The Ducks have retained their No. 1 center after matching Leo Carlsson's five-year, $90 million offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursdays morning. Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek spoke to local media via video conference call regarding the events of the past week and other topics. Below is a full transcript of the call, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Verbeek's opening statement:

First of all, we're extremely excited to have Leo Carlsson under contract for the next five years, certainly exciting for us. I think from the day that we drafted him, we viewed him as a cornerstone in a piece of our rebuild, and that hasn't changed. Leo and I have a great relationship, and I think that this whole thing has been worked through. My feelings for Leo haven't changed since the day that we drafted him. The business at hand is taken care of, and now both of us are looking forward to building off the season that we had last year and towards winning a Stanley Cup.

I know there's probably lots of questions about the process, and I want to answer them as best I can. So I'll just kind of lay out a little timeline: last September, I met with the agents of Leo and Cutter (Gauthier) and Jackson LaCombe. I made serious and fair offers at that particular point, as you saw that I was able to get Jackson LaCombe signed at that particular time. We continued to talk with Leo and Cutter during the season and 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 1st. And I think it was probably three or four days before July 1st, I felt 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.

As you saw, there was plenty of cap space. We were prepared to accept offer sheets with all the cap space that we had. From that particular time, we had to deal with what we were going to have. Now, did we expect the offer sheet to be this high? No. We did not see that one coming, but we're very confident in the sense that with the cap going up and with the ability of Leo to make great strides of improvement and become an elite player, we feel confident that this contract will be a good one in the end.

I was just wondering why you think it got to the point where Carlsson and his camp, they felt like it was the right decision to sign an offer sheet as opposed to maybe just waiting around or trying to negotiate more with you guys.

Well, I can't speak to what they were thinking. Being a former player, there's always an excitement to have a chance to determine your destiny. And I think in this particular case, that kind of sort of fits that whole narrative. This is a CBA right that they have, and I don't begrudge them taking that route.

You mentioned that you felt like you were kind of getting slow-walked to July 1st. When was the last time that you guys had conversations prior to the offer sheet being tendered?

We spoke the morning of July 2nd. Later that afternoon, there was an offer sheet. So spoken all the way up till July 2nd.

Carlsson’s number came in higher than I think just about anybody anticipated. (Pavel) Mintyukov, his number as well. So now, with Gauthier still unsigned, what approach are you going to take with him, and do you think you might have to move a contract to be able to accommodate his salary?

Well, the intention is to get Cutter signed. I think that whatever Cutter comes in (at), I'm going to have some work to do to make sure that we can fit everyone in. So I've got two and a half months to figure that out, and we'll go through that process for the rest of the summer.

And then, just looking back on the offseason to date, is there anything you might have done differently if you had to do it over again, maybe a change in emphasis, and does this maybe shift the way you'll deal with RFAs in the future?

With RFAs, I think the increased cap space has certainly led to different circumstances, and I think this offer sheet is going to be felt around the rest of the league. So certainly, we are going to have to do business in a different type of manner moving forward, and so we will make the adjustments that we have to make to maintain and to keep pushing forward to helping our team win a Stanley Cup.

Question just about the timing of it. Since you were sort of anticipating that you were being walked to July 1st. What's the reasoning behind waiting nearly the full week in order to make the announcement, and at what point did you fully know that you were going to be matching?

Well, I think we went through our due diligence, so we had multiple discussions with my inner circle, with ownership. You make calls around the rest of the league. You explore things. The compensation was four first-round picks, so we looked at that closely. And I think the more discussions that we had, it became an easier decision and it was speaking to us that we needed to match the offer sheet.

And then a follow-up on that, just the conversations with ownership, given the structure of the deal. Can you tell us anything about those conversations from the standpoint of the cash outlay through the signing bonuses?

Well, I mean, the contract’s the contract. We do our contracts in different styles. And so, when you're faced with this sort of predicament, you match what's on the offer sheet, and our owner was never in doubt about matching when it came to the money that was outlaid.

In the statement, (you and the Samuelis) both said it was an easy decision to make. It’s still a lot of money to commit, the largest contract in NHL history and things like that.
So what was sort of the initial reaction from you and from the Samuelis when you approached them with this?

Well, it was surprising, to say the least. But I actually feel flattered in a sense that Philadelphia wanted such a great player. It means that we're doing a very good job on our end, and we feel that Leo, at some point, is going to show the elite player that he is, and it's going to give us great reasons for why we matched this offer.

And when it comes to negotiating the rest of the salary cap, whether it's this year or next year, it seems like you're going to have to make some sort of moves to tighten this thing up. Are you happy with where some of those position groups are, particularly the young defense group, or are you still looking to augment that if you can?

