A lot of noise has followed the Philadelphia Flyers ever since they dangled an $18 million cap hit at Leo Carlsson on an offer sheet attempt, but the latest wave of NHL contracts tells a different story. The market didn’t get blown up. It kept moving.
Carlsson, 21, sits at the top of the league’s annual cap-hit ladder for now, just ahead of Minnesota Wild star Kirill Kaprizov at $17 million. But that comparison matters.
Kaprizov is 29, a winger, and already in his prime. Carlsson is a center whose best years are still ahead of him, which is exactly why teams pay for upside when they sign players in that age range.
That point has shown up in a string of recent deals. Pavel Mintyukov landed $7.2 million for five years, and Simon Nemec got $7.25 million over the same term. The Flyers, meanwhile, signed Jamie Drysdale for four years at a $6.5 million cap hit, giving him a shorter deal than Mintyukov and Nemec but at a lower price.
There are bigger swings out there too. The Blackhawks committed $12.5 million to Bowen Byram, while Connor McMichael got six years at $6.75 million per. Pittsburgh gave Egor Chinakhov three years at a $6.25 million cap hit after his breakout season, and Mavrik Bourque - whom the Flyers reportedly tried to trade for - signed for six years at $5.5 million annually.
That’s where the Flyers’ Carlsson offer sheet starts to look less like a market-wrecker and more like one aggressive number in a league full of them. Among those forwards, Philadelphia may have come away with the roughest bargain, because the team got shorter term and a higher AAV in the deal. If negotiations had broken the other way, that would have flipped.
Trevor Zegras is part of that same picture. The Flyers landed him at $9.125 million for four years, and that’s top-end center money for now - though not for long.
His agent, Pat Brisson, has already negotiated some major deals, including Jack Eichel’s $13.5 million cap hit extension in October. Jack Hughes, another Brisson client, is still at $8 million per year on a deal from 2021.
Brisson also got Elias Pettersson an eight-year, $92.8 million contract with an $11.6 million AAV in 2024, when Pettersson was 25 - the same age Zegras is now. Even in a stronger market, Zegras came in $2 million below Pettersson. Coming off a career-high 67 points, that suggests both Brisson and the Flyers see more growth ahead.
So no, Zegras didn’t get paid because the Flyers tried to overstuff Carlsson’s offer sheet to pry him out of Anaheim. And if anyone wants to argue Philadelphia broke the league, the numbers around the NHL say otherwise.
One Carlsson is slightly cheaper than two of Zegras; that’s a good deal.
In Other News...
Flyers Fans Are Bracing For Another Wild Superstar Rumor
The rumor mill is already spinning around the Flyers again, and this one has the kind of superstar sheen that tends to set off a fan base in a hurry. The broader backdrop around the league only adds to it, with Ottawa moving on from Brady Tkachuk and Shane Pinto publicly stressing the need to accept the change and keep going, while Detroit is headed into a leadership shift after Steve Yzermans departure, a situation that could alter the conversation around Dylan Larkin.
For Philadelphia, though, the attention-grabber is the possibility that Connor McDavid could one day be part of the conversation, even if the idea is still floating more as speculation than anything concrete. Flyers fans have heard enough big-name whispers over the years to know how quickly they can take on a life of their own, and this latest one is no different: intriguing, combustible, and still missing the one piece that would make it real. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Offer Sheet Fallout Just Reached Connor Bedard
The ripple effects of the Flyers offer sheet to Leo Carlsson have now reached one of the NHLs biggest young stars. Connor Bedard has agreed to a five-year extension with the Blackhawks worth $75 million, a deal that carries a $15 million annual cap hit and underscores just how quickly the market for elite talent has climbed.
Even with the salary landscape shifting around him, Bedards camp said he stayed committed to his original contract position, rather than chasing a new benchmark in the wake of Chicagos own offseason turbulence. Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson praised the extension and Bedards importance to the franchise, but the larger takeaway for Philadelphia is hard to miss: one aggressive offer sheet can send echoes far beyond the player it targeted. [Read more 🡒]