Story by
Jonathan Bailey
Wed, July 8, 2026 at 5:02 PM UTC·2 min read
With two days to go until a final resolution, the Philadelphia Flyers officially have the last remaining active offer sheet in the NHL with Leo Carlsson
On Wednesday, ahead of their 5 p.m. deadline, the Utah Mammoth matched the one-year, $4.775 million offer sheet tendered to forward Barrett Hayton by the New Jersey Devils, setting some precedent for the Flyers and Anaheim Ducks
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Hayton, 26, is eligible to sign a contract extension on Jan. 1, but cannot be traded for one calendar year, and like Carlsson, there is little logic being followed by the matching team
Hayton played bottom-six minutes for Utah last year and agreed to sign with the Devils by taking them up on the offer sheet, so by matching, the Mammoth pass up on a second-round pick for a player who tried to leave, won’t play significant minutes, and could leave for nothing as an unrestricted free agent this time next year
The Ducks have until 3 p.m. Friday to match the Flyers’ eye-watering five-year, $90 million ($18 million AAV) offer sheet for Carlsson, and if they don’t, they will receive four first-round picks from the Flyers
Insider: Flyers Planned Heist for NHL Superstar Before Leo Carlsson Offer SheetThe Philadelphia Flyers were hot in pursuit of Kirill Kaprizov before the Minnesota Wild locked down the superstar forward
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Like Hayton, Carlsson provisionally agreed to leave his team, and the Flyers can offer Carlsson much more from a hockey perspective than the Ducks as currently constructed
And should the Ducks match the Flyers’ Carlsson offer sheet, they will have to do major roster surgery to become cap-compliant, with an already terrible defense, a shallow forward group, and a number of veteran forwards with prohibitive no-trade lists that greatly limit the potential suitors they’ll have on the trade block
But, with Hayton, the Mammoth, and the Devils all square without much fanfare, all eyes around the NHL now turn to the Flyers and Ducks
The Flyers have entered uncharted territory with their bold move, and the final outcome, one way or another, will send shockwaves through the NHL in short order
