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Flyers make stunning offer sheet for Ducks star Leo Carlsson in blockbuster NHL move

One of the funniest things about the NHL is the specter of offer sheets hanging over teams with highly valuable restricted free agents, like the one this year for the Anaheim Ducks and 21-year-old Swedish superstar Leo Carlsson.

While the Ducks maintain they will match any offer, they may not be prepared for the monster offer Philadelphia Flyers GM Danny Briere wants to make.

Five years with an AAV of $18 million, which would make Carlsson the highest-paid player in the league.

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This is where the fun begins: The Ducks have a week to match this offer. If they decide not to, Carlsson will become a Flyer and the Ducks will receive Philadelphia’s first-round draft picks in each of the next four seasons.

It’s as high risk and high reward as it gets.

The Philadelphia Flyers sent Anaheim Ducks RFA Leo Carlsson an offer form that would make him the highest-paid player in hockey. (Marc DesRosiers-IMAGN Images)

The Flyers have had a surprisingly strong season in 2025-26, and Briere clearly thinks that trend will continue. So he’s willing to push all his chips to the middle of the table for a top-line center, which is something the Flyers really need.

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Of course, if things go wrong, calling draft picks this way is a real gamble.

Anaheim is in a similar predicament here. They may not want to move on from Carlsson so soon after the team returns to the postseason.

However, according to Puckpedia, the projected cap space is just over $17 million (I suspect Daniel Briere is certainly aware of this), meaning they’ll need to move some money to match the offer sheet.