No, I'm very happy. We've got good, young defense. I think when I look at our defense, most of them played in the playoffs last year and got good experience there. The only one that hasn't is Tristan Luneau, who we see as making the team next year, and he's a guy that scored a huge goal for us just to help us make the playoffs. So I feel very confident with our defense, when you look through them: Jackson LaCombe, four-plus years; Mintyukov, four-plus years. (Drew) Helleson’s on his third year. And they're older; it’s not like they're 20-year-old kids. They're now 23––with Hinds. So they've got enough pro experience that I feel comfortable with them moving forward and also with our coaching staff being able to help them exponentially improve over the course of the season.

How much of this, as you were going through this process and arrived at this decision, did you guys conclude that 18 (million) was going to be the going rate for an elite center in this league? How much is your belief that Carlsson will be that?

Players like Leo don't come along very often. He has elite skill, elite vision and an ability to go east-west just as fast as he can north-south.
So I think the size has played a lot into it. I think Leo is very smart, he's a 200-foot player. And I just think with his ability, he makes players around him much better. And you just don’t come across these types of players. And I think at some point, maybe not next year, but in the near future, that it's going to prove true.

Right now, Carlsson is going to have this “highest-paid player in the league tag. That may not last for very long.

No, I don't anticipate it lasting very long.  I think certainly there's a lot of other young stars out there, and there's probably some veterans that are really good players too, going to be coming up soon, and that market will change again. So I think as you look at all of this, the cap is going up, and there's going to have to be adjustments in the marketplace from everybody, whether that's the managers, whether that's the agents and the players. So there will be adjustments made across the board and at some point, this whole marketplace will settle in and we'll have a really good idea of what compensation or comparables each player will have moving forward.

But there will be pressure on Carlsson that comes with that, certainly height. How do you think he'll handle that?

Well, I think, initially, the money is probably going to be––I think the pressure's going to be more to win than on the money. And I think we all want to win, and I think players will put pressure on themselves to win. Leo wants to win more than anybody. So I think that's the pressure he's going to put on himself or feel. And it won't be any different if he were making a million dollars versus $18 million from that perspective.

You talked about what this will do in terms of impacting what you will do for the rest of the summer and this coming season here. In the bigger picture, I know Beckett (Sennecke) is down the line, but if he keeps putting up numbers, he could certainly be in line for his own big deal, and you’ve got Gauthier (to sign still, too). You could have a lot of money tied up in four players. How will that impact the Cup contending team that you want to build, the one that you've talked about building? A sustainable one that's going to be a Cup contender for several years?

Well, I think that the nice part is I feel we’ve drafted well, and we have more support coming underneath from the players that we have currently on our roster. Certainly, you're going to have to look for different ways (of) how to build a team, and I think that I'm not really too concerned about it because ultimately, you have to build. You have your core players, and you have to build around them. And we will find those players that can kind of fit the contracts and the talent to go with them, so I'm not worried about it at all.

How much do the expectations of him going into the next season change now that he has this kind of contract?

The expectations are going to be pushed only because, when you project these young players, you want them to keep taking steps each and every year. And I think from Leo's case, he's been on a nice trajectory. 
We'd like it to kind of go a little steeper, take a little bigger jump than kind of the jump that he made from last year. So for me, the expectations aren't needing to go through the roof. We just wanted to keep building. I think the main thing for Leo is to keep continuing to put weight on and to keep continuing to get stronger. And within a year or two, I think you're going to start seeing an unreal version of Leo Carlsson.

You spoke about it earlier with other players in the league being good and talented and young players coming in being talented. What is it that makes Carlsson worth this kind of contract for you guys?

He's highly skilled. He's fast. He creates a lot of speed through the neutral zone. He pushes the defensemen back. His vision's incredible, and he has a great hockey sense. The playmaking ability is elite, but I think what's where he's really going to take a nice step is in his goalscoring. And he's just really starting to learn how to score goals, and I think that's where we'll see a nice increase with Leo.

You said this contract is kind of structured differently than how ownership in your organization usually structures its contracts. But the fact that they were so quick to say, ‘Hey, we're going to match’, how big is that for you and for your inner circle down the road when you are going to have to negotiate these contracts and another issue similar to this could come up? How important is it for you to know that they've that you have their support, seemingly no matter what?

Well, it's great. 
You talk about contracts, but I think every negotiation's different. And so this is this has kind of been something that has been more forced on us than how we like to do contracts. But knowing our owner, he wants to win, just like I do, and so we're going to do what needs to be done to win.

Standing outside the circle and watching the growth of this franchise has been spectacular in what you've done to recapture enthusiasm in Orange County. But the stunning loss of veterans on the blue line--three who were allowed to leave as free agents and then the Olen Zellweger trade. Was that salary cap-driven? Was that talent-driven? 
Was that age-driven? Because my sense is, all of a sudden, it doesn't have the same roster that captured the enthusiasm everybody had last year and forged their way into the playoffs. What’s your read of what happened?

