The kitchen sink drama of the week reached its anti-climax on Thursday afternoon, when the Anaheim Ducks officially announced the club matched a $90 million, 5-year offer sheet tendered by the Philadelphia Flyers on July 3 to restricted free agent center Leo Carlsson.
"Matching the offer sheet was an easy decision, as Pat (GM Verbeek) has intelligently left enough cap space to give us the ability to retain Leo," said Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli in the club's official release. "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 on our community."
Anaheim had exactly one week -- until Friday at 3 pm -- to make a decision to either match or let Carlsson walk. If the latter was chosen, the Flyers would have had to forfeit four 1st-round picks in subsequent seasons as compensation.
At least until future trades involve these slots, the picks are presumed safe.
"I just really hoped they would match," Carlsson said in a team-based post-announcement video media scrum. "It's kind of like an offer that I think ... everybody would sign, too. It's a pretty simple answer. I always wanted to be (in Anaheim) too.
Notably absent from the instant analysis frenzy which accompanied the news, Flyers GM Danny Briere. It is unknown when he would be speaking publicly or privately on the issue, but several beat writers have confirmed there will be a time he will address the issue.
Briere did finally issue a statement through the club early Friday morning, which said: "We understood this outcome was possible when we made the offer. While the result isn't what we'd hoped for, our goal does not change -- we remain committed to pursuing every opportunity that will strengthen our team and continue to build towards becoming a consistent and perennial contender without sacrificing our future."
Verbeek himself added: "It was surprising to say the least, but I actually feel flattered in the sense that Philadelphia wanted such a great player. It means that we're doing a very good job on our end. Leo is going to show the elite player he is."
With one of the big free agent fish-on-the-line out of reach, Briere may now set his sights on the other big name in need of a new home -- disgruntled Red Wings center Dylan Larkin.
Earlier in the offseason, Larkin made his displeasure with GM Steve Yzerman and the franchise known publicly; however, Yzerman is reported to be asking a steep price in trade and is likely to begin the regular season with Larkin in the fold.
Regardless, although the remainder of the summer lies ahead, the Flyers do not have a current lock at the 1C position despite investing more than $25M over 5 years on Christian Dvorak.
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