Carlsson Offer Sheet Dilemma

Photo: NHL

By Michael Walters

Today is the 4th of July and the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. There will be plenty of firework shows today, but the fireworks started yesterday in the NHL with a massive offer sheet for Leo Carlsson.

It was announced yesterday just after noon PST that the Philadelphia Flyers tendered an offer sheet to Anaheim for Carlsson to the tune of a five-year $90 million contract with an average annual value (AAV) of $18 million. The compensation would be the Flyers next four first round drafts over the course of the next four seasons (2027-2030) if Anaheim doesn’t match the offer. This is the first offer sheet to include a four first-round pick compensation.

Carlsson signed the offer sheet and he will be the highest paid player in the NHL when the dust settles from all of this. Kirill Kaprizov was the highest paid player at $17 million a year. According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, there were four teams total who presented offer sheets for Carlsson.

So now Anaheim Ducks General Manager Pat Verbeek has a very difficult decision to make. Do you sign your star center or take the picks and try to get another star player? We conducted a poll on X and over 60% of those who voted think Verbeek should sign Carlsson.

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The Ducks currently have about $35 million in cap space per Puck Pedia. So if Verbeek signs Carlsson, then there is only $17 million left with RFAs Cutter Gauthier, Tyson Hinds, and Pavel Mintyukov to sign. There has already been talk of an offer sheet coming for Minty as well. Gauthier will likely eat up at least $10 million making the situation even more dire.

There are some limited options Verbeek can do to make more cap room. He could put Troy Terry on the LTIR, who is eligible since he is projected to not play in 10 games and for at least 24 calendar days, which is the minimum requirement to be put on the LTIR. Terry is expected to be back in the middle of the season so the LTIR benefit is limited to the previous season’s average league salary which was $3,973,228 according to Puck Pedia instead of the full $7 million AAV in his contract. This would only be a temporary fix until Terry returns. The only other option to make room would be to trade away someone else.

If Verbeek doesn’t sign Carlsson, then he will get the four first round picks. He does have a week to decide, so he could call other teams seeing if he can trade for an impact player. Some names like Dylan Larkin, Auston Matthews, Jason Robertson, and Zach Werenski come to mind. But even if Verbeek was to work out some kind of trade, these types of players are not going to solve the Ducks cap situation. Verbeek would basically be playing a shell game and still lose his star center.

Obviously (and stated by the world at this point) this all could have been avoided if Carlsson was signed before July 1st. About a year ago in an interview Carlsson said he was good with an 8-year deal with a $9.5 million AAV. That looks like a steal at this point.

So how did we get here? Let’s take a look a timeline of how we got to this point.

Timeline Of Events

January 26th, 2026
Verbeek made an appearance on Victory+ during the intermission of the game against Edmonton. He said he would address the Carlsson/Gauthier contracts after the season. He said he wanted the players to focus on making the playoffs.

April 16th
The Ducks close out their regular season with a wild 5-4 win over the Nashville Predators.

May 14th
Anaheim’s playoff run is over as Vegas beats them in six games.

May 16th
During his postseason exit interview, Verbeek said he wanted to get the negotiations with Carlsson and Gauthier done as soon as possible.

July 2nd
It was reported Anaheim would make any offer sheet for Carlsson according to Elliotte Friedman.

July 3rd
The Ducks had a call with Carlsson’s representatives in the morning according to Friedman, but still couldn’t get a deal done. It is believed Anaheim was offering a deal worth $12-13 million AAV and the asked by Leo’s camp was around $15 million. The term of the offers is unknown at this point.

By midday Philadelphia submits an offer sheet and Carlsson signs it.

Final Thoughts

This situation was 100% avoidable. Verbeek has a history of being a difficult negotiator (i.e. Lukas Dostal, Jamie Drysdale, Mason McTavish, Troy Terry, and Trevor Zegras.) On our recent podcast and throughout the season on our show we discussed how Carlsson and Gauthier needed to be signed during the season or shortly after. Even with the Ducks season ending on May 14th, Verbeek had from then until June 30th to get Carlsson’s deal done.

This is a franchise altering decision, your move Verbeek.

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July 4th, 2026