- Elliotte Friedman says Anaheim has told teams it will match any offer sheet on Leo Carlsson
- The Ducks stayed quiet in free agency on purpose to protect the cap space
- Read below for what Carlsson’s next contract could cost
The Ducks aren’t letting anyone pry Leo Carlsson loose.
Anaheim has told other teams it will match any offer sheet thrown at the 21-year-old center, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Wednesday. Friedman added that the Ducks have stayed quiet in free agency on purpose, keeping their cap sheet clean so they can absorb whatever number a rival puts in front of Carlsson.
Here’s Friedman:
New Jersey already tendered an offer sheet to Mammoth center Barrett Hayton earlier this week, and that’s the backdrop here. With cap space sloshing around the league again, restricted free agents like Carlsson are exactly the kind of player a rival might try to poach.
Carlsson isn’t a guy Anaheim can afford to lose. He put up 29 goals and 38 assists in 70 games in 2025-26, the best season of his young career and a real step toward the top-line center the Ducks drafted second overall in 2023.
Take a look at what Carlsson did this season:
GM Pat Verbeek has made his stance obvious. By promising to match, he’s telling the rest of the league not to bother. Any deal they draw up, Anaheim signs the same one and keeps its guy.
This kind of standoff can drag deep into the summer. Carlsson is in line for a long-term deal with a double-digit cap hit, and getting that number right matters when it’s going on the books for the better part of a decade. The Ducks would rather set the price themselves than let someone else set it for them.
