Montreal’s Early Extensions Insulated Them From Anaheim’s Carlsson Problem

While the Ducks spend this week working through the fallout of an $18 million offer sheet for Leo Carlsson, it’s worth looking at a franchise that avoided that exact scenario entirely — and did it by moving early. As the Professors’ Press Box points out, Kent Hughes got it right. “Instead of waiting for every player to reach his ceiling, he bet on the people he believed would become the Canadiens’ core. Today, those contracts look a whole lot friendlier than they did a week ago.”

Montreal locked up two of its best young players, Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov, to long-term extensions before either one became eligible for the kind of aggressive, front-loaded offer sheet that just hit Anaheim. Hutson signed for $8.85 million annually; Demidov followed at $9.125 million. Combined, the two deals come in almost exactly at what Anaheim is now on the hook for with Carlsson alone.

That’s fueled plenty of debate on social media over the past few days — which side is getting better value, whether Carlsson’s ceiling justifies double the price of either Montreal player individually. It’s a fun argument, but it somewhat misses the more useful comparison.

This is a lesson in when to deal with your players and what happens when you take a more frugal, griding approach to contract negotiations.

The Real Lesson Is Timing, Not Talent

What actually separates the two situations is the timing by the respective GMs in Anaheim and Montreal. Hughes and the Canadiens got ahead of restricted free agency entirely, negotiating directly with two of its cornerstone players and their camps on the team’s terms, with no outside team able to interfere.

Anaheim left Carlsson exposed. That’s in part, due to the tactic by GM Pat Verbeek to play hardball with his players, grind them down in negotiations and not get ahead of the action. His hope was that he could wait and apply pressure, locking in Carlsson at $12 or $13 million. He was aware that an offer sheet was a risk, but Verbeek had every intention of matching. What he might not have seen coming was four other teams, all thinking about an offer sheet and a calculated $18 million offer from the Flyers. They’ve been backed into a corner, simply because they let things get this far.