NHL Rumor Mill – July 7, 2026
A look at how Leo Carlsson’s offer sheet could affect the Ducks’ efforts to re-sign Cutter Gauthier, plus the latest on the Sharks, Red Wings, Hurricanes, Bruins, and Canadiens in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
THE LATEST ON THE DUCKS
THE ATHLETIC: Eric Stephens reports the Anaheim Ducks will have less than $10 million in salary-cap space if they match Leo Carlsson’s offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers. That will affect their efforts to re-sign restricted free-agent winger Cutter Gauther.
The 22-year-old Gauthier tallied 41 goals in the final season of his entry-level contract. Stephens doubts the Ducks will be able to re-sign him to an average annual value of under $10 million.
Anaheim Ducks winger Cutter Gauthier (NHL Images).
Gauthier lacks arbitration rights and is ineligible to receive an offer sheet. Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek could use that leverage to play hardball with the young winger. However, Stephens pointed out that it didn’t work well with now-former Ducks Jamie Drysdale, Trevor Zegras, and Mason McTavish. Gauthier was also the pure finisher that Verbeek wanted to pair with Carlsson when he acquired the winger from the Flyers two years ago.
If the Ducks match Carlsson’s offer sheet and re-sign Gauthier, they’ll have to shed salary to become salary cap-compliant before the start of their regular season in October.
Winger Frank Vatrano seems the obvious choice, but moving his $4.57 million AAV through 2026-27 (and its deferred money) won’t be easy. It seems unlikely they’ll move Chris Kreider or Alex Killorn, both of whom have 15-team no-trade lists.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Vatrano would have to be packaged with a draft pick or prospect to facilitate a trade. Even then, clubs might balk at taking on his contract. Kreider or Killorn would draw more interest, possibly from teams not on their no-trade lists.
If the Ducks don’t match Carlsson’s offer sheet, they’ll have to find a suitable replacement. Dylan Larkin of the Detroit Red Wings could be an option if he agrees to accept a trade to Anaheim, but at 29, he’s already hit his ceiling. Another possibility could be Mathew Barzal of the New York Islanders.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Barzal has a 22-team no-trade list, which could complicate things. So would the Islanders’ asking price, as they’ll likely want a good young player in return. So would the Red Wings with Larkin.
NOTABLE RUMOR TIDBITS FROM THE LATEST “32 THOUGHTS” PODCAST
SPORTSNET: In his final “32 Thoughts: The Podcast” for 2025-26, Elliotte Friedman wondered how much it will cost the San Jose Sharks to sign superstar center Macklin Celebrini to a contract extension.
Celebrini, 20, has a year left on his entry-level contract. He’ll be an RFA without arbitration rights next summer and eligible to sign an offer sheet.
The Sharks will want to avoid Celebrini becoming an offer-sheet target. Friedman mused whether they would try to convince him to accept less than the league maximum on his next cap hit.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The maximum cap hit is 20 percent of the salary cap for the first season in which the contract is signed. For 2027-28, it’s $22.6 million.
Given that Leo Carlsson’s new contract has set the benchmark with his league-leading $18 million average annual value, the Sharks will likely try to keep their offer to Celebrini to between $18 million and $19 million. However, his representatives could push for over $20 million.
Friedman said the Carolina Hurricanes are hoping to use an offer sheet to make a big splash this summer. He wondered if they could be eyeing Simon Edvinsson of the Detroit Red Wings.
The Hurricanes will need a defenseman because they’re reportedly shopping Alexander Nikishin, who is an RFA this summer. Friedman said they’re also trying to include forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi in the deal, which would free up $4.25 million in cap space.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now reports the Red Wings have set aside $12 million in cap space in case Edvinsson signs an offer sheet. Even if the Hurricanes can move out Kotkaniemi, they won’t have enough to make an unmatchable offer for the Wings blueliner.
Friedman also said the Hurricanes were considering signing a player to an offer sheet and then trading him if the signing was successful. If a team matches an offer sheet, they cannot trade the player for one year. However, there are no restrictions for a team that successfully signs away a player with an offer sheet.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: In that scenario, the Hurricanes would sign a player they don’t need, and then flip him to another team to address a more pressing roster issue.
Pavel Zacha’s contract extension talks with the Boston Bruins caught Friedman’s attention. He thinks they’ve spoken with other clubs about him. He assumed one of them was the Montreal Canadiens, but two sources denied it.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Bruins probably prefer to retain Zacha, but it doesn’t hurt to gauge the trade market just in case.
Speaking of the Canadiens, Friedman said they’re still searching for a top-six forward. He indicated that they’ve made numerous calls to the Columbus Blue Jackets about Kirill Marchenko, but the Jackets aren’t willing to move him right now.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Nick Lariviere of The Sick Podcast suggested Shane Wright of the Seattle Kraken as a trade option for the Canadiens. The Kraken are reportedly shopping the 22-year-old center.
