As we wait for the Anaheim Ducks and general manager Pat Verbeek to make their decision on the Philadelphia Flyers’ offer sheet to Leo Carlsson — we are slowly dying and losing the sense of what seven days means to our life, please rescue us from this hellscape and bring us to a new life where we know the result of this single transaction — little teensy tiny rumors are percolating through various people in the know around the NHL. And now, we know that the Ducks are at least possibly making moves so that they can break our hearts.
We have all gone over the Ducks’ current cap structure problem in various articles on this website and why it could be a strong strategy for Anaheim to not match the Leo Carlsson offer sheet of an $18-million AAV over five years. It all boils down to future contract negotiations they will have to go through and their present outlook of their team. By matching they might just waive the white flag for the rest of the season, since their current roster doesn’t feel all that ready to make a push for the playoffs, just to keep their No. 1 center around.
The biggest thing outside of the Carlsson offer sheet decision is winger Cutter Gauthier’s next deal. The restricted free agent needs a new contract and according to recent reports, could be looking at something north of a $15 million AAV if he signs long-term in Anaheim. That would create some serious cap problems for the Ducks, but they are apparently looking into solving that if they do actually retain their 40-goal winger at a number even remotely close to that.
Ducks are trying to make room for Leo Carlsson’s contract
On Wednesday’s episode of The Sheet with Jeff Marek, NHL insider David Pagnotta — yeah he got the Claude Giroux news wrong but he’s had enough information that we can take what he says seriously enough — was talking about the future business of the Ducks and what fallout could happen should they match the Carlsson offer sheet. And especially considering Cutter Gauthier’s potential ask on his new contract, they will have to get busy.
“There’s no real rush with Cutter because he can’t be tendered an offer sheet. So, he’s not vulnerable to that. They can hold their ground and try to create additional space so they’re not backed into a bigger or tighter corner than they already are,” Pagnotta said Wednesday.
“I think starting Sunday we started to hear Killorn’s name out there, Vatrano’s name out there. They’re willing to attach a draft pick to take the full pop. Where does that go? There’s a lot that the Ducks need to do here.”
The timeline is interesting. The Flyers tendered the offer sheet on Friday afternoon, so less than 48 hours later some insiders got wind of the Ducks looking to move out some veteran players so that they can fit Carlsson’s entire $18 million AAV and keep Gauthier around. Because, it is complicated.
As it stands, if the Ducks do match the offer sheet, they will have just a hair over $9 million in cap space with just Gauthier as their only player still to sign a contract. Troy Terry is starting the season on the Injured Reserve list, so they can move him to Long-Term Injured Reserve to get cap relief of approximately $3.9 million, but that then gives them the possibility to sign Gauthier to a contract with a $13 million AAV and even if they do get that done, once Terry is back to full health, they run into the same problems once again.
So, as Pagnotta mentioned, they’re going to trade away some scoring depth to make this all work (if they can). Frank Vatrano did not have a good season and is surely a below replacement-level player, but he makes $4.57 million for the next two seasons and could be a casualty to this offer sheet situation. Some team is going to look at the 32-year-old winger and how he scored 37 goals two years ago and bet that he can do better than the nine points in 50 games he had last season. And, maybe they’ll get a second-round pick for taking on his deal and letting Anaheim break every Flyers fan’s heart.
Depending on Gauthier’s ask and what deal they end up doing with the 22-year-old, the Ducks might need to do even more. Alex Killorn has one year left on a contract that carries a $6.25-million AAV, and Chris Kreider also has one year left on $6.5-million AAV deal. Those are two players who are heading to the end of their careers that a team could just take as a middle-six winger option and call it a day. They still feel very tradeable considering both player’s history of being good players on good teams (and Killorn winning two Stanley Cups with Tampa also helps).
If Anaheim is able to move out two of these three wingers, they should have enough cap space to fit in Carlsson’s $18-million AAV and whatever Gauthier wants on a long-term deal. They can make this work, even if it costs them additional assets to do so and it seems like they’re going to do that.
Even if the Ducks match, the don’t need to be cap compliant right away. Teams can exceed the salary cap by 10% in the offseason, which is $10.4 million. Anaheim can make their decision by the deadline of this Friday afternoon and then have the entire summer to work the phones and look for deals to shed that cap space and make it work after locking up Gauthier.
And we can all agree that we will hate that team that makes that trade forever and ever right? You can just imagine the Pittsburgh Penguins with their $16.9 million of cap space just say “Alright, we’ll take on Kreider for a second-round pick” because Kyle Dubas can’t resist getting another asset for free and maybe making his team slightly better — or getting a player to then get more assets for at the trade deadline next season. It is going to drive us crazy.
The end is near, thankfully, and we can all stop thinking one way or the other or looking into every little pulse of information coming out meaning that they are or are not going to match the offer sheet.
