The Philadelphia Flyers stunned the NHL by offering Anaheim Ducks’ restricted free agent Leo Carlsson a massive five-year, $90 million offer sheet. The historic deal has left the Ducks with a franchise-changing decision and sparked debate across the league about how the situation reached this point.
Former Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger believes Anaheim’s biggest mistake happened long before the offer sheet was ever signed.
Ex-Flyer Chris Pronger Weighs In on Ducks’ Leo Carlsson Misstep
The Flyers’ offer carries an eye-popping $18 million average annual value, making Carlsson the highest-paid player in NHL history on a per-season basis if the Ducks choose to match it.
If Anaheim declines, Philadelphia will send its next four first-round draft picks (2027-2030) to the Ducks as compensation.
According to Pronger, however, the Ducks could have avoided this situation entirely by signing Carlsson to an extension much earlier. “They did have a choice to try and sign the player last summer,” Pronger pointed out. “If you know how good he is, then maybe you should get in front of this and get your star player signed. Just sayin’.”
In today’s NHL, teams usually try to sign franchise players as soon as they become eligible for extensions. By waiting, Ducks GM Pat Verbeek left the door open for another team to use the offer-sheet system and push Carlsson’s price much higher.
One fan suggested that an 8-year, $15 million-per-season deal last summer might have been enough to get a contract done.
Pronger agreed that the price would have been lower before the market changed. “He would have signed for less than that last summer IMO before the Kaprizov signing. Once that happened, all bets were off, and now that the NHL is so competitive, these teams are now forced to utilize every aspect of the CBA to get players, especially ones this skilled,” he added.
His point is simple: once Kirill Kaprizov signed his $17 million AAV extension, the market for elite young stars changed overnight. Any chance of Anaheim negotiating a more team-friendly long-term deal largely disappeared.
A Historic Payday: Breaking the “Fourth-Season” Cap Trend
The offer sheet is also historic beyond its average annual value. In the entire history of the NHL salary cap era, only once has a player entering his fourth NHL season held the highest single-season salary in the entire league.
That distinction belonged to Mitch Marner during the 2019-20 season, when his front-loaded contract paid him a staggering $16 million in total cash (largely driven by a massive signing bonus structure) following his entry-level deal.
Carlsson is about to shatter that threshold entirely.
Because of the way Philadelphia structured the deal with large signing bonuses, Carlsson would earn about $21 million in total cash next season, making it one of the richest single-season payouts in NHL history for a player his age.
Anaheim now has a huge decision to make. The Ducks can match the record-setting offer and keep Carlsson, or let him join the Flyers and receive four first-round draft picks as compensation. Either way, Pronger believes the Ducks are now dealing with the consequences of waiting too long to sign one of their franchise players.
