Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.
Mike Tyson
A wrong decision is better than indecision.
Tony Soprano
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 the Carlsson’s value to the Ducks wouldn’t matching the offer immediately be the appropriate gesture.
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