July 09, 2026
Leo Carlsson is staying in Anaheim.
The Ducks on Thursday chose to match the five-year, $90 million offer sheet that the Flyers tendered last week to make Carlsson the highest-paid player in the NHL at $18 million per season.
It's a steep cost that Flyers general manager Danny Brière set, betting that the Ducks wouldn't have the appetite to carry a record cap hit on their books, but it meant keeping their No. 1 center and franchise cornerstone, so Anaheim GM Pat Verbeek made the call to pay it.
There are silver linings for the Flyers by not getting Carlsson. They're left with a ton of cap space to easily get extensions done for Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale, while maybe being able to make something else major happen, and they get to keep the four first-round draft picks they would've owed to Anaheim over the next four years as part of the NHL's offer sheet compensation policy.
But the offer sheet was a big-time gamble on Brière's part to try and pry away the star center that the Flyers have been looking for throughout the past several years, and they didn't get him.
Now they'll have to look elsewhere, and likely have to get a lot more creative about their next big move.
Five more years of LEO!https://t.co/3uscSK2GmJ
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) July 9, 2026
The former second overall pick by Anaheim in the 2023 NHL Draft, Carlsson quickly became a dynamic and deceptive center who went straight to the top of the Ducks' lineup.
Last season, amid the Ducks' own breakthrough into the playoffs, Carlsson did a lot to lead their charge.
He scored 29 goals and 67 points with a plus-4 rating through 70 games in the regular season. Then in the playoffs, he rose to the occasion with four goals and 11 points through 12 postseason games, as the Ducks blew by the defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers in the first round and then pushed a Vegas Golden Knights team that went on to the Stanley Cup Final to six games in the second.
Throughout, Carlsson was flying up and down the ice, and in certain spots, even looked like the best player out there.
He figured to be Anaheim's franchise cornerstone for the next decade-plus, but Carlsson reached this summer as a restricted free agent without a contract extension from the Ducks, along with their other two key RFAs in 41-goal scoring winger Cutter Gauthier and aggressive defenseman Pavel Mintyukov.
That's where Brière and the Flyers' front office sensed opportunity, and the chance to utilize one of the NHL's more polarizing acquisition tactics to a league-changing degree.
Last Friday, when many expected the team to go relatively quiet for the rest of the offseason, the Flyers instead shocked everyone with the announcement that they had tendered the five-year, $90 million offer sheet to Carlsson, adding that the organization wouldn't have any further comment on it until Anaheim made a decision on whether to match it.
Under NHL rules, teams holding the rights of an RFA who signed an offer sheet have a seven-day period to mull over whether they'll choose to match it, which set Anaheim's deadline at Friday, July 10.
There was suddenly a lot, though, for Verbeek to think over.
Carlsson's signing of the Flyers' offer sheet guaranteed his record $18 million cap hit, which ripped all negotiation control out of Anaheim's hands, called Verbeek's bluff that he would match any potential offer sheet for Carlsson, and raised the price tag on Mintyukov and Gauthier for the Ducks with just as suddenly limited cap space.
Basically, Brière recognized that the Ducks were in a highly vulnerable position with their cap structure, and backed Verbeek into a corner – which only got worse when Anaheim rushed into a five-year contract for Mintyukov, at a $7.2 million cap hit that further cut down on its breathing room in the wake of the Carlsson offer sheet.
Regardless of outcome, the Flyers' offer sheet for Leo Carlsson put the Ducks in a tough spot.
Kirby Lee/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The Ducks could either match the offer sheet and keep Carlsson, but then greatly risk their ability to keep Gauthier, who can easily ask for well above $13 million per year now. Or they could let Carlsson go, collect the Flyers' four first-round draft picks over the next four years as part of the league's required offer sheet compensation, and worry solely about getting Gauthier's extension done.
Either way, Verbeek and the Ducks were put in a brutal spot. Brière fully knew what he was doing. All he had to do then was wait to see if it worked, along with Flyers fans everywhere with bated breath.
In the end, though, Anaheim chose to keep Carlsson, announcing the call to match one day before the deadline.
“Matching the offer sheet was an easy decision, as [Pat Verbeek] has intelligently left enough cap space to give us the ability to retain Leo,” Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli said in a statement. “We have extremely high expectations for Leo. We firmly believe he will continue his strong growth trajectory and become one of the truly elite centers in the league, while continuing to make a strong impact in our community.”
“We are very happy to have Leo under contract for five years,” added Verbeek. “We have viewed Leo as a franchise player since the moment we met him prior to the 2023 draft. He’s a character person on and off the ice. Leo is viewed as a top player in this league, and it was always our intention to match any offer sheet.”
But it's tough to fault the Flyers for trying anyway. They swung for the fences.
They're still in a solid spot, with cap flexibility, plenty of draft capital, and a young forward core of Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, Alex Bump, Denver Barkey, and the recently-signed Tyson Foerster that collectively developed far enough to make the playoffs on their own.
But getting Carlsson would've pushed the Philadelphia roster to another level, and the Flyers looked so close to pulling it off.
SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
