Hostile Take on Leo Carlsson: It’s Not the Ducks’ Fault

Raphael Simard
Hostile Take on Leo Carlsson: It’s Not the Ducks’ Fault
Credit: YT

When Leo Carlsson signed his hostile offer, many began to blame Pat Verbeek for his lack of aggressiveness in handling the situation.

On the surface, people were right to think that. How could the GM not have reached an agreement with his young star after a few years? Today, Elliotte Friedman published a very interesting interview with Carlsson's agents, revealing several details that were previously unknown.

Here it is:

We learn that Verbeek did his job. He was aggressive in the negotiations and has wanted to sign the Swede for a long time. And while Carlsson ultimately accepted a hostile offer of $18 million per year, we have to “blame” the agents for dragging out the negotiations.

However, his agents never saw the hostile offer coming. They knew it could happen, but they didn't necessarily believe it would.

On the one hand, an agent's job is precisely to secure as much money as possible for their client. In that regard, brothers Matt and Ryan Keator did a great job. Kudos to them.

The brothers also represent Adam Fox and Brandon Montour, among others. There's no doubting their work—they managed to secure $9.5 million for Fox (in 2022) and just over $7 million for Montour.

In short, Verbeek probably doesn't like these two, who represent three other Ducks players: Alex Killorn, Chris Kreider, and Ian Moore.

According to what the Keators told Friedman (Sportsnet), they wanted to wait and see what Connor Bedard's contract looked like before signing anything. But when they saw the $18 million offered by the Flyers, it was clear they were going to give their client the green light to sign the contract.

Even the player's own father told him he had to sign that offer. An offer that shocked him and left him speechless, of course.


In Brief

– Connor Hellebuyck continues to be the talk of the town.

– The skills competition takes place tonight.

– Quebec is represented in Cleveland.

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!