The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: David Pagnotta on the Anaheim Ducks Matching Leo Carlsson's Offer Sheet

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

Jeff Marek opens the show with David Pagnotta to react to the Anaheim Ducks accepting Leo Carlsson’s five-year, $90 million offer sheet ($18M AAV). They break down Anaheim’s decision, the impact on the Ducks’ future, how the Philadelphia Flyers and Danny Brière approached the offer sheet, the reaction around the league, and what trades or moves could still be coming this NHL offseason.Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We'll kick off the show with the news. We thought we were getting tomorrow. We thought the Anaheim Ducks would freeze out the Philadelphia Flyers right to the very last minute slash second. But we get it a day early. They match the offer sheet. Five years, $90 million, $18 million is the AAV. But everybody already knows that, Dave. What else do you think we should know about this situation?

Was this headed towards an inevitability? Was it a fait accompli the minute it was offered, it was going to get matched? Yes is the short answer for a variety of reasons, Jeff. I mean, you know, for, for what, two weeks going into July 1, Pat for Beak kept saying, we're matching whatever you guys come at us with. We've got the space. We're going to match. Do your darndest.

And the flyer said, you know what, we're going to do that and some by making it 18 million and making it a minimum salary per year. And then bonuses the rest of the way. Yep. Just under $40 million has to be paid out to Leo Carlson starting today over the next 11 and a half months.

It's a lot of coin. But the ducks were prepared to match it. I think they had no choice after telling everybody and puffing their chest that they were going to do it. And as the days progressed, as we got to about Sunday,

we started to hear word that the ducks are starting to shop some of their other guys to free up additional money for other business outside of Leo Carlson, cough, cough, cutter goche. And then I think Monday we started to hear that, yeah, Philly's anticipating Anaheim matching.

And no plan B is my understanding. They're not going to pivot and go after Adam Fintilly or Connor Bedard or whomever else. Boring. Boring. Yeah. They're going to stick with what they've got and maybe shift the mindset a little bit in a different direction because they're engaged in talks with other guys and other teams. Seagriss.

Well, yeah, they need those guys locked into deals, and they've both filed for arbitration. So, you know, there's more business to be done for the Philadelphia Flyers. It just likely, I'd be shocked if it goes another offer sheet direction. From the duck side of things, they've got more business to do as well. And Henry and Susan Samueli put out a statement saying that this was an easy decision for them and that Pat Verbeek intelligently had enough cap space in order to match this. Let me get to that quote.

You tweeted this one out and I captured it and repurposed it. This is from Dave. Dux owner Henry and Susan Samueli. Quote, matching the offer sheet was an easy decision. We would love to have been in the room when this thing arrived. As Pat has intelligently left enough cap space to give us the ability to retain Leo. We have extremely high expectations for Leo. We firmly believe.

He will continue with strong growth trajectory, you hope so for 18 a copy, and become one of the truly elite centers in the league while continuing to make a strong impact in our community. Am I too cynical because I'm sure you got the same texts? With people capturing, Pat has intelligently left cap space. I'm not so sure the Samuelis were intending to use the cap. The upper limit of the cap is a magnet. Yeah, I think from we are extremely,

we have extremely high expectations for that part on, bang on. Totally believe all of that. The first, the previous, you know, sentence, a little questionable.

Well, that's a multi-billioner saying like, yeah, I'm going to flex. Like, I'll match this easy. You want to, this is like the Dundin with Montreal and I hope,

easy match. Right. And something like that, easy match. This is like anything. Okay. Let's go. Yeah, when you've got 70 billion at your disposal, yeah, sure.