The Canadiens passed over Wright in the 2022 draft in favor of winger Juraj Slafkovsky. He’s struggled to establish himself as a top-six center with the Kraken. He still has time to achieve that goal and would be an affordable acquisition in terms of salary and return.
However, the Canadiens have been reportedly pursuing more established young talent, such as Marchenko and Toronto Maple Leafs winger Matthew Knies. Wright doesn’t fit that profile.
If Verbeek takes a hard line with Gauthier, given what’s happened till now, he should be fired on the spot. I expect he’ll reach a deal fairly soon. And will then have to trade Vatrano, Killorn or Kreider with a massive sweetener.
Well even if Anaheim trades KILLORN and or KRIEDER. Anaheim already lost Truba., Carlson, and Gudas that’s all of their right side defense they already have to bring up kids from the farm to fill those holes now theyre gonna make more holes with those two forwards so they may be able to sign all those kids, but they won’t have much of a team to play this year. It will mostly be Anaheim farm club because there’s no money left.
Makes you wonder if he trades Gauthier for Edvinsson straight up?
McQueen signed ELC. High pick that could step into lineup. John Carlson was a rental. Ducks signed Nick Jensen to a 2.2m deal. There’s other affordable vets out there. Perhaps with teams still needing center help, the Ducks should consider trading Granlund.
Ed, Eddy plays the LS, the Ducks are good there.
Just wondering how much is Verbeek and how much is Ducks ownership. Does he have open books to do what he wants or is limited?
All three of those players still have some value. Doubt the sweetener is massive.
I’m not saying they don’t have value but when a team is desperate to unload a contract, other teams take advantage. No one’s bailing out the Ducks for free.
Howard: don’t step over the direction Verbeek takes direction from the team owners. The Ducks haven’t typically spent to the cap (thought that may now change LOL), so Verbeek is certain to be in compliance with his brief from the Samueli’s.
It’s weird how so much of the chatter on here was about how GM’s sign guys to long, big $$, bad contracts with NMC’s that they can’t move. Can’t have just a few guys taking up too much of the cap, or be “top heavy”, etc etc.
And then when a GM tries to use some leverage to keep a manageable cap # to improve the rest of the team, he’s should get fired or deserves it for playing hardball when a guy gets offer sheeted.
Just throwing that out there.
So if ANA matches, what has Briere done to improve the Flyers other than drive up inflation for all the high end players in the league?
Excellent point about Briere, Ray. The Ducks (especially Verbeek) deserve criticism for bringing this situation upon themselves, but there will be blowback against Briere and the Flyers organization for doing this. They’ve now made it much more expensive for teams to re-sign promising young talent.
However, if the Ducks don’t match, Briere’s cap space shrinks from $29 million to $11 million, and he still has Zegras and Drysdale to re-sign, both of whom filed for arbitration, and both will be seeking raises. Zegras made $5.75 million and could seek $8 million annually, while Drysdale is due a big pay raise over the $2.3 million AAV of his previous contract, perhaps seeking $7 million or more.
And if Briere plays hardball with Zegras and Drysdale, and both end up going through arbitration, it could grease the skids for their departures.
Shane Wright could be a nice low risk, high reward acquisition for Kent Hughes. Worst case scenario, he’s a decent stop gap until Hage is ready to step in. Maybe a package of Dach and a prospect and/or pick gets it done
Craig
Dach is injured too often to have any trade value.
All Canadiens prospects are better than every other NHL team’s prospects. How dare you suggest to sully the Bleu, Blanc, et Rouge with such a suggestion. 😁
@Lyle Richardson
Sorry I was not specifying to any particular team who might be looking at Wright, such as the habs, but more to an earlier comment by Joe as not touching him with a 51 ft pole 🙂
No problem, 1Oilerfan. Cheers!
I wouldn’t touch Wright with a 51 foot pole 😉
Lafrenniere part deux
You can say that but he isn’t paid 7.45 a year so it doesn’t really match.
He hasn’t lived up to the hype but doesn’t mean he can’t be a good 3rd line centre in the future or a solid 2 way winger for a team willing to work with him.
A good example could be Podkolzin for the Oilers after Vancouver gave up on him.
Lafrenniere will finally put up 70 points this season. Wright be get his 40.
70 still not great for a 1st overall i know
Why? Not taking into account his and his agents contract ideas…if the price of acquisition and contract is right…why the disdain?
He was used primarily as bottom 6 last season on a team that doesnt score.
The year before under a diff coach 19 goals…44pts which was his first full season played in the NHL. In his career he is a plus player…which is not saying nothing…being a young forward on a team that had negative goal differential.
