MUNICH - Lukáš Dostál didn’t need much time to sort through the shock of Leo Carlsson’s $90 million offer sheet.
The Anaheim Ducks goaltender found out the same way plenty of fans did, over dinner back home in Czechia, after the Philadelphia Flyers stunned the NHL with a five-year, $90 million bid for the 21-year-old center. Offer sheets almost never happen - Carlsson became just the sixth NHL player in the past 12 years to sign one - so Dostál said the whole thing never really crossed his mind.
“I had no idea because the offer sheets, they don’t happen often,” Dostál told The Athletic during the NHL’s European Player Media Tour. “I didn’t really think about it.”
For Dostál, the bigger point was simple: Carlsson got paid, and Anaheim kept him.
“I think he deserves it, and I’m just so happy that he’s going to stay in Anaheim with us because he’s a tremendous player. His IQ is just through the roof. I’m just so happy for him.”
Carlsson’s deal came with real fireworks attached. The Flyers’ offer carried an $18 million average annual value, which made him the league’s highest-paid player at the time and would have cost Philadelphia four first-round picks in compensation. Anaheim matched it on July 9, locking in the No. 2 pick from 2023 through 2031.
That contract didn’t just settle one player’s future - it helped move the market. Connor Bedard’s $15 million AAV with the Chicago Blackhawks followed on July 18, and Macklin Celebrini later landed an $18.8 million AAV extension from the San Jose Sharks on July 29.
Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl, whose own $14 million AAV was topped by all three younger stars, said, “It’s great for the game that players are getting paid,” while NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh added, “It’s the way it should be,” and “When the salary cap was instituted (in 2005), you capped the salaries. It’s still capped with the salary cap.
But having players exercise their rights? They should be.
I mean in the past they haven’t. I appreciate a player giving a hometown discount to a team, but I really appreciate when a player is getting what they deserve.”
Anaheim’s cap situation is tighter now after a busy stretch of roster change. The Ducks lost defensemen Jacob Trouba, John Carlson and Radko Gudas to free agency after reaching Round 2 of the playoffs, and they also moved forward Mason McTavish and defenseman Olen Zellweger in trades to the St.
Louis Blues and Buffalo Sabres, respectively. They still have work to do with Cutter Gauthier, a restricted free agent coming off a 41-goal season.
Dostál, who signed a $32.5 million, five-year extension with the Ducks in July 2025, understands the business side better than most. He’s also seen Carlsson’s rise up close over three NHL seasons, including a career year with 29 goals and 67 points in 70 games.
“There’s nothing bad to think of it,” Dostál said. “It’s a business.
That’s what happens in the NHL. Money has to go somewhere, and I’m just so happy for Leo that he got what he wanted.
I think he deserves it, and I’m just so happy that he’s going to stay in Anaheim with us because he’s a tremendous player. His IQ is just through the roof.
I’m just so happy for him.”
The Ducks’ first playoff appearance since 2018 gave Dostál even more reason to feel optimistic about where the group is headed. Anaheim beat the favored Edmonton Oilers in Round 1 before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in six games, and Dostál said that run left a mark.
“That experience, obviously it’s going to drive you,” Dostál said. “Even now when we sit here and I’m just talking about it, I’m not saying I have goosebumps, but it’s like you want to play playoff hockey every single season. It was just so much fun.
“It was a big thing for us in that growth because we still have a young core. We still have a lot of guys that are learning.
Obviously next year, the way it seems like right now the team’s going to be on paper maybe even younger. It’s going to be cool to see all the guys playing together as a young core.”
That core includes Carlsson, Gauthier, winger Beckett Sennecke and defenseman Jackson LaCombe, with Dostál also fresh off backstopping Czechia to gold at the 2024 World Championship.
As for how Carlsson landed his new contract, Dostál wasn’t interested in making it bigger than the result.
“Ultimately, I’m just a goaltender, I’m just trying to stop the puck,” Dostál said. “The business side of it, it’s really not my job to discuss. You can have some opinions, but ultimately it doesn’t matter because the only opinion that matters is, like, I’m just so happy that we had a chance to keep Leo.”
“Well, I’m sure he will,” Dostál said. “Maybe two.”
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