Agents Matt and Ryan Keator reveal how strategic delays and a shifting market sparked the historic offer sheet that made Leo Carlsson the NHL's highest-paid player.
The offer sheet extended by the Philadelphia Flyers on July 1 and signed by Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson on July 3 has forever changed the landscape of the NHL when it comes to how RFA negotiations are managed.
The Ducks matched the offer sheet on July 9, and Carlsson will remain a member of the Ducks organization. His contract is for five years and carries an AAV of $18 million, rendering him the highest-paid player in the NHL for the 2026-27 season.
Carlsson’s agents, Matt and Ryan Keator, joined Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, premier NHL insider, on his “32 Thoughts” podcast to “give everyone some color” on how the negotiations played out and where each side (the agents, the Ducks, and Carlsson) was coming from.
Some new information was revealed in the 37-minute interview, and will be highlighted below.
Timeline
As of Sunday, July 12, the available information indicated, from Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek, that the Ducks were in contract extension discussions with Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, and Jackson LaCombe in Sept. 2025. LaCombe was signed to an eight-year extension, but negotiations with Carlsson and Gauthier were “tabled” in late Oct./early Nov.
“Last September, I met with the agents of Leo and Cutter (Gauthier) and Jackson LaCombe,” Verbeek said during his media availability, following his decision to match the offer sheet. “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.”
Friedman revealed details on the contract, and the Keators revealed they were the ones who decided to pause negotiations from Carlsson’s side.
“Around the time they signed Jackson LaCombe, which was 8x9, at that time, the richest deal in Anaheim (Ducks) history, that the Ducks had made an offer to Leo Carlsson in the 8x10.5 range, which, as we know now, wasn’t going to get it done, but it was more of a fair market offer,” Friedman said.
The Keators gave insight into their decision not to sign in the Fall of 2025, citing their projection of the market in the Summer of 2026 and beyond.
“It’s an offer that we were quick to turn down right away,” Matt Keator said of the Ducks’ initial number. “And it wasn’t for their (the Ducks’) lack of trying. We just needed time to kind of figure out the marketplace and where the marketplace was going. And they (the Ducks) were tenacious. There were after us on it through September and October.”
“You could see this market shift going on, and we got into November, and the Ducks obviously wanted to keep talking,” Matt Keator continued. “And honestly, it was our decision not to get into it with them at that point because we wanted to meet with Leo and his family.
“What we didn’t want was to have happen was we didn’t want Leo to sign a contract that he would regret in relation to the marketplace in later years.”
He continued to reiterate that they (the agents) decided to halt negotiations, and the Ducks were keen on furthering discussions into the season.
"We were still trying to figure out what Leo was as a player. He was 20 at the time, then had turned 21,” Ryan Keator said. “So still seeing that growth from him throughout the whole year, too, had us a little bit hesitant to do a longer-term deal at that time (in Sept.).”
“He (Verbeek) was plenty aggressive (until we tabled it). The Ducks were aggressively trying to sign Leo all the way along, and they’re doing their job,” Matt Keator said. “That’s their job. If anything, we didn’t allow them to do their job because we weren’t engaging because we wanted to get to after the season and have our meeting postseason with Leo.”
Jamie Sabau-Imagn ImagesWaiting on Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks
It had long been speculated that Carlsson’s representatives were doing their best to wait and see how negotiations between the Chicago Blackhawks and star center Connor Bedard, who was selected one spot ahead of Carlsson in the 2023 draft, progressed.
Carlsson’s agents confirmed that notion in this interview, as they divulged their intentions.
“The season ended, and the Ducks were in touch right away,” Matt Keator said. “We wanted Leo to get a little time off after the season, and then we had our meeting in early June with Leo and his family.
“At that point, we identified that we felt that the comparable was Connor Bedard. Our plan was to see where he ended up in his negotiation and how to negotiate from there. ‘We’ll let Bedard set the market, and then we’ll negotiate from there.’ That was our plan. And we figured by September, we’d fly out to California and get a deal done and ready for camp. Leo’s big thing was to avoid any holdouts or avoid missing camp at all.”
Surprise of the Offer Sheet
In his media availability following the sheet match, Verbeek stated he felt Carlsson’s camp was “slow-walking” him to July 1 and that he felt it might lead to an offer sheet. In this interview, Carlsson’s representation reiterated and insisted that they were simply waiting for Bedard’s number and that the idea of an offer sheet surprised them.
“With the cap going up so much, we just felt it was a slim chance of it, and that’s not something we were planning on at all. Our focus was on Bedard and seeing where that goes,” Matt Keator said. “We told the Ducks in mid-June, ‘Hey, we’ve done a lot of research on the market.’ We talked to them about the market, where we think it’s going. We wanted to wait and see where Bedard ends up, and then basically negotiate from there. Again, they (the Ducks) were doing their job. It was us saying ‘no’ to negotiating at that point.”
Teams were able to contact agents of pending RFAs and begin negotiations on June 30, 24 hours before they were able to officially extend offer sheets on July 1. The Keators said they were blown away by seven or eight teams reaching out to discuss the potential of tendering an offer sheet to their client.
“(On June 30th), I woke up in the morning to see that at 12:04 am, there was a text from a team. I wasn’t expecting it,” Matt Keator said. “We weren’t expecting it. We had seven or eight teams inquire that day, and four teams were ready to make offers pretty right away. They wanted to be in the mix. We were blown away by it a bit.
“We did have discussions with the Ducks that day, and said this could be coming into play. But on July 1, we sent Leo (Philadelphia’s) contract offer in writing, and he was speechless. I think he was overwhelmed by the structure, how it was front-loaded, almost all in signing bonuses.”
Keator went on to note that Carlsson’s Ducks teammates were all supportive of his decision to sign the offer sheet, and they understood the impact it would have on themselves and the team as a whole. The Keators also represent Ducks players Alex Killorn, Chris Kreider, and Ian Moore.
“When the offer sheet came across, Leo’s teammates were very excited for him. Everybody called him,” Matt Keator said. “Even after the season was over, teammates were like, ‘Leo, go do the best you can. We’ll adjust to whatever number you get.’
"All the players were aware that their personal situations could change based on the contract Leo gets. I’ve been in regular touch with Chris Kreider and Alex Killorn. They realize their situations could change, but they realize that’s just part of the business, and they accept that.”
Reaction
The Keators noted they were caught off guard by the public blowback to the news of their client’s offer sheet signing and indicated they felt the Ducks were unfairly criticized for how this situation played out.
“One thing that bothered me was the social media reaction,” Matt Keator said. “This whole process was basically our decision in terms of going in this direction. I know Anaheim did everything they could to get him signed. I think the social media reaction was something that caught us a little bit.”
Author Analysis
This interview was a rare insight into the relationship between player, representation, and an NHL team. The public is typically kept at a distance and mostly in the dark when it comes to contract negotiations.
The historic nature of this offer sheet undoubtedly had fans, media, etc., curious about the goings on and how something like this came to be. It should also be noted that access like this likely had a motivation or two behind it.
The Keators went out of their way to repeat the notion that they were the architects of this situation, and they felt the Ducks and Verbeek made all the correct moves for the betterment of their organization. They stated they disagreed with the ire directed at Anaheim from the public.
Verbeek possesses a reputation as a tough negotiator, and followers suggested that his previous tactics played a significant role in these extension discussions. From the outside, this interview felt like an effort to clear the air, offer insight into their thought processes, paint a more precise picture, and exonerate the Ducks from criticism for their handling of Carlsson’s extension negotiations.
