talk all the way until July 1. I think it was probably three or four days before July 1, I felt that I was getting slow-walked to July 1, and from that point, I informed ownership that there could be a possible offer sheet coming our way.”
Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli said it was an “easy decision” to match the signing bonus-laden deal, and to Verbeek and Carlsson’s credit, they both called it business and water under the bridge.
But was Verbeek’s statement simply saving face and shifting blame to Carlsson’s agent? Was it still not Verbeek’s fault that a deal did not get done before July 1, which opened Carlsson to those predatory offer sheets?
According to Carlsson’s agent, no, not in the slightest.
“This whole process was basically our decision in terms of going this direction,” Matt Keator said. “I know Anaheim did everything they could to get them signed.”
Keator, and his son Ryan, went through the entire season-long negotiation timeline with Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman on his 32 Thoughts Podcast and offered continual praise for Anaheim’s role in this, while the father-son duo essentially fell on their sword for allowing outside narratives to grow as they did.
“The Ducks were aggressively trying to sign Leo all the way along. That’s their job,” Matt Keator said. “If anything, we didn’t allow them to do their job because we weren’t engaging (during the season) because we wanted to get to after the season and have our postseason meeting with Leo.”
From their side of Verbeek’s training camp negotiations and a desire to gauge the soon-to-be rising marketplace, to the tabling of contract talks midseason to the offer sheet that left Carlsson “speechless,” the Keators filled in gaps and corroborated the established timeline from Verbeek.
Here is a walkthrough of the 10 month-long saga that brought Carlsson to staying in Anaheim as the highest-paid player in the NHL:
September 2025: Ducks make first offer
Just as Verbeek had wrapped up another long and arduous restricted free agent negotiation with Mason McTavish, the Ducks looked ahead to a critical RFA crop in the next offseason with Carlsson, Jackson LaCombe, Cutter Gauthier and Pavel Mintyukov among those needing to be locked in.
Over the negotiations with McTavish along with Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale before him, Verbeek and assistant GM Jeff Solomon had garnered a reputation for grinding down their RFAs with these dragged-out affairs into training camp.
With so many high-profile RFAs on the docket, Anaheim couldn’t afford to take those kind of talks into the summer, and they didn’t. Five days after McTavish’s deal, LaCombe signed an eight-year, $9 million-per-season contract–the largest total value contract in Ducks history at $72 million.
“Jackson's the first domino to fall,” Verbeek said then. “We're working on other stuff as well, so we'll see what happens. As last week (with McTavish), things can change pretty quickly, so we'll just keep getting after it.”
In his conversation with Carlsson’s agent on Monday, Friedman reported that Verbeek’s ensuing offer to Carlsson was “in the range” of eight years, $10.5 million per season, which would set the record again for largest total value contract in Ducks history at $80 million.
While the Ducks looked to work fast, it wasn’t time yet for Carlsson’s camp.
“It’s an offer we’re quick to turn down right away,” Matt Keator said. “It’s not for their lack of trying.”
Ryan Keator said they wanted to do more research, particularly into comparable players in respect to percentage of the salary cap. With over $9.5 million increases to the salary cap projected for the next two seasons, a team-friendly number in the preseason is not (and would not be) what the marketplace could produce later on.
Plus, beyond just the Ducks crop of RFAs, there were more specifically in Carlsson’s draft class with 2023 No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard of Chicago and 2023 No. 3 overall pick Adam Fantilli of Columbus.
“Now listen, $80 million is a lot of money. We understand that,” Matt Keator said. “We get that, but we’re living in a marketplace… and every contract that a player signs affects others around him.”
November 2025: Ducks continue pursuit, but agents hold off
Verbeek continued to pursue talks with Carlsson’s camp, but the Keators continued to put up a stop sign, as the Keators presentations to Leo and his family about what the market could look like.
“That was our decision, not the Ducks,” Matt Keator said about stalling talks. “They were definitely very tenacious on us and talking to us.”
The Ducks knew that Carlsson’s stock could continue to rise, which meant an earlier and longer deal would be better for their purposes. On the other side, the Keators knew the same and tried to maximize what Leo could be worth.
“We are still trying to figure out what Leo was as a player,” Ryan Keator said. “He was 20 at the time, then had turned 21. So, still seeing that growth from him throughout the year too had us a little bit hesitant to do a longer-term deal at that time.”
January 2026: Talks tabled
Just 10 days removed from surgery for Carlsson to repair a thigh lesion that forced him out of the Winter Olympics for Sweden and 12 regular-season games for the Ducks, Verbeek was interviewed at intermission on Victory+ and was asked where talks stood with Carlsson and Gauthier midway through the season.
“Not anywhere really,” Verbeek said. “We’ve kind of tabled all that stuff. We want their focus to be on the playoffs.”
It was a sentiment that was echoed by Carlsson and Gauthier at various points going forward and Keator when looking back on Monday.
“We made the decision to table it ‘till after the season,” Matt Keator said. “Leo didn’t look back. He said, okay, I’m going to play hockey.”
All sides were seemingly on the same page, but again, Keator reiterated most of the resistance was coming from his side of the desk.
“The Ducks were aggressively trying to sign Leo all the way along. That’s their job,” Keator said. “If anything, we didn’t allow them to do their job because we weren’t engaging because we wanted to get to after the season and have our postseason meeting with Leo.”
May 2026: Ducks season ends, but talks still on hold
Less than 24 hours after Anaheim was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs, the Ducks went through their exit interviews with assembled media. Verbeek wanted to get right to work, but in retrospect, it sounded like he knew what was ahead of him.
