A big Danny Briere regret may have emerged regarding the Leo Carlsson offer sheet
Photo credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
In January 2024, Cutter Gauthier refused to play for the Philadelphia Flyers.
Danny Briere absorbed the humiliation and traded his fifth-overall pick to the Anaheim Ducks for Jamie Drysdale.
Gauthier turned into an All-Rookie cornerstone in Anaheim, skating beside Leo Carlsson.
Now Briere has tendered Carlsson a five-year, $90 million offer sheet, an $18 million cap hit that would make him the highest-paid player in the NHL.
Elliotte Friedman said on 32 Thoughts he was surprised the Flyers didn't push the number even higher, which could be one of their regrets.
Re Leo Carlsson offer sheet/Flyers: "I think one of the things they kinda went back and forth about was, would they really get the player; I'm a little bit surprised they didn't go even higher."
- Elliotte Friedman
- Elliotte Friedman
That surprise matters, because the deal was engineered to hurt, not just to sign. Its signing bonuses front-load the cash the Ducks would owe within a year.
Why the Flyers targeted Carlsson and not Gauthier
Anaheim built its young core on two forwards Briere once controlled. He is now trying to pry one loose.
Gauthier is a 10.2(c) restricted free agent, so he cannot legally be offer-sheeted this summer.
Carlsson could be. Briere aimed the record contract at the one cornerstone the rules left exposed.
The Ducks have until Friday, July 10, to match or hand Philadelphia four first-round picks.
Match, and they cannot trade Carlsson for a year while their depth absorbs the cost.
The victim who turned the offer sheet into a weapon
The league watched Gauthier dictate his destination and walk out of Philadelphia. Briere lived that powerlessness firsthand.
Two years later, he flipped it, using the same young-star leverage against a rival instead of swallowing it again.
That is the thread nobody is tracing. Anaheim is not just fighting a contract; it is fighting the executive who learned this lesson the hardest way possible.
Whatever the Ducks decide by Friday, Briere has already shown that a front office burned by player empowerment can turn the RFA market into a blunt instrument of its own.
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