Long before the Philadelphia Flyers made their ambitious Leo Carlsson offer sheet, they were planning a big-money heist for an already established NHL superstar.

After the end of the 2025-26 season and the subsequent Stanley Cup playoff run, the Flyers expressed some surprise that more of the top prospective free agents in the 2026 class never made it to free agency.

Some of those star players who could have found new teams in free agency include Artemi Panarin, Jack Eichel, and Kirill Kaprizov, though all three extended with their respective NHL teams.

As a result, the Flyers were left high and dry and ultimately pivoted to Leo Carlsson, though if they had it their way, things would have looked much different.

According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, the Flyers had planned on targeting Kaprizov, the superstar Minnesota Wild winger, before the Russian phenom signed a blockbuster eight-year, $136 million contract extension ($17 million AAV) on Sept. 25.

"I had heard that if Kaprizov had hit the market this year, Philly was going to drop bags of cash on his house," Friedman said in his latest episode of the "32 Thoughts" podcast. "Minnesota knew that. Minnesota knew, one of the reasons they did that was that they knew Philly would if they didn't."

So, even before the Flyers made the run they did in the Stanley Cup playoffs, beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games before getting swept by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, general manager Danny Briere and this front office were big-game hunting.

Kaprizov, a four-time 40-goal scorer with a 108-point season under his belt, certainly qualifies, though it is also worth considering that he is a winger, and Carlsson is a natural center.

The Flyers connection with Kaprizov has always been there, too, as assistant general manager Brent Flahr was the one who drafted the Russian superstar to the Wild when he was with the organization back in 2015.

Flahr, of course, now runs the Flyers' drafts, and it is no secret that unearthing Kaprizov as a fifth-round pick is by far Flahr's biggest success and claim to fame at the NHL level.

Regardless of the ultimate outcome with Kaprizov, it speaks volumes about the Flyers' willingness to do whatever it takes to acquire good players and pay the price required to win.

They have doubled down on their bet with the Carlsson offer sheet, apparently steadfast in their belief that the young Swede, too, can develop into a 100-point player, especially with options like Matvei Michkov and Porter Martone flanking him on the wings.

And we can safely assume that if the Flyers come up short in their pursuit of Carlsson, they won't throw in the towel.