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07/09 13:19 CDT Anaheim Ducks keep Leo Carlsson, matching Flyers' $90 million offer sheet for young center Anaheim Ducks keep Leo Carlsson, matching Flyers' $90 million offer sheet for young center By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) --- The Anaheim Ducks have matched the Philadelphia Flyers' offer sheet for center Leo Carlsson, keeping their rising young star at an extraordinary cost. The Ducks announced their decision Thursday on the 21-year-old Carlsson, who is now the NHL's highest-paid player under the five-year, $90 million deal extended by the Flyers one week ago. "It's going to be a special feeling, having this pressure," said Carlsson, who wasn't told the Ducks were matching the offer sheet until shortly before the decision was made public. "I always wanted to be a Duck. It's my home, too. I'm just super excited to be back." Carlsson signed the Flyers' offer sheet as a restricted free agent after a year of fruitless negotiations with Anaheim general manager Pat Verbeek, whose typical hardline approach in contract talks with his restricted free agents backfired tremendously this time. Carlsson's new contract is worth much more than the league expected the Swedish youngster would get as a restricted free agent, and the $18 million average annual value is significantly more than he had already indicated he would accept. The deal surpasses the salary of Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov, who would have been the NHL's highest-paid player at $17 million. Carlsson's first significant contract negotiations landed him a huge payday --- and it might have affected the NHL's entire salary structure going forward, thanks to the Flyers' boldness. He emerged from the experience with excitement about the Ducks' future and no public qualms about the way everything went down. "It's a lot of business in hockey," Carlsson said. "I knew it, obviously, but it's more business than I thought. (The details are) something for my agent to answer more on, but (the offer sheet) was just too good to pass on. I think everybody understands that. I talked to my teammates a lot, and everybody was just happy for me and super-supportive with the decision I made." The Flyers failed to land their long-sought No. 1 center in unusual fashion by swiping Carlsson, but the attempt showed general manager Danny Briere's determination to improve his roster at all costs. The Ducks would have received four first-round draft picks from Philadelphia if they hadn't matched the offer sheet. Future negotiations will reveal whether Briere significantly skewed the NHL's valuations of young talent by offering more than nearly all observers thought Carlsson could get. The structure of Philadelphia's offer sheet also front-loaded Carlsson's contract with costly signing bonuses in another departure from many NHL contracts. Fortunately for the Ducks, billionaire owner Henry Samueli didn't hesitate to make that hefty financial commitment. "Matching the offer sheet was an easy decision, as Pat has intelligently left enough cap space to give us the ability to retain Leo," Henry and Susan Samueli said in a statement. "We have extremely high expectations for Leo. We firmly believe he will continue his strong growth trajectory and become one of the truly elite centers in the league while continuing to make a strong impact in our community." Although the Ducks retained their most important young player, Verbeek's inability to get a deal done before he was forced into it by Philadelphia seems almost certain to compromise Anaheim's roster-building efforts for years to come. The Ducks have had a rough summer after ending their seven-season playoff drought with a second-round run that stamped them as a near-future contender. After keeping the Ducks' payroll well under the salary cap during his tenure, Verbeek will be spending Samueli's money at the limit of the cap next season after signaling vulnerability to the league while he managed his crop of young talent. Verbeek still hasn't signed 41-goal scorer Cutter Gauthier, a restricted free agent who is not eligible to receive an offer sheet. Anaheim signed defenseman Pavel Mintyukov to a five-year, $36 million deal last week, again going well over the expected market rate for a restricted free agent who isn't on Carlsson's level of talent, but was widely rumored to be on the verge of signing an offer sheet. Verbeek parted ways with four key defensemen from last season's team --- Jacob Trouba, captain Radko Gudas, Olen Zellweger and John Carlson --- and hasn't replaced them with any significant signings beyond journeyman Nick Jensen. Anaheim also traded Mason McTavish, a key component of its team for several seasons, to St. Louis for draft picks after the center regressed last season. This pricey deal for Carlsson is the latest chapter in Verbeek's history of antagonistic negotiations with Anaheim's free agents. Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale and McTavish all held out of training camp in recent years when they couldn't get a deal done with Verbeek, who eventually signed all three --- and later traded them all away. Verbeek did two of those deals with the Flyers, gaining praise for sending Drysdale in a package for Gauthier, but getting criticism from Ducks fans for giving up on the high-scoring Zegras last summer. Carlsson was the No. 2 choice in the 2023 draft behind Connor Bedard, and he has emerged as one of the NHL's top young playmakers. Although he didn't produce points at a rate commensurate with his new salary during his first three seasons, almost everyone believes Carlsson can become one of the best centers in hockey, so his deal might eventually look downright affordable. He scored 67 points in 70 games last season despite being limited for a lengthy stretch by a leg injury, and he added 11 points in 12 games during his first postseason experience. "I'm going to grow as a player, too," Carlsson said. "I've done that every year so far. Trying to get away from these slumps I've been having during seasons. Trying to stay at the highest level I can all season long." Carlsson is expected to be an unrestricted free agent when this contract ends in 2031, putting him in line for another massive payday at just 26 years old. ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

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