special Tuesday evening edition of 32 Thoughts<\/a>, Elliotte Friedman interviewed both Matt Keator, a veteran agent, and his son Ryan, who is a 27-year-old hockey agent in his second year. After some brief introductions, Matt explained how he became familiar with Carlsson and other Swedish players. Ryan, who met Carlsson initially at the 2023 NHL Draft, said the youngster believed he was heading to Columbus as many believed the Blue Jackets would\u2019ve drafted him.<\/p>\nFriedman noted that sources close to the negotiation believed Anaheim\u2019s general manager Pat Verbeek offered Carlsson a deal for eight years and $84 million ($10.5 million average annual value). However, the Keators said they saw something in the market which altered their perception. \u201cIt\u2019s an offer that we were quick to turn down right away, and it wasn\u2019t for their lack of trying,\u201d Matt Keator said. \u201cIt\u2019s just that we needed time to figure out the marketplace, and where the marketplace was going. They were tenacious, they were after us on it, through September and October. And we used that September and October time to do more research.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ryan said he took the lead from there on regarding the marketplace such as the percentage of the cap, comparables, and other criteria. \u201cThe big thing I was looking at was the cap going up,\u201d Ryan said, adding how the post-pandemic landscape has seen a boost in the cap ceiling. And one that will see roughly a 40 per cent increase in the cap from 2023-24 to 2028-29. \u201cThose are astronomical numbers, and we just didn\u2019t want to jump on something right away,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n
In November, Matt Keator said the team wanted to continue negotiations, but the agents wanted to \u201ceducate\u201d Carlsson about the changing cap. \u201cWhat we didn\u2019t want to have happen was we didn\u2019t want Leo to sign a contract that he would regret in relation to the marketplace in later years,\u201d Matt said. \u201cNow listen $80 million is a lot of money, we understand that, we get that. But we\u2019re living in a marketplace and operating within the NHL marketplace. Every contract that a player signs affects others around him. You have to be cognizant about that.\u201d Ryan also stated both he and his father were still trying to \u201cfigure out\u201d who Carlsson was as a player. \u201cIt was our decision, not the Ducks.\u201d<\/p>\n
After January, the agents didn\u2019t discuss any contract talks with Carlsson, believing it was best to wait until the season\u2019s end. Matt alluded to Carlsson\u2019s demeanor and calmness, stating \u201che\u2019s ordering a martini while the plane was going down.\u201d As well, the agents said they never doubted their plan at any point during negotiations, adding nothing wavered even during Carlsson\u2019s injury during the season. When the season ended, Anaheim was \u201caggressively\u201d trying to get a deal done but the agents held off, instead meeting with Carlsson and his family in early June, believing the \u201ckey comparable\u201d for the center was Chicago\u2019s Connor Bedard.<\/p>\n
Flyers offer sheet too good to refuse<\/p>\n
Matt Keator said they knew there was the possibility of an offer sheet for Carlsson, but felt there was a \u201cslim chance of it\u201d and something they weren\u2019t really planning on. In June the agents told Anaheim they were waiting for Bedard\u2019s deal to be finalized before continuing contract talks. Once June 30 arrived, the date which teams could begin discussing a possible offer sheet, Matt said there was a team that contacted him at 12:04 a.m. on June 30. \u201cWe weren\u2019t expecting it,\u201d he said, adding seven or eight teams were interested but four made offers. The four teams were narrowed to two, while the agents told Anaheim this could be \u201ccoming into play.\u201d On July 1 they sent Carlsson the contract offer in writing and \u201che was speechless.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he was overwhelmed by the structure, how it was front-loaded, almost all of it in signing bonus, and frankly that makes a huge difference when you\u2019re making that decision,\u201d Matt said. \u201cBecause that\u2019s up-front money. That\u2019s money in your pocket with compound interest, so the value\u2019s even greater. I think the offer he received was something that he and his family couldn\u2019t refuse. Like The Godfather, he made him an offer he couldn\u2019t refuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt said the Flyers didn\u2019t overtly give the agents and Carlsson a deadline to sign the offer sheet, but all parties felt there was a \u201csense of urgency\u201d to close the deal and sign the offer sheet. The concept was broached between the Flyers and Carlsson\u2019s agents on June 30, with the numbers revealed to the player and his camp on July 1. \u201cI think we zeroed in on them with their structure pretty much right away,\u201d Matt said, adding it was a nervous six days wondering if Anaheim would match.\u201d On hearing the numbers they relayed to Carlsson, the agents said Carlsson\u2019s end of the line went silent as the player was \u201cspeechless.\u201d <\/p>\n
The agents didn\u2019t disclose what was said after the offer sheet was signed, saying it wouldn\u2019t be fair to Anaheim. On July 3, Carlsson signed, \u201cnot wanting to lose out on this opportunity.\u201d Several of his teammates congratulated him, acknowledging their situation could change following the center\u2019s cap hit each year. It also sounds as if the team and the player have put aside any differences they may have had as it \u201cwasn\u2019t personal, just business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, Friedman asked if they had any notion last September this number would\u2019ve been tossed around, both said there was no chance. As a result, Anaheim kept Carlsson, and the Flyers are still left looking to fill a hole in their lineup sooner than later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t a scene from The Godfather, but Flyers general manager Danny Briere will never resemble the fictional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-761524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}