This is $40 million a year, dropping the bucket. But it doesn't mean they're overly happy with dropping that much into a bucket that they didn't expect to be that large initially. And look, when this all, when we got to the draft, when we continued towards July 1st, the talk was $12, $13 million for Leo Carlson and $10, $11 for Cutter-Gochee. offer sheet comes in on Friday and holy smokes totally different to the point where

and we touched on this yesterday the other day um cutter gocha is looking at you know okay he was at 11 12 13 it's 15 range now um and and i think i think there seems to at least the early word this morning before this was even matched before this came out was that the 15 range maybe it's a little lower but the 15 range seems to be a comfort zone on on their side. So we'll see if it gets to that. You can exceed the cap by 10% in the off season. But what does this mean for Vatrono? What does this mean for Coulorne?

What does this mean for Kreider? I have an idea. I have an idea. No, but honestly, the next shoe dropping in this one. Okay. Because we remember none of this is personal. This is just business, right, Dave?

Like that's what everyone just keeps up. This is just business, not personal. What about the go-cha situation? No, this is not, this is not agenda-driven here. Mm-hmm. Could you see Pat Frabique turning around and handing one or both of the players you mentioned to the Pittsburgh Penguins at a deep, deep discount to get out of their cap situation here? And here's the second round pick as a thank you.

Wouldn't shock me. Pittsburgh's got the cap space. They do. They're one-year contract. They're running out one-year contracts here now. Yeah. Vitrono's got two. Oh, sorry.

Vitron has two. You're right. You're right. Yes. Criter's on his last year. Yeah, Kalloran as well. And Kalloran's at six and a quarter. I think Crider's six and a half in that range.

Vitrano's at four and a half. Toronto's four and a half, Couloran 625, Crichter 6.5. Okay. So Pittsburgh's got the money. They got the money for all three. But you need some players still playing in Anaheim. So you move out two of those guys. You're going to have to incentivize.

And there was word against Sunday when these names started to pop up that with three first, with three, excuse me, second round picks in next year's draft, the Ducks may be willing to include one of those, maybe more if they get desperate enough or maybe another pick in order to take on the full pop of these deals. Wouldn't suppose, because moving two of them, even if it's, let's say, one of the sixes and Vitrano, you're freeing up a little over 10 mil,

with the nine and change you have now, that's more than enough for Cried, for, excuse me, for Goce, Cutter, and it gives you a little flexibility to still fish in the free agent market to fill the void of one of those guys leaving. And probably at a decent rate, Eli Tolvinan, for example, is still out there looking and trying to find a new home and so on. And so there are other guys, obviously.

But it gives the ducks more flexibility. Pittsburgh's an interesting one, Jeff. I mean, they're open. They're looking. They're going through a quasi-rebuild. What was the term used with Alvin hybrid rebuild or whatever? It was a word salad and then there was a pause. and then he said in a hybrid fashion or in a hybrid way.

What kind of like them? Like, how many potato chip words can you cram into what you're answering now, Patrick? Yes. Yeah. It seems like Pittsburgh is actually doing that, but actually doing it well. So wouldn't surprise me. I don't disagree. So here's the, the cascade of this is fascinating.

And we haven't even really, you know, got into, oh, we did. Like you said, like they're not going to go off or sheet shopping anymore with whether it's, you know, fantillion or. Orbidar, but we should get on the Philadelphia page here in a couple of seconds. But you know what I wonder about with Cutter Goce here? Because now all of a sudden his price is higher. And the Anaheim ducks now have one season of real pain until the cap goes up again. And then they have control and their salary cap is a little bit more lubricated.

Right now, Pat for Beech's had a bunch of sand thrown in the gears. Right? Like that's what happened here. And the Anaheim ducks have been caught up in the gears of salary cap history and salary cap hell. And to the point where, and I think it's the right one, he's not in control of his finances. And that's an awful place to be if you're the general manager of a team or if you're the owner of the team. Samueli statement made it sound very much like, this is fine. The dog with the coffee.

This is fine. Everything's good. We love the player. Money is fine. We don't mind spending this much money. But here's why. I see Cutter Goce. Yeah, exactly.