Now if you are acquiring him in hopes of a number 1 center….probably not the right guy. But I think his bottom may be a solid 2 way 3c and still has some potential to develope into a 2c.
1Oilerfan: As I explained earlier, the Canadiens are after more established young talent such as Knies and Marchenko. They don’t need a bottom-six forward, they need a top-six forward for the Demidov line.
Montreal need a 2C not a winger.
I see some Pettersson rumor to Pittsburgh.
Larkin will end up in Minn in a 3 team trade.
Robertsson about to sign at 14.7m
Yes, Montreal needs a second-line center, but those are scarcer than hen’s teeth in the trade and free-agent markets. That’s why they’re looking at wingers like Matthew Knies and Kirill Marchenko for the Demidov line.
I would counter by saying Marchenko and Knies are more valuable than a 2C, especially one that would need to be there until Hague is ready.
Vatrano is signed through 27/28. Kreider and Killorn are pending ufa’s after this season. Terry still listed on IR. Don’t know his status. Verbeek was forced into this position. Did anyone see Carlsson getting 18m AAV? Gauthier had a breakout year by doubling his goals output. Good timing. I think Verbeek will make it work with both players staying in Anaheim
Detroit needs a center whether they move Larkin or not. They recently signed Arvidsson who played with Granlund in Nashville. Would Wings give up Sandin-Pelikka or Bernard-Docket? 2 young RD stuck behind Seider and Faulk
Bernard-Docker is not a legit trading chip.
I have no sympathy for Verbeek. He and the organization have a good eye for talent but his consistent hardball negotiations sets the organization back. After his hardline with Zegras, the player took a step back yet has now shot forward after being traded. After hardline negotiations with McTavish, he too took a step back on his development. Then there was Drysdale. Even in regards to Carlson, Verbeek should not have let it go to the offer sheet stage, but he gets in the organizations way as he has a really hard time in offering up a player friendly contract prior to this point (offer sheet phase), and then boom, now he had an $18m a year offer to contend with. Verbeek deserves a fair amount of criticism here. Much now depends on what happens next to Gauthier. A high draft pick 22 year old who just scored 41 goals and continues to get better is gonna want to get paid. History says Verbeek plays hardball and Gauthier takes step back and is lukewarm to the organization moving forward. It is up to Verbeek to learn from his past mistakes and change for the long term benefit of the organization.
Verbeek’s hardball tactics may have worked a decade ago, but not today. The Ducks are paying the price.
One wonders how much of Verbeek’s approach comes from his history with Lou Lams. Lou was known as a very tough negotiator and Verbeek was the first Devil ever to hold out. Lou traded him to Hartford (for Sylvain Turgeon, who was later turned into Claude Lemieux). Or, as others have posted, maybe it’s ownership’s mantra. We likely will never know.
He certainly didn’t anticipate other organizations would be so aggressive in pursuing his players.
Slick,
Troy Terry had hip surgery, he’ll be on LTIR till at least December so Verbeek has space to sign Gauthier.
habfan30: Terry is not on LTIR yet. The Ducks can exceed the cap by 10 percent during the offseason but must be cap compliant when their regular season begins in October. At that point, they can put Terry on LTIR, but only until December. Once he returns, they’ll still have to shed salary. That’s why it makes more sense for them to move someone during the offseason. As a rule, teams prefer not to put players on LTIR during the season because they cannot accrue cap space for the trade deadline.
Lyle.
I didn’t say Terry is on LTIR, I said he will be.
Point being they aren’t stuck.
As for what happens during the year, trades, other injuries that remains to be seen.
They may have a little wiggle room this summer until Terry goes on LTIR to start the season, but they’ll still have to shed salary to be cap-compliant before his return. The reason why they should attempt to shed salary this summer is that putting Terry on LTIR at the start of the season means they can’t accrue cap space over the course of the season while he’s out. Given what limited cap space they’ll have if they match Carlsson’s offer sheet and re-sign Gauthier, that won’t give them much room to maintain their roster during the season. It’s better to move someone in early July, when there are still teams with cap room willing to make deals, than in December when most teams are capped out.
I wonder how much of the Flyer’s decision to extend the offer sheet to Carlson was motivated by revenge from the Gautier situation a few years ago. Is this the Flyers way of saying to other teams and players “don’t mess with our franchise or we will target you”?
I have heard nothing to suggest that the Ducks did anything wrong but Flyers could be rubbing a glove in the face of Gautier who snubbed them. They are taking away his world class centerman.
not sure but Philly fleeced Ducks with Zegras trade
but the Cutter for Zegras was in Ducks favor.
drysdal sorry
If ducks match they do not make the playoffs next year. How does Philly sign Zegras and drysdale with Carlsson at $18M.
