Flyers sign Ducks’ Leo Carlsson to offer sheet
The offer sheets keep rolling in.
The Philadelphia Flyers announced on Friday that they’ve signed Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson to an offer sheet. The contract is five years with an $18 million cap hit.
We have tendered an offer sheet to Anaheim center Leo Carlsson. The offer is a five-year contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of $18M, which would require four of the Flyers first-round draft picks in each of the next four seasons as compensation. nhl.com/flyers/news/fl…
Carlsson was a restricted free agent after the conclusion of his three-year entry-level contract with a $950,000 cap hit. He does not have any arbitration rights coming off of his ELC, meaning his only avenue of leverage in negotiations with the Ducks was through an offer sheet. He was eligible to sign offer sheets on Wednesday.
At this point in time, the structure of the contract, along with if it contains any bonuses or clauses, are not known.
As compensation for the offer sheet, the Flyers will have to provide the Ducks with their next four first-round picks in 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030, a compensation they would have had to give up if they signed the contract for at least $11,939,166. For comparison, the Flyers’ last four first-round picks resulted in Matvei Michkov, Zeev Buium (drafted by the Minnesota Wild), Porter Martone and Ryan Lin (drafted by the San Jose Sharks).
The Ducks have seven days to match the offer sheet.
This contract will give Carlsson the highest cap hit in the league, as he will surpass Kirill Kaprizov’s $17 million cap hit, one which the Wild winger will also be starting this summer. Carlsson and Kaprizov are the only players to have a cap hit higher than $14 million.
The Ducks currently find themselves with $35,173,395 in salary cap space according to PuckPedia, so they’re more than well-positioned to match the offer sheet. However, it does create several other complications, most notably that it takes Carlsson to unrestricted free agency at the end of the contract.
It also creates an interesting dynamic for the Ducks’ other big-name RFA in Cutter Gauthier, as signing Carlsson to $18 million per year gives Gauthier a much higher asking price than expected. Coincidentally, Gauthier was originally a Flyers’ first-round pick, but he requested a trade and was dealt to the Ducks in January 2024.
Carlsson is coming off of a breakout season where he emerged as a top line center in the NHL with 29 goals and 38 assists for 67 points in 70 games. He followed that up with four goals and seven assists for 11 points in 12 playoff games. His skill is the kind of player the Flyers have needed at center in this rebuild, giving them a potential franchise pivot as the centerpiece for their young core.