The Philadelphia Flyers’ offer sheet for Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson has thrown a bright light on one of the NHL’s sharpest tools, and the Detroit Red Wings should be paying close attention.
Carlsson’s five-year offer sheet comes in at an average annual value of $18 million per season, making him the highest-paid player in the league. If Anaheim walks away, the Ducks would get four of Philadelphia’s first-round picks as compensation. If they match, they’d be committing to five more years and eventually steering Carlsson straight to unrestricted free agency.
Either way, Anaheim is in a brutal spot.
For Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings, though, the lesson is less about the Ducks and more about opportunity. With the league now reminded just how disruptive an offer sheet can be, Detroit has a real weapon available if it wants to use it.
Offer sheets are designed to sting. They’re often loaded with bonuses up front, which can leave the receiving team squeezed against the cap for years before the deal levels out. By that point, the player is usually close enough to free agency that the original club may have little appetite to keep fighting.
That makes the restricted free agent market worth watching, and Detroit has a few names that stand out. Jason Robertson is the obvious one, and the Red Wings have been linked to him before. But Adam Fantilli of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks are the other two that jump off the page.
Both teams would likely be eager to match. Still, Columbus looks like the more vulnerable target.
The Blue Jackets still need to extend Cole Sillinger and de facto starting netminder Jet Greaves, which gives them a shorter runway than Chicago. If Detroit were willing to go high enough on Fantilli, Columbus might not be able to keep up without making other moves.
There’s another wrinkle, too: the Blue Jackets have 10 different players on some form of no-trade clause or no movement clause. That narrows their flexibility and makes life harder if they’re forced into a corner.
If Yzerman is trying to find a top center after the Dylan Larkin fallout, Fantilli could be the best path.
But Detroit can’t just think about using offer sheets on other teams’ players. It has to think about being on the other side of one, too.
Simon Edvinsson still hasn’t signed an extension, which leaves him exposed. Next season, Marco Kasper and Albert Johansson will also need to be monitored.
Kasper and Johansson wouldn’t bring the same kind of salary as Edvinsson, but an offer sheet in that range would still hand the Red Wings a middling return compared with what those players can actually provide.
So if Yzerman wants to make this move, he has to know exactly what it can cost. Once that door opens, there’s no guarantee another team won’t walk through it when Detroit is vulnerable now or later.
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