UMR-alum-05 wrote: ↑07 Jul 2026 21:54 pm
Yeah the fact that it's not a longer contract is brutal. He would be an RFA the entire life of the deal so you're overpaying for all his RFA years and not buying any UFA years. That's brutal.
If I'm the ducks I'm probably spending this time trying to sign Fantilli to a 7x14 or something offer sheet. That or like Skilles said, trying to trade for Larkin for 5x8.7. Either move with the obvious intent to let Carlson go.
I keep saying I think Philly is going to hate what this does to their cap and roster decisions moving forward.
He has 4 RFA years left so they’d be buying 1 UFA year actually.
But yeah, it’s a raw deal for sure. Philly did them dirty. But unless Anaheim wants to basically start over, they just cant let their 1C go.
Should’ve signed him 6-12 months ago but with the options they have now, I’d match if I was them.
Far as I see they have five options to not match.
Offer Sheet Fantilli.
Offer Sheet Bedard.
Trade for Larkin.
Trade for Petterson.
Totally rebuild.
Obviously Fantilli and Bedard are far from certain you'd even get one. But as I noted above you could go for a longer contract on specifically Fantilli and a little less AAV and at least try.
Larkin would be contingent on him waiving to go there. They should be having that discussion now.
Same with Petterson. Petterson isn't really a number 1C anymore either.
To your point, rebuilding will take them years. But that roster is already full of holes. Nothing at RHD. Aging forwards in a lot of spots getting close to expiration on their deals. It's not like the team is close with Carlson. They overachieved last season and have lost a lot of that group already.
Options 1 & 2: no guarantee of getting either player and the offer sheets would likely have to be purposely structured poorly to try to get the other teams to not match. And Carlsson may be better than both (he’s certainly better than Fantilli IMO). Why not just keep Carlsson?
Option 3: Anaheim isn’t on his trade list. Good luck to them getting him to waive to Anaheim by the time they need to decide on Carlsson by Friday.
Option 4: non-viable. Pettersson is a negative asset. He’s just not good anymore.
Option 5: likely also considered non-viable by them. They’re not starting over.
UMR-alum-05 wrote: ↑07 Jul 2026 21:54 pm
Yeah the fact that it's not a longer contract is brutal. He would be an RFA the entire life of the deal so you're overpaying for all his RFA years and not buying any UFA years. That's brutal.
If I'm the ducks I'm probably spending this time trying to sign Fantilli to a 7x14 or something offer sheet. That or like Skilles said, trying to trade for Larkin for 5x8.7. Either move with the obvious intent to let Carlson go.
I keep saying I think Philly is going to hate what this does to their cap and roster decisions moving forward.
He has 4 RFA years left so they’d be buying 1 UFA year actually.
But yeah, it’s a raw deal for sure. Philly did them dirty. But unless Anaheim wants to basically start over, they just cant let their 1C go.
Should’ve signed him 6-12 months ago but with the options they have now, I’d match if I was them.
Far as I see they have five options to not match.
Offer Sheet Fantilli.
Offer Sheet Bedard.
Trade for Larkin.
Trade for Petterson.
Totally rebuild.
Obviously Fantilli and Bedard are far from certain you'd even get one. But as I noted above you could go for a longer contract on specifically Fantilli and a little less AAV and at least try.
Larkin would be contingent on him waiving to go there. They should be having that discussion now.
Same with Petterson. Petterson isn't really a number 1C anymore either.
To your point, rebuilding will take them years. But that roster is already full of holes. Nothing at RHD. Aging forwards in a lot of spots getting close to expiration on their deals. It's not like the team is close with Carlson. They overachieved last season and have lost a lot of that group already.
Options 1 & 2: no guarantee of getting either player and the offer sheets would likely have to be purposely structured poorly to try to get the other teams to not match. And Carlsson may be better than both (he’s certainly better than Fantilli IMO). Why not just keep Carlsson?
Option 3: Anaheim isn’t on his trade list. Good luck to them getting him to waive to Anaheim by the time they need to decide on Carlsson by Friday.
Option 4: non-viable. Pettersson is a negative asset. He’s just not good anymore.
Option 5: likely also considered non-viable by them. They’re not starting over.
They don't have the depth to be a real contender with Carlson.
Guys like Vatrano and Krieder and Granlund are aging out. Their RHD is awful.
UMR-alum-05 wrote: ↑07 Jul 2026 21:54 pm
Yeah the fact that it's not a longer contract is brutal. He would be an RFA the entire life of the deal so you're overpaying for all his RFA years and not buying any UFA years. That's brutal.
If I'm the ducks I'm probably spending this time trying to sign Fantilli to a 7x14 or something offer sheet. That or like Skilles said, trying to trade for Larkin for 5x8.7. Either move with the obvious intent to let Carlson go.
I keep saying I think Philly is going to hate what this does to their cap and roster decisions moving forward.
He has 4 RFA years left so they’d be buying 1 UFA year actually.
But yeah, it’s a raw deal for sure. Philly did them dirty. But unless Anaheim wants to basically start over, they just cant let their 1C go.
Should’ve signed him 6-12 months ago but with the options they have now, I’d match if I was them.
Far as I see they have five options to not match.
Offer Sheet Fantilli.
Offer Sheet Bedard.
Trade for Larkin.
Trade for Petterson.
Totally rebuild.
Obviously Fantilli and Bedard are far from certain you'd even get one. But as I noted above you could go for a longer contract on specifically Fantilli and a little less AAV and at least try.
