Ducks Match Carlsson Offer Sheet

Photo: AP

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks announced today they matched the offer sheet from Philadelphia for Leo Carlsson. The deal is worth $90 over five years and carries a $18 million AAV. Carlsson is now the highest paid player in the NHL.

On July 3rd, the Philadelphia Flyers submitted an offer sheet and Carlsson signed it. According to Elliotte Friedman, the Carlsson camp tried to work out a deal with a $15 million AAV that morning before signing the offer sheet. General Manager Pat Verbeek was reportedly offering around $12.5 million AAV. Verbeek didn’t agree to the $15 million and thought an offer sheet of $15 million would be coming. Instead Philadelphia dropped an offer sheet with a $18 million AAV.

On the same day there was a threat of an offer sheet coming for Pavel Mintyukov. Several teams approached Mintyukov’s agent about an offer sheet according to Puck Pedia. A formal offer sheet was not sent then, but it seemed inevitable that one would be and that’s what appeared to happen on July 5th. At around 2 PM PST a formal offer sheet was pending according to Frank Seravalli. A few minutes later multiple reports said Mintyukov had signed an extension with Anaheim.

Pavel Mintyukov signed a 5-year extension with the Anaheim Ducks with a $7.2 million AAV per multiple reports. The deal includes a $3 million signing bonus and 10 team no trade clause in the fifth year per Puck Pedia.

On July 7th, the Ducks also signed Tyson Hinds to a two-year deal with an AAV of $900k.

It’s been a roller coaster week with the Ducks signing Carlsson, Hinds, and Mintyukov. Cutter Gauthier is the last major signing that needs to happen.

Reactions To Carlsson Offer Sheet Being Matched:

Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli:

“Matching the offer sheet was an easy decision, as Pat has intelligently left enough cap space to give us the ability to retain Leo. We have extremely high expectations for Leo. We firmly believe he will continue his strong growth trajectory and become one of the truly elite centers in the league, while continuing to make a strong impact in our community.”

General Manager Pat Verbeek :

“We are very happy to have Leo under contract for five years. We have viewed Leo as a franchise player since the moment we met him prior to the 2023 draft. He’s a character person on and off the ice. Leo is viewed as a top player in this league, and it was always our intention to match any offer sheet.”

Leo Carlsson:

“I always wanted to be a Duck. It’s my home, too. I’m just super excited to be back.”

Analysis:

It was done in a very unconventional way, but Verbeek signed Carlsson to an extension via the offer sheet by Philadelphia. He could have signed Carlsson to a contract with a $15 million AAV and terms he wanted, but instead the deal was done on terms dictated by the Flyers.

On January 26th, 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. The Ducks playoff run ended on May 14th and just days later he said he wanted to get these contacts done. He wasn’t able to get Carlsson’s deal done by July 1st, which then opened the door for teams to submit an offer sheet. According To Darren Dreger at least four offer sheets were presented.

This definitely could have been avoided, but Carlsson is still a Duck at the end of the day. There was a report by Friedman, Verbeek wanted to sign Mintyukov in the $3 million AAV range, but signed him for $7.2 million. He could have had both players for $18+ million a year, but now has both with a $25.2 million annual cap hit. Puck Pedia shows about $9 million in cap space, which including Laurent Brossoit on the roster. With him being the third goalie, the Ducks likely have about $10 million in cap space. The issue now for Anaheim is signing Cutter Gauthier and figuring out how to be cap complaint by the start of the season. Gauthier’s deal will certainly be above $10 million AAV.

NHL teams can exceed the salary cap by 10% during the offseason, which would be about $10 million this summer. This would an extremely temporary fix as the Ducks would have to be cap complaint when the season starts. It would allow Verbeek to sign Gauthier now and then make over moves to be cap complaint.

He could also 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.

The LTIR relief is calculated based on if the team is cap compliant or not when the player is placed on the LTIR. If the Ducks are cap compliant on opening day without using LTIR, or use LTIR during the season, then the amount would be $3,973,228 minus Anaheim’s current cap space. If the Ducks are not cap compliant by opening day then it would be equal to the amount over up to the $3,973,228 limit. This would only be a temporary fix until Terry returns in the middle of the season. The best and likely option to make room would be to trade away someone if Verbeek decides to sign Carlsson.

The Carlsson offer sheet saga is over, now time to sign Gauthier and figure out the cap situation.

Related Article:

Carlsson Offer Sheet Dilemma

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July 9th, 2026