“In a perfect scenario, I’d like to get them done in a week here,” Verbeek said of Carlsson and Gauthier. “I’d like to get it done as soon as possible, but we all have to cooperate with one another.”
As neither had really gotten in the headspace of thinking about what was to come in their summer negotiations between losing to Vegas the night before, sleeping and arriving to Great Park Ice the next morning, Carlsson and Gauthier both said, “We’ll see what happens.”
When Carlsson signed last week, Verbeek said that he immediately picked up discussions with Keator when the season ended.
On Monday, Keator said they were still in a holding pattern at that moment, as they waited to see how Carlsson’s peers fared in the market, specifically Bedard.
“Our plan was to wait and see where Bedard ended up,” Keator said. “We’ll let Bedard set the market, and then we’ll negotiate from there.”
Carlsson’s camp was saying no to Verbeek’s negotiation attempts.
June 30-July 3, 2026: The lead-up to the offer sheet
The key point to Verbeek’s defense was the idea that Carlsson’s agent was holding out to July 1, which opened up the opportunity to be signed to offer sheets.
“(Keator and I) continued to talk all the way until July 1,” Verbeek said, “and I think it was probably three or four days before July 1, I felt that I was getting slow walked to July 1, and from that point, I informed ownership that there could be a possible offer sheet coming our way.”
Keator was slow-playing Verbeek, but as noted, it wasn’t for offer sheets. It was waiting to see where Bedard landed with Chicago. (Bedard remains unsigned with the Blackhawks, and is out four months following shoulder surgery.)
According to Keator, offer sheets didn’t enter the picture until June 30, when teams could begin to contact restricted free agents ahead of the July 1 free agency date. Keator said seven or eight teams immediately inquired with four ready to make offers.
Carlsson’s camp narrowed it down to two, but it was the Flyers’ offer that grabbed the attention.“We did have discussions with the Ducks that day, and said this could be coming into play,” Keator said. “On July 1, we sent Leo the contract offer in writing, and he was speechless.”
Carlsson and his family were overwhelmed by the deal, with the NHL-high $18 million annual value and the front-loaded signing bonus structure. Over $85 million of the total $90 million of the contract comes from signing bonuses, including an immediate $19.95 million signing bonus.
Verbeek knew an offer sheet was in the cards–Friedman reported on July 2 that Verbeek would match any offer sheet to Carlsson–but he too was initially blown away by Philadelphia’s offer. It was a far cry from the $10.5 million per season he had reportedly offered in September.
“Did we expect the offer sheet to be this high? No,” Verbeek said. “No, we did not see that one coming.”
Verbeek said he spoke with Keator the morning of July 2 and later that afternoon there was the offer sheet. Friedman had reported that Verbeek offered $12.5 million and Keator countered with $15 million. The Ducks reportedly said no, and Carlsson’s camp accepted that $18 million offer sheet.
“It was kind of like an offer that I think 99 (percent) of everybody would sign too,” Carlsson said last week. “Changed my family and all that, too. It's a pretty simple answer there, but I always want to be here too. So, I just really hope they would match.”
It would be a long six days for Carlsson to see if he would be swapping out Ducks orange for Flyers orange, but it truly was–yes, here comes the Godfather reference–an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“It's more like when you see that number, it's hard to say no,” Carlsson said.
July 9, 2026: Carlsson is a Duck
At that point, the decision was no longer in Carlsson’s hands, and the Ducks had seven days to decide whether to match the Flyers’ offer sheet or receive Philadelphia’s next four first-round picks as compensation.
Keator said that talks and emails were exchanged with Anaheim over the course of the week, but unlike the rest of the timeline, he kept that private on Monday.
After discussing the potential compensation, calling around the league and going over the bonus structure with ownership, Verbeek made the decision to match the deal on the sixth day, and Carlsson was officially remaining a Duck.
“We went through our due diligence,” Verbeek said. “The more discussions that we had, it became an easier decision. It was speaking to us that we need to match the offer sheet.”
It was the resolution to “probably the weirdest week” in Carlsson’s life.
“Just super relieved,” Carlsson said. “My mom is relieved too. Obviously, she's been stressing for a while now, this week too. It’s super nice to get done. Super happy.”
Moving Forward
Ultimately, this has demonstrated in full each side of the negotiation process that, most of the time, the public doesn’t get to hear about.
“There's a lot of business in hockey,” Carlsson said. “I knew it, obviously, but it was just a lot more business that I thought, too… I think (Verbeek) understands my decision too, when he saw the number. No hard feelings between us right now.”
Verbeek said he doesn’t begrudge Carlsson’s camp for taking the offer sheet route. He acknowledged it’s their collectively bargained right, and as a former player, he understands the “excitement to have a chance to determine your destiny.”
“I think that this whole thing has been worked through,” Verbeek said. “My feelings for Leo haven't changed since the day that we drafted him. The business at hand is taken care of, and now, the both of us are looking forward to building off the season that we had last year, and towards winning a Stanley Cup.”
Keator said that everyone is moving forward, especially as he could have more work with Verbeek this summer. (Keator’s other clients including Chris Kreider and Alex Killorn, both of whom Keator said know their situations can change following Carlsson’s contract.)
“We think a lot of the Ducks and how they’ve handled (the Carlsson talks),” Keator said.
Verbeek has plenty of business left to handle this summer now that this saga is behind him.