There's one name that I think about with Cutter Goce situation, and that is Kevin LeBank. So Kevin LeBank, as you well know, when he was with the San Jose Sharks, was coming off of a 56-point season. Was it 56? Let me grab this year. Sorry, coming off a 40 points, 40 points, yeah, 40-point season. No, no, no, I was right, 56-point season. It was coming off a 56-point season with the San Jose Sharks. San Jose was in a cap crunch.

They needed a favor. Kevin LeBank and Agent Michael Curran. Yeah. Signed a one year, one million dollar deal with the San Jose sharks and everybody went. What? One million dollars? One million bucks for Kevin LeBank coming off that season? That doesn't make sense until we saw the contract afterwards.

Yes. When it was a four-year deal, 4.7 per. The quid pro quo, again, can't prove any of this. I don't necessarily not allowed to have like, here's one contract and here's one contract in the drawer. We know that doesn't happen in the NHL, but it's not as if all the evidence didn't point at that very direction. So when I think about Cutter-Goce, you may call me cynical, Dave, but I think about Kevin LeBank and how the San Jose Sharks and Doug Wilson and Michael Curran handled that. situation. Thank you very much. Could it be, we'll do you the solid here, but on the next deal, we're getting it all back and more. I get what you're saying. I get it. God, Dave, say it.

Couple things. A couple things. Okay. First, oddly enough, I remember where I was when that four-year deal came in the following year. I was standing on my porch outside when I got a text and I was like, On the LeBank deal, yeah. We all went, whoa. Crazy. Of all things you remember, that's one of them. The primary reason why I don't think that's going to happen here is Kurt Overhart. And I don't anticipate Cutter-Gocchier and his agent going in that direction.

I could have seen Minchikov maybe going in that direction. I mean, before he signed his contract, 7.2, good reason why you don't. Sure. But I don't, I mean, yes, you could do that. And yes, you could take a $9 million or $8 million deal for one year and then signed $17 million next year. I guess in theory, yes. But I just don't see a scenario where his representation would be comfortable at all.

all with that, considering, again, the word was that the money already jumped. Yeah. Like less than 24 hours after the offer sheet for Leo Carlson came in. But, yeah, it's a possibility. And I don't think the, look, I think everybody's in the business of doing favors. I just think that's one hell of a favor that. Oh, it's a whopper. And let's not forget, too.

I'm glad you mentioned Kurt Overhart. He was the agent for, and still is for. Troy Terry, who got, they didn't actually get into the room, but it felt very much like the contract appeared from Pat Verbeek as the arbitration door was opening. Right. Then all of a sudden that appeared and he got his 7 million AAV and everybody was happy. And now we're going to go through another situation here with the same agent, a different player. Yeah.

And compensation that is at a very elite level. As much as much as I look at this organization and I, I guess, go and Pat's in a tough spot now and Samoelli's are trying to cover just make it look like everything's good and green. If you're Jeff Solomon, you got to be like yanking out your hair and just rubbing your eyes and everything going, I'm the, he's the cap guy. He's the contract guy. This is not what we wanted.

This isn't anywhere near where we thought we would be in this situation. We've got to revamp our whole financial mind structure here. So like I get and he's he's he's he's tough on the negotiations too He was in L.A. He is here and between him and Verbeek You're going to have to modify you or we talked we talked on this Hang on are you going to say are you going to use the C word are you going to use change Is Pat for Beak going to change day fan yota It's Pat for beak going to mean we I said yet he should

I think mistakes will continue until the lesson is learned? Yeah, yeah, I think I think maybe the lesson is starting to sink in a little bit. Especially, yes, Jordan Schmaltz always says this,

always bust this out. Yesterday's price is not today's price. Yeah. That's where we're at. That's what the owners used to stay during the 04 lockout. The best deal you could have signed was yesterday. The best deal you could have signed was yesterday. That's always the classic from the owners

during lockout. The best deal you could have had was yesterday. A little different now. and I'm going to be different tomorrow whenever Goce signs too. Not saying tomorrow tomorrow, but you know what I mean. Sure. That's going to be fascinating. Anything else you want to sort of empty the tank on here?

