The Flyers “rotated the league on its axis” after Ducks C Leo Carlsson accepted a five-year, $90M offer sheet with the team that would make him the NHL’s highest-paid player at $18M annually, according to Elliotte Friedman of SPORTSNET.ca. Teams around the league are now thinking “what happened to Anaheim cannot happen to us.” Teams believed that, at this point in a player’s career, “they had the hammer.” That is “no longer the case.” Friedman wrote he can “only imagine the reactions” from the Blackhawks and Blue Jackets, which “probably sent Brinks trucks” to the homes of C Connor Bedard and F Adam Fantilli, respectively. The league is “changing at the ownership and GM level.” The cap is rising, meaning the “cost of buying in is rising.” The “pressure to succeed is enormous.” Free agency is “less of a difference-maker than ever.” Suddenly, the “offer-sheet looks more attractive,” as the “resistance to them is dropping.” No one is “hugely shocked the Flyers did this.” But this “will be inflationary.” The rising cap is “doing enough of that on its own, but now the top players will point to Carlsson and say, ‘I should be above that.’” At a time when players are “boldly determining their futures, another, with the stroke of a pen, shook the foundation” (SPORTSNET.ca, 7/4).
A LOOK AT THE DETAILS: In California, Andrew Knoll noted Carlsson’s deal would eclipse the yearly earnings of Wild LW Kirill Kaprizov, who is currently the highest-paid player per annum in league history. The offer is “significantly frontloaded with several signing bonuses,” as nearly $39M is due in the first 12 months. Ducks GM Pat Verbeek “left more than enough salary cap space for this situation,” but $18M per year with only one UFA season in the contract was “well above any reasonable projection for a Carlsson extension” that could have been signed before July 1. The Flyers have “presented this sort of audacious offer sheet previously,” to Predators D Shea Weber in 2012. They offered Weber 14 years and $110M. Nashville ultimately matched the offer (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 7/3). In Philadelphia, Jackie Spiegel noted if the Ducks match the contract, they “cannot trade Carlsson for one year” (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 7/3).
