Flyers sign Leo Carlsson to 5-year, $90 million offer sheet: Answering all the big questions regarding Daniel Briere’s huge move

Up until a little after 3:00 PM EST on Friday, July 3, the Philadelphia Flyers and general manager Daniel Briere had delivered a relatively quiet, underwhelming offseason.

Then, Briere threw a metaphorical bomb into the entirety of the NHL.

Just after 3 PM, the Flyers announced that they had signed Anaheim Ducks 21-year old top-line center Leo Carlsson to a five-year, $90 million offer sheet, with an $18 million yearly cap hit that would immediately make Carlsson the highest-paid player in hockey.

It’s been quite a while since the Philadelphia Flyers have attempted such an aggressive move. Which means that fans surely have plenty of questions about the details of Briere’s bold decision to try and poach Carlsson — the second overall pick from the 2023 draft — from Anaheim. So let’s dive into all of the big questions surrounding the move, why it happened, and what comes next for both the Flyers and the Ducks.

Does this mean that the Flyers definitely get Leo Carlsson?

No. It does not.

Leo Carlsson was a free agent, but he was a restricted free agent, which means that while he was free to sign a contract with any club once his last deal expired (as it did on July 1), his current team the Ducks would have the right to match any contract offer that Carlsson signed. In other words, they can choose to match the Flyers’ massive offer.

But to be clear: Carlsson has signed the contract. It has not merely been “offered” to him. He has put his name on the dotted line, and this will be his next NHL contract. It just still needs to be determined which team will be on the hook for that contract: the Flyers, or the Ducks.

The Ducks don’t have to make the decision on matching immediately. Per the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement, Anaheim has seven days from the time the offer sheet was signed to make a decision on whether they intend to match, meaning they have until next Friday afternoon (July 10) to make up their minds.

If Pat Verbeek (the Ducks GM) chooses to match the Flyers’ offer sheet, they keep Carlsson. If they choose not to match, the Flyers get him — but the Flyers would then have to pay the Ducks compensation in the form of four first-round picks as a result of poaching Anaheim’s player, picks that cannot be traded elsewhere by the Flyers during the seven-day waiting period.

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