Hart Levine from Puckpeda coming up here in a couple of seconds. But is there anything that you want to make sure that you get out right now about either this entire situation, the futures of both teams, general managers, this player, like, look, he's an Anaheim duck. They get control next July 2nd after the next whopper of a bonus is. paid. You know, Leo Carlson's in Anaheim, Doc, does he stay in Anaheim Duck for the next five years? I mean, if he produces the manner in which they anticipate him to and that I think we expect to, I think just because, like, again, we're going back to business decisions. Now, I do think part of the negotiation left him a little salty, but water under the bridge when you're collecting

whatever is being deposited into your account today, 19. Whatever. So, I think water under the bridge, sit down, talk, get everything on, lay all the cards out. Yeah. And then you're good to go. As I said, there was a little bit of bad taste in your mouth after the negotiations, which led to the offer sheet. But I think it's, I don't think anything is not fixed. Like, it's fixable is what I'm trying to say.

And I would be surprised. And you're right from what you said earlier. There is a little bit of, there is a lot of cap relief. because Beckett Seneca is going to need a new deal eventually. But he has two years left on his ELC. So he can sign July 1 of 2027, which, Pat, get on that, early. We'll see, Dave. Learn.

We'll see. We'll see. But that deal doesn't kick in until the following season. So you've got a lot. By that point, I think the cap's 122, 123. So there. And then from Philly's side, just quickly, I mean, you tried, you took your best shot, it was calculated,

you go on about your business now. But, you know, you got a couple big deals that need to be attended to with Zegris and with Drysdale. So, you know, last one here. I did very much get the feeling almost immediately that the Flyers knew this was going to be a long shot, even at that number. But that if they, you know,

know, it's, part of me is, like, I'll be honest to Dave, I think that they thought it was a long shot. And then the other part of me said, well, if you're the Philadelphia Flyers and the Anaheim ducks don't match, are you the dog that just caught the car? Yeah. Like, now, now what do I do? Worth the risk. Worth, well, that too, yes. I mean, yeah, it's like, oh, wow, okay, I caught the car.

Okay, what? Like, I'm sure they would have had a plan, but is there not that element of the dog that caught the car? Yeah, I think so, but I think they felt it was worth the risk. 100%. We'll deal with this. We'll deal with this if it happens. You know, there's, I think there's an option, like, there's an opportunity if you need to free up additional money. I think there's, like, Ristolin's still out there.

There's still conversations with teams there. You know, I'm sure, again, like, I don't think there's any worry that they're not going to get Driesdale and Zegras locked in by any account. But, you know, we'll see. I mean, there was some report the other day. I mean, I thought they were getting close with Drysdale. Triesdale, I heard that too, yeah. Yeah, and there was, I think the numbers being thrown out were four times six in a quarter. I think the player's side's looking for more than that, quite a decent amount more than that,

especially with some of the numbers being thrown out. So there's a little happy medium that's going to have to happen there. But we will see. You take the shot. Hey, man, look, if you end up with the car, beautiful. You worry about it afterwards. In this case, the car is lugging a bunch of briefcases with cash in it over to Sweden right now. I'm going to have to build a bigger driveway if I'm going to have this.

Oh, poor Danny Breyer. Although I'll tell you what, him and Keith Jones are heroes in Philadelphia right now, even just for taking the swing. Oh, yeah, go for it. You've been great hopping on every time whenever there's like big news. You're right there. I want to know on behalf of all of us here. it's really appreciated. You sharing all of your expertise here over.

Offer Sheetgate, like, what a wild week it's been. What a wild six days. And now we'll turn our attention back to Jason Robertson. Okay? Yes. How's that? Yes, there you. Sorry, Dallas.

Back on Robertson Watch. You're on the clock. Yeah, back to you, Dallas. All right. Thanks, Dave. You be good, pal. You too, buddy.