Well, it was fun while it lasted. We had the opportunity to dream of a bona fide No. 1 center playing for the Orange and Black for several days but it all now comes crashing down. The Anaheim Ducks have announced that they have matched the offer sheet of Leo Carlsson from the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Ducks didn’t take all seven days they were allowed to, but instead allowed us to have a normal Friday and not spend it all day just waiting for the news to break. As announced by the team and by other reporters on Thursday afternoon, Anaheim and general manager Pat Verbeek made their decision.
Now, the Ducks are going to have Carlsson’s $18-million AAV for the next five years and lock into having him as their top center. Which isn’t completely terrible. The 21-year-old center just finished a season where he scored 29 goals and 67 points in 70 games, and he has the tools of a 6-foot-3, 208-pound pivot to truly be at the top of a championship-caliber lineup if he takes just one little step in production.
Anaheim still has to re-sign winger Cutter Gauthier and because of matching the Carlsson offer sheet will need to move out a veteran player to do so. Especially after Carlsson signed at the number he did, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Gauthier came in at a number over $13 million and with just $9 million in cap space right now, some other player in Anaheim is going to fall victim to the cap crunch.
So, at the very least, the Flyers were able to completely handcuff the Ducks to a big cap bind. The Carlsson offer sheet already prevented the Ducks from improving their blue line after losing John Carlson, Jacob Trouba, Radko Gudas, and Olen Zellweger, and now they have to shed some scoring depth as well to make everything work.
Poor Carlsson is going to go back to Anaheim playing on such a worse roster and potentially not even make the playoffs again after performing so well and having a little bit of a coming out party during the two series earlier this year.
What could have been — now instead of strengthening a team that also won a playoff series after missing the playoffs for several years, he’s going back to the Ducks. And now, the Flyers have to think about their next opportunity.
Flyers lose out on landing Leo Carlsson
The Philadelphia Flyers could have had something special added to their lineup. That potential big addition that would have moved them up at least one tier closer to those teams who are perennial Stanley Cup contenders. Leo Carlsson might not have gotten them all the way, but it would have made a whole lot of people around the sport start to recognize the Flyers as an actual player and a team who is not that far off from winning the Metropolitan Division and maybe having a couple of appearances in the final rounds of the playoffs.
Now, the Flyers will need to remain on the lookout for that same, singular piece that can do exactly that since it will not be Carlsson.
It most likely won’t come this offseason, though. It does not seem like the Flyers are in any business, to act desperate to make that big of a splash before training camp. Could they go ahead and offer sheet the other remaining top-end restricted free agents in Connor Bedard or Adam Fantilli? They technically can but Chicago is going to match absolutely anything for Bedard and Columbus has all the room in the world to do the same and Fantilli isn’t even on that same tier as Carlsson (for now) so it’s questionable if the Flyers would even do that in the first place.
The other business the Flyers can get up to before everyone takes the six weeks off and heads to the cottage, is less exciting.
They will get restricted free agents Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, and Nikita Grebenkin signed to new contracts. Maybe some of them will be long-term commitments, while others are more bridge deals if the player wants to bet on himself to cash in later after having better seasons, or the Flyers just don’t want to fully commit quite yet.
Once that business is done, Briere might just see what’s left on the budget and what he can maybe pull off in terms of more new additions to the team. While David Jiricek might end up winning the job through the season, a more experience power-play quarterback that can maybe jump into the top four, could be useful. There’s none of that left in free agency, so could we see another trade?
Rasmus Ristolainen is still on this roster. Does not getting Leo Carlsson make the Flyers less concerned about competing next season and if they can move him for the price they want and land a replacement in a different deal, will they do that? Maybe a Morgan Rielly or something? There are moves that can be made.
Everything has just been on hold while the Ducks decided to match the offer sheet or not. Now that that business has been settled, we can turn our heads and look forward to still get extremely excited for next season. The Flyers should be improved no matter what with Joseph Woll forming a for-real goaltending tandem with Dan Vladar, and a full season of youngsters like Porter Martone, Denver Barkey, and Alex Bump.
The Leo Carlsson offer sheet was an incredible opportunity and the Flyers did all they could to make it as unmatchable as possible, but the Ducks would rather constrict future roster construction and sacrifice depth elsewhere, than get embarrassed and let Danny Briere steal one of the best young centers in the entire world.
On to bigger things.
