Ducks officially match Leo Carlsson contract offer from Flyers

This just in, the Anaheim Ducks have officially matched the five-year offer sheet extended by the Philadelphia Flyers to center Leo Carlsson. Carlsson’s five-year contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of $18 million will begin in the 2026-27 NHL season and run through the 2030-31 campaign.

Carlsson is now the NHL's highest paid player. There were rumors that Ducks GM Pat Verbeek had been in negotiations with Carlsson on a new deal in the $10 - $12 million annually range when Flyers GM Daniel Briere swooped in with his $18 million annual offer.

“We are very happy to have Leo under contract for five years,” said Ducks General Manager Pat Verbeek. “We have viewed Leo as a franchise player since the moment we met him prior to the 2023 draft. He’s a character person on and off the ice. Leo is viewed as a top player in this league, and it was always our intention to match any offer sheet.”

While Verbeek is saying all the right things, you have to imagine that this development has caused some friction within the organization. Even so, the team's ownership group seems unfazed.

“Matching the offer sheet was an easy decision, as Pat has intelligently left enough cap space to give us the ability to retain Leo,” said Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli in a prepared statement. “We have extremely high expectations for Leo. We firmly believe he will continue his strong growth trajectory and become one of the truly elite centers in the league, while continuing to make a strong impact in our community.”

It's worth noting that, by virtue of matching the offersheet, that the Ducks cannot trade Carlsson for at least a calendar year.

Carlsson has quickly established himself as one of the NHL's brightest young centers since being selected second overall by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2023 NHL Draft. After developing against men in Sweden's SHL with Örebro HK, Carlsson arrived in North America with lofty expectations and wasted little time proving he belonged. He scored in his NHL debut and even recorded a hat trick during his rookie season, showcasing the combination of size, vision, puck protection and hockey IQ that made him one of the most coveted prospects of his draft class.

As his career has progressed, Carlsson has steadily developed into Anaheim's top-line center and the centerpiece of the franchise's rebuild. Standing 6-foot-3 with elite playmaking ability, he has become the type of player capable of controlling the pace of a game while also contributing offensively at a high level. His breakout 2025-26 campaign saw him produce 67 points in 70 games before adding another 11 points during Anaheim's playoff run, cementing his status as one of the league's premier young stars.

Still only in his early 20s, Carlsson's ceiling remains incredibly high. His ability to play in all situations, combined with his maturity and two-way awareness, has drawn comparisons to some of the NHL's elite centers. As the Ducks continue building around their talented young core, Carlsson appears poised to be the face of the franchise for years to come and has all the tools necessary to develop into a perennial All-Star and one of the NHL's most dominant forwards.