Not sure how players think this is a good thing. It just screws the middle and bottom end players. The leafs tried this for 10 years and they won one playoff round.
Listening to a podcast last night and they mentioned best thing is for Anaheim to pay the $39M and trade him next July. What would a team like Seattle or Columbus give to get Carlsson. Interesting option.
The thing is that the cap is supposed to go up another 10 million next year. So the cap hit drops to 15.8%. If a team is expecting to build around Carlsson and he’s not just another piece, in 2 years that cap hit could be 14.5% and it keeps dropping.
It’s definitely an overpay and if I’m the Ducks, I think long and hard about those 4 picks and who I could attempt to trade for with them, even though I look around the league and wonder who really is available to trade for that could fill that position.
Even looking at top 50 prospects not in the NHL, ones that could be a fit probably wouldn’t be traded.
Barzal would be the best choice trade wise, maybe you offer sheet or trade for Connor Mcmichael.
It’s a tough choice because The Flyers also aren’t planning on being a bottom team in the league either so they won’t be super high draft picks.
Turing out to be an interesting summer.
Why is Carolina shopping Nikishin? I don’t understand the decision to sign an RFA when they already have a 24 year old defenseman that many in the league want on their roster.
Nikishin is an RFA, and it’s rumored he’s seeking an expensive long-term contract.
I’ve been a Flyers fan since their inception (I’m 78) and regarding the Carlsson offer sheet and it’s effect on Gauthier’s next contract, I would like to point out that Gauthier refused to sign with the Flyers because he felt disrespected by their insistence he play one more year of college. If Verbeek plays hardball with him what’s his attitude likely to be going forward? As far as Briere being the bad guy, what did he do wrong? He’s within his rights to make the offer according to league rules, he didn’t make the rule, he’s just using it to potentially benefit his team, that’s his job. Does this move make Philly as cut-throat as Vegas? Isn’t everybody supposedly TRYING to WIN?
Nobody’s saying Briere isn’t within his rights to sign a rival club’s RFA to an expensive offer sheet. However, as much as the move makes life miserable for the Ducks, it will come with potential consequences for the Flyers GM.
If he successfully signs away Carlsson, and he doesn’t develop into the superstar he’s projected to be, that contract will be considered one of the worst in league history, and will handcuff the Flyers for the next five years.
Regardless of Carlsson’s performance, his contract will eat up most of the Flyers’ cap room for this season, leaving little wiggle room to re-sign Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale, who both opted for salary arbitration and will seek substantial raises. It could prove costly to retain those two, and may be even lead to one of them leaving.
Briere is not going to be well-liked by his peers for making Carlsson the highest-paid player in this league this season. Comparable players on other clubs will point to that contract as their benchmark.
With an offer sheet, there are consequences for both teams.
It is simple for the Flyers, If they get LC from the offer sheet, then we trade Drysdale and promote Bonk who has a higher upside and an entry level contract.
There will be enough to resign Zegras(9m) and have a little extra left over for call ups.
If replacing Drysdale with Bonk were that simple, mp, the Flyers would’ve done it last season. Bonk has potential as a top-four defenseman, but rushing him into Drysdale’s role before he’s ready could be disastrous.
Gauthier, krieder and a 1st round pick for knies and nylander.
Verbeek gets cost certainty and can sign Carlsson.
Nylander has a full no-movement clause and no intention of waiving it. Kreider has a 15-team no-trade list, half of which is believed to be comprised of Canadian teams.
I read somewhere that after Carlson recieved the offer sheet he asked the ducks to do 15 but they said no. Then he signed the offer sheet
That’s correct, Hugh.
I have a bit of sympathy for Verbeek in that case.
He’s being judged on his body of work a little unfairly. His hands are tied a bit.
I like Leo Carlsson a lot, and so do the Ducks, but Pat just might take the picks and walk.
The Duks owners are thrifty….like real thrifty.
You can only work with the budget given to you.
Why doesn’t a team like Vancouver take on a Anaheim salary like Vatrano for picks. 27 28 class looks good for a rebuilding squad.
I can’t see a single GM trying to help out Verbeek when there is blood in the water. If he tries to move out anything they will ask for ++ to help save him room.
In this case like most have stated, he will need to take the picks and swap them out for live bodies. Best to move the 1sts in the next 2 years as they will be probably in the 20s and hope this all backfires and ’29/’30 turn in to higher picks
That being said, this doesnt move the needle on value of future contracts. Briere basically offered up a trade that was 4 1sts for a player..the contract notwithstanding was the price to get the deal forced through.
If a player thinks they can sit back and wait to get offer sheet contracts they better be worth a team offering it. Zegras(insert 90% of RFAs here) won’t get close to that offer.