With their $90 million offer sheet by Leo Carlsson, the Philadelphia Flyers have put the Anaheim Ducks in a losing position, and nobody should be surprised if the Flyers end up getting Carlsson.

Carlsson, 21, will become the highest-paid player in the NHL, be it by the Flyers or by the Ducks, if they match the offer sheet, on Friday.

The key difference between the two teams is that one is built to handle Carlsson's eye-watering $18 million cap hit, and one is not.

After re-signing defenseman Tyson Hinds on Tuesday, the Ducks have just over $9 million in cap space remaining, though they will also need to re-sign Cutter Gauthier, who will undoubtedly command a figure north of $10 million after an impressive 41-goal sophomore season.

No matter what the Ducks do, they will come out on the losing side of this. Should Anaheim keep Carlsson, they will have to gut their roster to shed salary to be cap-compliant, with the other 31 NHL teams knowing the situation. In any potential trade, the Ducks will have next to no leverage.

On the other hand, taking the four first-round picks from the Flyers and their offer sheet means losing the franchise player and punting at least one season, if not more, as the Ducks rebuild around star wingers Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke.

Many have assumed the Ducks will just trade one of their big-money veterans to make space to keep both Gauthier and Carlsson, but it isn't anywhere nearly as simple as that.

Veterans Mikael Granlund ($7 million), Chris Kreider ($6.5 million), and Alex Killorn ($6.25 million) all have 15-team no-trade lists, and we can expect that bottom-feeders with the cap space to take on those contracts, like Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, and St. louis, won't make the cut for those players and their agents.

Frank Vatrano has a more modest $4.571 million cap hit and seven-team no-trade list, but the 32-year-old scored... five goals in 50 games last year for the Ducks, with two years left on his deal.

Kreider and Killorn will be the "easiest" to move on expiring contracts, but again, they won't accept trades to teams they can't win with, and teams that are prepared to win don't have cap space laying around almost two weeks after the start of free agency to spend on ageing middle-six wingers.

Here's another wrinkle that works in the Flyers' favor:

According to MoneyPuck, the Ducks had four forward lines that played 100 or more minutes together last season.

Kreider, Carlsson, and Troy Terry played the most as a unit at 390 minutes; Terry will start on injured reserve as he recovers from a hip surgery, and then, what, trade Kreider?

If the Ducks trade Kreider to keep Carlsson, their most reliable, productive line will be disrupted permanently, and Carlsson will be left with two new linemates until Terry returns. By then, the season might as well be over.

Unlike the Flyers, the Ducks' depth is atrocious, at both forward and defense. In addition to the aforementioned trade possibilities, Anaheim's bottom-six and defense were already poor as it is.

The Ducks' third and fourth lines will consist of Vatrano, Ryan Poehling, A.J. Greer, Jeff Malott, Sam Colangelo, Tim Washe, and/or Nikita Nesterenko. Gulp.

Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov, and a soon-to-be-36-year-old Nick Jensen lead the way on defense, but Mintyukov is now making $7.2 million against the cap and wasn't even better than Olen Zellweger, whom the Ducks traded to Buffalo for a prospect and pick, and Zellweger is making only $3.1 million against the cap on his new deal.

So, what incentive is there for the Ducks to keep Carlsson, really? Match the offer sheet, gut your team, and be bad as Carlsson walks to free agency in five years at the prime age of 26, or be bad, get four first-round picks, learn your lesson, and start over.

Look at the Flyers: all their ducks (pun may or may not be intended) are in a row, and Carlsson was deemed the last chess piece they needed to compete for a championship.

Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Travis Sanheim, Dan Vladar, and Christian Dvorak, and Cam York are all signed to long-term contracts.

Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale will be next after filing for arbitration, which protects the Flyers from any retaliatory offer sheets. They're also former Ducks who were teammates with Carlsson; maybe a favor to the Flyers' front office?

Matvei Michkov is heading into a contract year and is still playing on an entry-level contract, while Porter Martone, Alex Bump, and Denver Barkey each have three years left on their contracts.

Michkov is the wildcard here after a disappointing sophomore year, but if he blows up next to Carlsson and earns a payday, the Flyers will be happy to have that problem next summer. That means they did something well building this roster up.

Of course, I don't make this decision for the Ducks, and I don't have pride to swallow or skin in the game regarding Carlsson and the Flyers.

The next steps, however, seem quite obvious from here. By keeping Carlsson, the Ducks will just waste five years of their time.

General manager Pat Verbeek may be prideful and headstrong and opt to stand his ground, but sometimes, it takes more guts and strength not to fight back.

The best outcome for both sides ends with Carlsson in a Flyers uniform later this week.