Flyers offer Leo Carlsson $90 million deal, Ducks can match

The Philadelphia Flyers put Leo Carlsson on the NHL’s offer-sheet market with a five-year, $90 million deal that carries an $18 million average annual value and forces Anaheim to decide within seven days whether to match or accept four first-round picks as compensation. The price would make the 21-year-old center the league’s highest-paid player, and multiple reports said the structure was front-loaded and packed with signing bonuses, a design that raises the cost of walking away for the Ducks.

Carlsson was drafted No. 2 overall by Anaheim in the 2023 NHL Draft, and he finished the 2025-26 regular season with 29 goals and 67 points in 70 games. That production explains why the Flyers were willing to push the market so hard: the offer would move Carlsson past Kirill Kaprizov’s $17 million AAV and set a new ceiling for NHL contracts, with the cap hit described by several reports as the largest in league history.

The economics help explain why offer sheets are so rare. Four first-round picks is a steep price for any team, and the short response window turns the decision into a high-stakes calculation of roster value, cash commitments and cap management. One report said Anaheim had about $35,173,395 in salary-cap space at the time of the offer sheet, which suggests the Ducks had the flexibility to match without immediately sacrificing core depth, even if the real cost of the contract made the choice more complicated.

For Philadelphia, the move was a direct challenge to a system that rewards clubs willing to weaponize cap space and absorb the risk of an aggressive bid. For Anaheim, it was a test of whether keeping a cornerstone player is worth matching a market-setting contract rather than taking four premium picks and resetting the roster around a different timeline. The outcome will be watched across the league by other young restricted free agents, because every successful offer sheet changes the negotiating baseline for the next player who reaches this point.