PHILADELPHIA — Ducks center Leo Carlsson has been signed to a five-year, $90 million offer sheet by the Philadelphia Flyers, a record salary with an $18 million annual average value, the Flyers announced on Friday.
That would eclipse the yearly earnings of Minnesota Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov, who is currently the highest-paid player per annum in league history.
The Ducks can either match the offer, retaining the 21-year-old Carlsson’s services at that price and duration, or they can opt to allow him to sign with Philly and receive four first-round draft picks as compensation. They have seven days to make that determination.
The Flyers’ lucrative offer, per Puckpedia, is significantly frontloaded with several signing bonuses. Nearly $39 million is due in the first 12 months.
Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek left more than enough salary cap space for this situation, but $18 million per year with only one UFA season in the contract was well above any reasonable projection for a Carlsson extension that could have been signed before July 1.
Already on Verbeek’s to-do list are re-signing two other restricted free agents, Cutter Gauthier and Pavel Mintyukov, and patching up a defense that lost former captain Radko Gudas in a trade for Florida’s A.J. Greer and Jacob Trouba and Olen Zellweger to the free-agency frenzy. Verbeek did sign veteran defenseman Nick Jensen to a two-year deal.
Verbeek is no stranger to drama with his restricted free agents. He dragged negotiations with Mason McTavish well into training camp last year, then traded him for two first-round picks after the first campaign of his six-season pact worth $42 million. In 2023, he did the same with both Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale, trading Drysdale to Philadelphia about three months later and ultimately shipping Zegras there last summer.
Now, Flyers architect Daniel Briere is after another Ducks lottery pick, one that would be his splashiest addition yet.
While Briere was still an active player for Philly at the time, the Flyers have presented this sort of audacious offer sheet previously, to Nashville Predators defenseman Shea Weber in 2012. They offered Weber 14 years and $110 million in a test of then-GM David Poile’s resolve. Nashville ultimately matched the offer, though four years later Weber was swapped for the Montreal Canadiens’ P.K. Subban in perhaps the biggest trade of the 2010s.
Carlsson was the second overall pick in the 2023 draft and has played three seasons on Katella Avenue. Last year, he was the Ducks’ leading scorer on a per-game basis, though midseason thigh surgery cost him the team scoring lead as well as an opportunity to compete for Sweden at the Olympics.
Carlsson finished with 29 goals and 38 assists for 67 points in 70 regular-season games last season. He followed that with 11 points in 12 games – though eight came in the opening round – as the Ducks advanced to the Western Conference semifinals for the first time since 2017.