Armed with league-leading cap space, Anaheim is bracing for potential predatory bids on their star center. Elliotte Friedman reports the Ducks will aggressively protect their cornerstone at any cost.
The Anaheim Ducks entered the 2026 offseason with a projected $38.8 million in cap space, holes throughout their depth chart (most notably on the right side of their blueline), and six NHL RFAs (Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Olen Zellweger, Pavel Mintyukov, Tyson Hinds, Ian Moore) in need of new contracts, with two of them projected to be sizable extensions: Leo Carlsson (21) and Cutter Gauthier (22).
After signing Moore to a two-year contract extension, trading Mason McTavish to the St. Louis Blues, and trading Olen Zellweger to the Buffalo Sabres, the Ducks entered the July 1 free agency period with a projected $44.6 million in cap space, and the number of NHL RFAs in need of contract extensions decreased to four (Carlsson, Gauthier, Mintyukov, Hinds).
Offer sheets are an intriguing aspect of every NHL offseason, but notoriously, they’re rarely extended and signed. NHL clubs may sign opposing RFAs to offer sheets between July 1 and Dec. 1, and once signed, the player’s original team has seven days to either match the offer or send the player to the team they signed with in exchange for predetermined compensation.
Of the Ducks’ four current RFAs, only Carlsson, Mintyukov, and Hinds are eligible to sign offer sheets with opposing teams, as Gauthier does not meet the experience criteria. Typically, offer sheets have only been successful when extended to second-tier RFAs. When offered to top-tier players, they’re immediately matched.
The Ducks were relatively quiet to open the NHL free agency period despite losing a trio of veteran RHDs, as well as some depth forwards from their 2025-26 roster. Their only NHL acquisitions to date have been forward AJ Greer, forward Jeff Malott, defenseman Nick Jensen, and goaltender Laurent Brossoit.
They currently have a projected $35.2 million in cap space, the most in the NHL by over $5 million.
A combination of a seeming lack of reverence for the 2026 NHL Draft, an ever-increasing salary cap, and a thin unrestricted free agent market has led to the most eventful NHL offseason in recent memory.
Which brings us back to offer sheets. The New Jersey Devils have already signed Utah Mammoth center Barrett Hayton to a one-year, $4.78 million offer sheet, of which Utah has until July 8 to match or lose the player for a second-round pick as compensation.
With high-profile RFAs such as Jason Robertson, Connor Bedard, Leo Carlsson, Adam Fantilli, Simon Edvinsson, etc., currently eligible for offer sheets, some have speculated whether this may be the offseason where these prolific players sign offer sheets.
Premier NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reported on Twitter that if teams were to attempt to acquire Carlsson from the Ducks via offer sheet, it would be immediately matched, and the reason for their lack of activity to this point in the offseason is to maintain cap flexibility.
John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images“Saw one offer sheet yesterday, Barrett Hayton (with) New Jersey, and are wondering about more,” Friedman wrote. “Heard over the past few hours Anaheim guaranteed it will match any attempt on Leo Carlsson, and the reason the Ducks haven’t made many moves is to make sure to be in a safe cap position.”
Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek has established a reputation as one of the tougher GMs in the NHL to negotiate with, especially for RFAs, and especially more when they’re coming off their ELCs. Since he’s taken over in the Ducks’ front office, he’s taken negotiations with Troy Terry to the minutes before entering his scheduled arbitration hearing, and he’s taken negotiations with Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, and Mason McTavish well into training camp without a deal in place.
The two significant RFA contracts Verbeek “got ahead of” in terms of negotiations were Lukas Dostal in the summer of 2025, where a five-year contract extension was signed several days before arbitration hearings were set to commence, and Jackson LaCombe in Oct. 2025, where an eight-year deal was signed nine months before his current one was scheduled to expire.
Author’s opinion: By not having Carlsson under contract by July 1 and this report coming out a day after, it appears, from the outside, as though Carlsson and his representation have been given all leverage in negotiations with the Ducks.
It’s become more fashionable over the last 5-10 years in the NHL for GMs to sign their young star players well before their ELCs expire so as to have them committed to their teams for as long as possible, to as low an AAV as possible, before they truly break out and acquire more leverage.
“We reached a point, maybe late October/early November, that we decided to table talks with any of our young players and just focus on playing hockey,” Verbeek said when asked about contract negotiations with pending RFAs at the trade deadline. “And if they play hockey well, then all the contract stuff will take care of itself. I just wanted their mindset to be worried on playing good hockey and helping this team win and get into the playoffs.”
During Verbeek’s exit interview, Verbeek expressed his desire to get his high-profile RFAs (Carlsson and Gauthier) signed before training camp.
“In a perfect situation, I’d like to get them done in a week here,” Verbeek said on May 15. “I’m hoping for the best to try and make sure that everybody’s excited for training camp and all of us are happy. I don’t have a crystal ball to say how it’s going to go, but we’re going to do our best to make sure that we get everybody excited and there for camp.”
“I’d like to get it done as soon as possible, but we all have to cooperate with one another, right? That’s the goal,” Verbeek continued when asked about the motivation to get contracts signed before July 1.
Carlsson reiterated Verbeek’s sentiments at his own exit interview, on May 15, to get a contract agreed upon before training camp and relayed that negotiations hadn’t taken place to that point.
“No, not really. We’ll just take it into summer, see what happens,” Carlsson said when asked about any preliminary contract talks between him, his representation, and Verbeek.
When asked about a preferential timeline for a deal, Carlsson said, “I want to get it done before training camp so I can be here with the team as early as possible.”
At of the end of the first round of the recent NHL Draft, the last time the media spoke with Verbeek, when asked about the status of RFA contract negotiations, he said, “They’re ongoing. That’s all I can say. We’re talking, and we’ll see where it goes.”
This remains an important offseason in the growth of the Anaheim Ducks franchise, on the heels of their first playoff appearance since 2018 and with the goal to “keep pushing this football down the field,” as Verbeek stated at the Draft on June 26.
The landscape of the Ducks roster and depth chart, along with projections regarding the upcoming season, is still very much in question after recently losing McTavish, Zellweger, John Carlson, Jacob Trouba, Radko Gudas, Ross Johnston, and Jeffrey Viel, and acquiring Greer, Mallot, Jensen, and Brossoit.
Author’s opinion: It seems as though by not having contracts agreed upon with Carlsson and Gauthier, the Ducks were and remain unable to significantly add to and improve their roster due to uncertainty regarding the amount of cap space they’d have to work with.
