Multiple teams were thinking the same thing as the Flyers this summer.
At the peak of the 2026 NHL offseason, the Philadelphia Flyers shook the league to its core with their ambitious and aggressive offer sheet to Anaheim Ducks star Leo Carlsson, but we now know for sure that if it wasn't them, it was going to be someone else.
On Wednesday's episode of Daily Faceoff's "Morning Cuppa Hockey", agent Ryan Keator shared some details on the Carlsson offer sheet saga, and pulled back the curtain on what the Flyers were up against when trying to pull off their bold move.
Multiple teams were in on Carlsson, but only one rivaled the Flyers.
"Teams are allowed to reach out to a restricted free agent on an offer sheet on the last day of June. I believe it's June 30th, this year, is the day they're allowed to reach out," Keator explained.
"My father got his first text at 12:04 a.m. on June 30th from the first team. We had a total of about eight teams reach out, four that were really serious, and two firm offers. Obviously, one of them was Philly. The other one we'll save for after Leo's retired."
Keator's front-row seat to all the proceedings proves that the offer sheet talk heading into the offseason was legitimate, and that while the Flyers seemingly came out of nowhere with their offer sheet, they had their move planned out. Other NHL teams were circling the waters, too.
The other wrinkle to the Carlsson saga, of course, was the money structure, with Carlsson having a base salary no higher than $1 million in any of the five years on the deal, with the overwhelming majority of his money being paid in signing bonuses. That's on top of making the Swede the highest-paid player in the NHL, if only temporarily.
In just the first two seasons alone, Carlsson will be making $38.05 million in signing bonuses, based on the structure he, Matt and Ryan Keator, and the Flyers agreed upon in the $90 million offer sheet.
"That was a crazy couple days, for sure. You have this money coming in, what's the structure going to look like? How many years? We noticed when we did five years, a lot of people have now copied that," Ryan Keator continued.
"There wasn't too much negotiating going on. We traded back and forth a little bit with some teams and just where the ballpark would be and whatnot.
"In Philly's case, I don't know what they were thinking for months leading up to it. I can only speak to the three days, but they recognized that they needed a 1C. So, how can you get No. 1 franchise centers in this league? it's the hardest thing to get, so you either need to build through the draft, or they went the route of offer sheets.
"There wasn't too much back and forth going on, but it was a crazy process. There was definitely a couple of, like, 'holy you-know-whats' in our office when everything was going down, because we weren't really expecting it."
Of course, it's all water under the bridge now, as the Ducks ultimately decided to match the Flyers' offer sheet to Carlsson after much fanfare, but it's fascinating to find out for real how many other NHL teams were mirroring the Flyers' thinking.
Few clubs in the NHL were fortunate enough to have the financial flexibility the Flyers had to make such a move, in addition to having, and being able to stomach, the draft compensation necessary to pull it off.
And, most notably, the Flyers have not denied the possibility they will try something like this again in the future when a favorable opportunity presents itself.
