Either way, the development is a public embarrassment for Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek, whose antagonistic, foot-dragging attitude in negotiations with his young core finally cost him.

Either he will lose one of the NHL’s top young centres, or Carlsson will eat up much more of his salary cap room than would have been necessary if Verbeek had done a deal at any point in the past year. Carlsson’s front-loaded, $18-million-per-year offer from the Flyers is much more than he was expected to receive, and more than Carlsson had already said he would accept.

Mason McTavish, Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale all held out in recent years when Verbeek’s hardline tactics dragged the negotiations into training camp — and while they all eventually signed, Verbeek has since traded all three young players.

Mintyukov’s deal was worth more than he was expected to get by most NHL observers, but the Ducks didn’t say whether another team had signed Mintyukov to an offer sheet. No NHL team immediately announced it had used the same tactic with Mintyukov that Flyers general manager Daniel Briere is using to attempt to sign Carlsson.

Verbeek also must still sign breakout star Cutter Gauthier, who scored 41 goals for the Ducks last season before reaching restricted free agency.

Anaheim still has enough cap room to do a deal with Gauthier, who isn’t eligible to receive an offer sheet from another team. But the combined size of these now-inflated deals for Mintyukov, Gauthier and likely Carlsson means Verbeek won’t have any room to make additional improvements to his roster, and will almost certainly have to off-load salary.

Verbeek also has lost four key defencemen — captain Radko Gudas, Jacob Trouba, John Carlson and Olen Zellweger — in the past month while adding only journeyman Nick Jensen as a probable replacement.

Verbeek’s mistakes have dampened the good feelings coming off an impressive season by the Ducks, who ended their seven-year playoff drought and then eliminated the back-to-back Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers in the first round with an exciting young core under coach Joel Quenneville.

Mintyukov was the 10th overall pick in the 2022 NHL draft. While he has the potential to become an elite two-way defenceman, he hasn’t yet developed the consistency or the scoring acumen to match the size of his contract extension.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/nhl

Greg Beacham, The Associated Press