Well, we had John Carlson and Radko Gudas and Jacob Trouba. But when you get to the age of the players, we have young up-and-coming players, and we have to allow them room to be able to grow as well. I think the older guys provided a lot of stability, but at this point, for me, it's important that our younger guys be allowed to spread their wings as well and to gain more experience when this team is really ready to take on and start winning consistently in the playoffs.

The surprise loss of Matt McIlvane going to Boston. Timeframe and what type of person do you need to coach your Gulls franchise? Because this has been a really well-received franchise in the San Diego community when the product has been good. You've had a couple of good teachers as head coaches here. How quickly do you fill it, and what's the profile of what you need to fill it?

Well, actually, we haven’t announced it yet, but that will be coming in due time. We have all three coaches hired, and we will do that at the appropriate time.

The potential of an offer sheet... How much of a factor did that play a role in the moves we saw earlier with Mason (McTavish) and Zellweger?

Well, I think prior to Mason and even Olen, we still had plenty of space; I just think that they were moves to help create some openings in other areas. And so that's kind of how I viewed those moves. We acquired (Anton) Wahlberg, who is a really up-and-coming, good left winger. We're looking to fill some spots in the future, so those moves were kind of made––and I probably mentioned this before, but I probably wouldn't have traded Mason McTavish if (Nikita) Klepov wasn't there (at 15th overall), and we were able to get a very talented winger again scoring winger with (Marcus) Nordmark (at 28th overall). So it kind of set the tone to kind of get our young skill deeper into the organization. And it also allows Roger McQueen to kind of develop at a little slower rate and not push him into the frame quickly with having (Mikael) Granlund at the 2C. So all these moves were kind of made to move some pieces around the chessboard, so to speak.

It sounds like getting Gauthier re-signed is a priority of what you have to do, but you're maybe not looking to make any more additions or upgrades? If it's a slam dunk move, you're gonna do it, but you're not aggressively seeking to make any more? This is essentially the opening night roster?

Well, that's hard to say, but I still have two months of work to do, so you can ask me that question on September 30th.

You had talked about defense. Are there any other areas you're looking to maybe make an addition to?

We brought in (Jeff) Malott, we brought in (A.J.) Greer. We kind of shored up different holes in our lineup. In Greer's case, I think he's kind of an elevator player in the sense that he can move up and down the lineup on either side of the ice, so it gives Coach Q options. Malott gives us really good size and speed, something that we were looking to improve there, with our fourth line, with more speed. And so I think we've attacked a few areas that we thought needed some improvements. And I feel good about it. I really do.

There was a report that before Carlsson signed the offer sheet, his camp had come to you with the number, there was a counter and then the offer sheet was signed. Is that true?

No, that's false.

A lot of these negotiations in the last few years with the RFAs have gone into training camp. Both parties want to find a fair deal that works for both of them. How has the process of being a fair negotiator, how has that process been for you over the last few years, and now with Carlsson's deal?

Well, I think that moving forward now, we're going to have to make adjustments. I think that if I look at things, it's certainly my job to make sure that we can fit everybody in under the cap. You want to have the best player you possibly can in those circumstances. And I think that it would be very easy just to give the players everything they wanted every time, and those negotiations would go rather quickly. 
But obviously, we can't do that. And so things drag out sometimes longer than you want them to. But that's the process. We'll work them through, trying to make sure that we can get good deals for the team.

With Troy (Terry) being out for as long as he's going to be out, is there any desire to get some sort of scoring help there for that wing side?

Well, we believe we've got Sam Colangelo in the wings. He's going to get a good opportunity to get into the lineup. The part that I think everybody's nervous about, we have players underneath that are pushing to get a chance. And so, like I said before, we feel comfortable with the players that we have waiting in the wings to get their opportunity to play for the Ducks.

With how this week has gone, how has this impacted your outlook on the negotiations with Gauthier, if at all?

Nothing’s gonna change there. We'll continue to negotiate and try to find common ground, and then hopefully, at some point, we can strike a deal.

How different were these Carlsson negotiations than the ones for, say, Trevor (Zegras), McTavish, and Jamie (Drysdale)? Because there's perception, there's reality. One can have more layers than the other, and I think you answered the perception thing earlier. But how different were these talks with Leo compared to those prior?

Every agent has a different style, and I haven't dealt with every agent in the league. So part of that whole process is feeling out how that's going to go. Sometimes it happens together quickly, sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes each side keeps arguing their points. So there's constantly discussions back and forth all the time. None of this is kind of a surprise for me, for anybody. Some of these things go fast, and sometimes they don't.