‘Our goal has not changed’: Flyers react after Leo Carlsson offer sheet gets matched
Don’t think the Philadelphia Flyers are done trying to upgrade their team just because they couldn’t nab Leo Carlsson.
Flyers’ general manager Daniel Briere released a statement on Friday, declaring that, despite not succeeding in landing Carlsson with their offer sheet, Philadelphia will still leave no stone unturned to make the team better.
“We understood this outcome was possible when we made the offer,” Briere said in the statement. “While the result isn’t what we hoped for, our goal does not change – we remain committed to pursuing every opportunity that will strengthen our team and continue to build towards becoming a consistent and perennial contender without sacrificing our future.”
The Flyers had signed the Anaheim Ducks center to an offer sheet last week, coming in at a massive amount of an $18 million cap hit for five years, making Carlsson the highest-paid player in the league. It was an attempt to add an elite, dynamic top-line calibre center which the Flyers failed to land during their rebuild. Had the Ducks not matched, the Flyers would have been required to give up their first four first-round draft picks in the next five years. But on Thursday, the Ducks did just that, opting to keep their 2023 second-overall pick, even at the high price he’s signed to, instead of going for the draft picks.
At this point in time, it’s unclear if Briere’s statement is meant to imply that they could pursue another big-name restricted free agent with an offer sheet, as there are still several without contracts. Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Alexander Nikishin and Simon Edvinsson are the biggest names on the RFA market who are eligible for offer sheets (and not on the Flyers, as Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale also need new contracts). However, Briere probably doesn’t want to burn too many bridges with this method.
There are also plenty of options on the trade market for the Flyers, even if some of the players don’t fit into the age window of their current core. Dylan Larkin and Elias Pettersson are the top centers who could be on the move, while Kirill Marchenko and Jason Robertson are also options, and may actually be in the right age range for Philadelphia’s core.
The Flyers have had an active summer, as they’ve extended Dan Vladar and Tyson Foerster, acquired Joseph Woll via trade, dealt Garnet Hathaway and Emil Andrae, and signed Noel Acciari. Philadelphia still has $29,565,416 in cap space according to PuckPedia with four restricted free agents to re-sign, including Zegras and Drysdale.