Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.
Mike Tyson
Post becomes the first restricted free agent (in the $5 million-plus range) to depart for an offer sheet in restricted free agency since Bogdan Bogdanovic left the Sacramento Kings for the Atlanta Hawks in 2020.
TSN – Anthony Slater – Sources: Grizzlies land Post after Warriors pass on offer sheet
Counterpoint:
Just give me 25 guys on the last year of their contracts; I’ll win a pennant every year.
Sparky Anderson
Sportsnet – Who’s the next Leo Carlsson? A look at upcoming intriguing RFAs
You aren’t sure if you’re making the right decision – about anything, ever.
Joan Didion
On the plains of hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the dawn of decision, sat down to wait, and waiting died.
George W. Cecil
Phil has a question:
If Pat Verbeek wants to show the 31 other NHL managers that ‘I’m tough and you’re not gonna push me around’ should be not have matched the offer within minutes.
In my house I’m the boss, my wife is just the decision maker.
Woody Allen
As one NHL executive put it: “I really think it’s a fireable offense.”
Consider that the Ducks could have probably landed Carlsson at eight years and $100 million last summer, based on what he said he was willing to agree on. Now, it’s $90 million on a five-year term. If his next contract runs around three years and builds on that AAV … well, the Ducks’ front office just cost the Samueli family tens of millions of dollars that it didn’t need to spend on a single player.
ESPN – Greg Wyshynski – Judging overreactions to the first wave of 2026 NHL free agency
Phil has a question:
What is Pat Verbeek waiting for.
If Pat Verbeek wants to make a statement on Carlsson’s value to the Ducks wouldn’t matching the offer immediately be the appropriate gesture.
Is Pat Verbeek’s ‘I’m tough and you’re not gonna push me around’ stance pushing the Ducks right out of the pond.
Sometimes Phil just gotta succumb to the Urge
Sometimes Phil just gotta succumb to the Urge
There is an immeasurable distance between late and too late.
Og Mandino
Now, it’s up to the Ducks to respond. In a vacuum, keeping Carlsson is a slam-dunk decision. This is a franchise player who helped Anaheim turn the corner back into the playoff picture. Why take a step back now?
But it’s not a slam dunk in a vacuum. In the context of an $18 million AAV that could potentially change the pay scales in Anaheim moving forward, it could crush the Ducks’ rebuilding efforts and hamstring this window of contention in the early stages.
Phil has a question:
Would the Ducks fans rather have their team in Salary Cap Purgatory with Carlson or squandering cash trying to find a replacement for a departed star.
A wrong decision is better than indecision.
Tony Soprano
SportsNet – How Mintyukov signing puts more pressure on Ducks
Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.
Napoleon Hill
Pressure is when you play for five dollars a hole with only two in your pocket.
Lee Trevino
Phil has a question:
What is Pat Verbeek waiting for.
If Pat Verbeek wants to make a statement on Carlsson’s value to the Ducks wouldn’t matching the offer immediately be the appropriate gesture.
There is an immeasurable distance between late and too late.
Og Mandino
ESPN – Ryan S. Clark – Flyers tender offer sheet to Ducks star Leo Carlsson
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
Voltaire
TSN – Flyers sign Ducks RFA Carlsson to five-year offer sheet at NHL-high $18M AAV
No option is particularly good for the Ducks in the bigger picture, but one must be chosen in the seven days Anaheim general manager Pat Verbeek has as he meets with his staff.
Here’s the best one: Match it.
Phil has a question:
How tough will Pat Verbeek’s decision to match be when he looks over at the Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup with Sebastian Aho leading the way for the Hurricanes rather than the Habs after the Canes matched the Habs offer sheet.
How tough will Pat Verbeek’s decision to match be when he looks over at the mess of the Oilers that Jeff Jackson and Stan Bowman made by not matching Holloway and Broberg’s offer sheets and the worse mess that Jeff Jackson and Stan Bowman have made by trying to find the talent to replace the talent they let slip away.
If Pat Verbeek matches the Philadelphia offer with nary a blink of the eye will Katz realize what a colossal blunder Jeff Jackson and Stan Bowman made by not matching Holloway and Broberg’s offer sheets and finally get around to firing both of them immediately.
It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.
Thomas Sowell
On the 1970s Philadelphia Flyers: Nobody likes us. Nobody outside Philadelphia, that is. In fact, the nicest thing people say about us is that we are a bunch of muggers.
Fred Shero
The contract inefficiency makes this a significantly more challenging choice than it would normally be; Leo Carlsson is not worth $18 million per year on a five-year deal.
But he’s also worth more than four “meh” firsts.
That’s the crux of the situation. The Ducks are in an unenviable position, faced with two unappetizing options. Either way, they’re swallowing poison with one option infecting the short term and one option infecting the long term.
It takes a nasty offer sheet to make keeping your franchise player feel like anything but a slam dunk, and the Flyers have delivered here. Now we wait to see which pill Anaheim takes — and how it affects the Ducks’ suddenly sour future.
The Athletic – Dom Luszczyszyn – Should the Ducks match Flyers’ offer sheet to Leo Carlsson?
SportsNet – Elliot Friedman – How the Leo Carlsson offer sheet changes everything in the NHL
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
Theodore Roosevelt
Phil M. Stockmen