Flyers Swing For the Fences, Offer Sheet Leo Carlsson

In a surprising turn of events the Philadelphia Flyers have tendered an offer sheet for Anaheim Ducks centre Leo Carlsson. The deal would be for 5 years at an average annual cap hit of $18 million, which would cost the Flyers their first round draft picks for the next four years.

After a quiet start to the offseason, it seems that Flyers GM Daniel Brière was lurking in the shadows with an offer sheet that many didn’t see coming, outside of DFO’s Anthony Di Marco, who touched on the topic recently. The Ducks will now have one week to accept or reject the offer.

Carlsson was drafted 2nd overall in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft and is coming off a career-year with 29 goals and 67 points in 70 games. The 21-year-old has 61 goals and 141 points in 201 career games, including back-to-back 20-goal seasons.

The Flyers have three restricted free agents of their own to deal with in Jamie Drysdale, Nikita Grebenkin, and Trevor Zegras, which makes this move all the more surprising in case Anaheim feels the need to retaliate – since offer sheets are seen as taboo.

Ducks GM Pat Verbeek has been on record saying, perhaps as a way to deter potential offer sheets, that he would match anything sent for Carlsson. Anaheim has over $35 million in cap space but also have Cutter Gauthier and Pavel Mintyukov as restricted free agents.

As for Philadelphia, the offer is extremely high, but one done to deter the Ducks from potentially matching. They entered the day with slightly more than $29 million in cap space, and should this offer sheet go through successfully, it would leave them with just over $11 million to play with.

It’s an absolutely bold move done by Brière and company with how offer sheets are regarded around the league, but public perception has changed over the last few years with examples like Sebastian Aho, Jesperi Kotkanemi, and most recently Barrett Hayton.

The Flyers swung for the fences and are hoping to secure their future 1C for years to come.