Flyers offer sheet already having huge consequences for the Ducks.

The Philadelphia Flyers rocked the National Hockey League last week when they dropped a bombshell of an offer sheet for Anaheim Ducks star forward Leo Carlsson. The offer sheet, a ridiculous 5 year contract with an average annual value of $18 million per season, has turned the Ducks offseason upside down and the negative consequences of Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek allowing Leo Carlsson to reach this stage in negotiations are already being felt.

On Sunday, the Ducks announced a major signing but not the one that their fans had been hoping for when they revealed they had signed defenseman Pavel Mintyukov to a lucrative 5 year deal at an AAV of $7.2 million per season. The move seems very much like a knee jerk response from the Ducks front office with many being quick to criticize the deal as an overpay on the part of the Ducks.

Unfortunately it only gets worse from there with the Ducks salary cap structure now looking like an absolute nightmare. If the Ducks were to match the offer sheet Carlsson signed with the Flyers that would leave them with less than $10 million in available cap space after the Mintyukov signing, with restricted free agent Cutter Gauthier still unsigned. Gauthier will likely be looking for a big payday of his own with all the money flying around this summer, one that could easily exceed an AAV of $10 million per season.

In fact the Mintyukov signing puts the Ducks in such a tough spot salary cap-wise that some believe it is a sign they will not be matching the offer sheet for Carlsson and will instead collect the 4 first round picks.

The Ducks do of course have the option of making moves to get out of their current salary cap predicament, but that would mean shedding themselves of players they had previously envisioned keeping on their roster. No matter which path the Ducks choose, it does seems as though the Flyers have successfully dealt a major blow to an NHL rival.

It does make me wonder if there was any lingering bad blood between the Flyers and the Ducks over the Cutter Gauthier drama, especially given that he is one of the players most heavily impacted by this offer sheet.