Larkin would be contingent on him waiving to go there. They should be having that discussion now.
Same with Petterson. Petterson isn't really a number 1C anymore either.
To your point, rebuilding will take them years. But that roster is already full of holes. Nothing at RHD. Aging forwards in a lot of spots getting close to expiration on their deals. It's not like the team is close with Carlson. They overachieved last season and have lost a lot of that group already.
Options 1 & 2: no guarantee of getting either player and the offer sheets would likely have to be purposely structured poorly to try to get the other teams to not match. And Carlsson may be better than both (he’s certainly better than Fantilli IMO). Why not just keep Carlsson?
Option 3: Anaheim isn’t on his trade list. Good luck to them getting him to waive to Anaheim by the time they need to decide on Carlsson by Friday.
Option 4: non-viable. Pettersson is a negative asset. He’s just not good anymore.
Option 5: likely also considered non-viable by them. They’re not starting over.
They don't have the depth to be a real contender with Carlson.
Guys like Vatrano and Krieder and Granlund are aging out. Their RHD is awful.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you but I think it’s clear Verbeek wouldn’t remotely consider throwing in the towel and starting over. He just overpaid to keep Minty, they still have lots of other young studs. They’re not going to rebuild. I will be interested to see what the right side of their defense ends up looking like this season though. That said, Gudas and Trouba aren’t really all that good so can’t disagree with just letting them go and some other team give them bad contracts.
ShakeyWalton wrote: ↑07 Jul 2026 20:41 pm
What in the world could these guys be connected to you ask? Well, Gratton was signed as an RFA by the Flyers in the late 90’s. Instead of Philly losing those picks, Tampa traded them back for Michael Renberg and Karl Dykhuis. And that trade was the only time 4 first round picks were ever moved in a package from what I’ve researched. At the very least it’s the most recent, and it was 29 years ago. Anaheim has to let him go IMO. Carlsson is not worth 4 firsts. I’m not sure anyone is honestly.
He’s pretty easily worth 4 1sts IMO. Unless Philly is garbage with Carlsson, those 1sts are likely going to be in the back half of the 1st rd. Check out this list and pick 4 at random. Would you take those 4 players over Carlsson?
And to what hockey jedi alluded to, do you even remember who was drafted from the 5 1sts we gave the Caps for Stevens?
UMR-alum-05 wrote: ↑07 Jul 2026 21:54 pm
Yeah the fact that it's not a longer contract is brutal. He would be an RFA the entire life of the deal so you're overpaying for all his RFA years and not buying any UFA years. That's brutal.
If I'm the ducks I'm probably spending this time trying to sign Fantilli to a 7x14 or something offer sheet. That or like Skilles said, trying to trade for Larkin for 5x8.7. Either move with the obvious intent to let Carlson go.
I keep saying I think Philly is going to hate what this does to their cap and roster decisions moving forward.
He has 4 RFA years left so they’d be buying 1 UFA year actually.
But yeah, it’s a raw deal for sure. Philly did them dirty. But unless Anaheim wants to basically start over, they just cant let their 1C go.
Should’ve signed him 6-12 months ago but with the options they have now, I’d match if I was them.
Far as I see they have five options to not match.
Offer Sheet Fantilli.
Offer Sheet Bedard.
Trade for Larkin.
Trade for Petterson.
Totally rebuild.
Obviously Fantilli and Bedard are far from certain you'd even get one. But as I noted above you could go for a longer contract on specifically Fantilli and a little less AAV and at least try.
Larkin would be contingent on him waiving to go there. They should be having that discussion now.
Same with Petterson. Petterson isn't really a number 1C anymore either.
To your point, rebuilding will take them years. But that roster is already full of holes. Nothing at RHD. Aging forwards in a lot of spots getting close to expiration on their deals. It's not like the team is close with Carlson. They overachieved last season and have lost a lot of that group already.
Options 1 & 2: no guarantee of getting either player and the offer sheets would likely have to be purposely structured poorly to try to get the other teams to not match. And Carlsson may be better than both (he’s certainly better than Fantilli IMO). Why not just keep Carlsson?
Option 3: Anaheim isn’t on his trade list. Good luck to them getting him to waive to Anaheim by the time they need to decide on Carlsson by Friday.
Option 4: non-viable. Pettersson is a negative asset. He’s just not good anymore.
Option 5: likely also considered non-viable by them. They’re not starting over.
They don't have the depth to be a real contender with Carlson.
Guys like Vatrano and Krieder and Granlund are aging out. Their RHD is awful.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you but I think it’s clear Verbeek wouldn’t remotely consider throwing in the towel and starting over. He just overpaid to keep Minty, they still have lots of other young studs. They’re not going to rebuild. I will be interested to see what the right side of their defense ends up looking like this season though. That said, Gudas and Trouba aren’t really all that good so can’t disagree with just letting them go and some other team give them bad contracts.
Agreed, they've got too much left to just start over. I think they'll match.
That said, whether they have the depth to contend after matching is irrelevant - what matters is whether they're closer to contending with Carlsson or four (late) first round picks and 18M in cap space?
Franchise centers with size, speed, and over PPG ability are a rare enough breed that I doubt a playoff contender like ANA will have a chance to draft another in the next four years - certainly not with those PHI picks. And it's unlikely they'll have the chance to sign another for 18M at the rate the cap keeps going up. Better to keep the unicorn you have than hope to find another one later...
