A few hours after the Ducks signed center Mason McTavish to a six-year contract through the 2030-31 season, Ducks GM Pat Verbeek spoke about the process of getting the deal done and what's in store for his team.
On the timing of the deal
It gets done when it gets done. Obviously, I think both sides felt the need to get to training camp, and obviously like I said before, training camp's an important part of preparing for the season. And we were both eager to get Mason into camp and to get some reps under his belt. Not only for the new systems, but the conditioning part as well. So it's a really good day for us.
On the process of negotiating
I think every agent has a process. We have a process that we go through and you like to get these things in as sooner or earlier than later, but they just play themselves out. So this thing was no different than the last time with Jamie (Drysdale) and Trevor (Zegras). I think this time around, we got it done much earlier than last time.
You go back and forth on different things. And so, each side tries to make their case, and eventually there's some commonalities that you can kind of put to bed, and then start working on some of the other differences. But overall it was back and forth on terms, sometimes back and forth on dollars.
So ultimately, we ended up settling where we settled, and it's not really one thing or the other. It was just a host or combination of things.
I think both sides got a really fair deal. And certainly, if you look around at all the young players, it's certainly, from our perspective, fair market value for a player of Mason's caliber.
On negotiating with agent Pat Morris
Both of us, we have our processes, and I think he has his way of negotiating, and I have mine. But I think ultimately, I think both sides realize that you have to get the player in camp. The player wants to be in camp. And so you work towards compromising. So, that was basically how it went the last couple days.
There's kind of a build-up. I think both sides can kind of sense to where a deal's going to shake out, and I think the best deals are always the deals with both sides are unhappy, right? And I'm not saying that we're unhappy, but that's the process...
On looking ahead to the season
When you've got the players that get planned on back in the fold, everybody's now working towards a common goal, which is the playoffs. Yeah, you feel good. Now we got some time to prepare with everybody in the lineup. And so that's a good feeling.
On impending free agent negotiations
Yeah, that becomes difficult. Like I said before last week, we're looking internally. I'm seeing if we can get some out of the way before next summer. So, we're looking into that, and we're seeing where that can lead to with our guys. It could be a situation where guys want to wait till the year's over and we can approach it that way, or might be a couple of guys that will look into it and want to explore it.
So we're going through that process right now and see if we can't work some things out before next summer.
On having cap flexibility to make future moves
We’re in a scenario where we can add or make our team better at the trade deadline. I think that'll be something we explore. And obviously with, you know, this year's new playoff cap situation, it will be very interesting how all of us adjust to the different landscape when it comes to that.
