Leo Carlsson dramatically reset the market for young stars earlier this summer when he signed a five-year, $90 million offer sheet with the Philadelphia Flyers. The Anaheim Ducks ultimately matched the deal, giving the 21-year-old center a then-NHL-record $18 million cap hit and, in the process, helping push the price of comparable young players even higher.
“It’s nuts,” Leonard said to reporters after the first day of Capitals training camp. “It’s crazy what’s going on now.”
With the new CBA capping contract extensions at seven years and fears of more offer sheets coming to prominent restricted free agents next summer, Capitals general manager Chris Patrick made Ryan Leonard one of the beneficiaries of that changing landscape, agreeing to an eight-year, $84 million contract worth $10.5 million per season at Tuesday’s deadline. The deal, which begins in the 2027-28 season, will keep Leonard in Washington through 2034-35.
Making such a huge commitment to the Capitals was easy, explained Leonard, even beyond the eye-popping numbers, which got him pranked at Tuesday’s informal skate.
“I love it here,” Leonard said. “My family loves coming out here, and they just know how happy I am here. Couldn’t thank the organization enough for putting that trust in me, and it’s really exciting to lock in pretty much nine more years here.”
Leonard likely netted millions — if not tens of millions more — due to Carlsson’s market-resetting deal. Other players to benefit this summer included Macklin Celebrini ($18.8M AAV), Connor Bedard ($15M AAV), and Cutter Gauthier ($13.5M AAV), all pending restricted free agents who signed extensions worth over eight figures.
When asked if he would send Carlsson a thank-you card, the Capitals winger had a more subtle surprise planned.
“I’ll definitely be giving him a tap on the shins this year,” he said, smiling.
Unfortunately, Leonard will have to wait to thank Carlsson in person, as the Capitals’ first game against the Ducks comes in the next calendar year on January 10 at Honda Center.
“It’s fun to see the market, and it’s nice to see that the NHL is slowly creeping up on some other sports (salaries),” Leonard said.
For his part, Patrick admitted that he was surprised by what went down with Carlsson, but not the offer sheet itself.
“Just the numbers involved with it,” Patrick said. “Does it change the marketplace? We’ll see.”
Patrick thinks the current environment has become ripe for offer sheets because of the NHL’s rising salary cap and thin UFA market, though he believes that window could close in the next year or two as teams spend their cap space and burn through the draft picks needed as compensation.
“I’m glad that our exposure has gone there with those two players,” Patrick said, also referencing Justin Sourdif‘s eight-year extension on Tuesday as well. “For me, I wasn’t worried about losing them. I was worried about having to match a deal with a term we didn’t like or with movement clauses we didn’t like or with massively front-loaded bonus structure that we didn’t like. So we were able to do a deal on our terms with the player and kind of avoid a lot of that drama.”
He also believes the megadeals across the NHL for young stars are not done quite yet.
“There’s some more deals that are going to come in here besides the ones like the flurry over the last couple of days,” Patrick said. “(Adam) Fantilli and some guys in Ryan’s draft class that are going to be up for deals after this year as well.”
Fantilli, the talented Columbus Blue Jackets‘ centerman, is a restricted free agent this summer along with Leonard’s former Boston College line-mate, Sharks forward Will Smith, and Matvei Michkov — the talented Russian winger picked one spot ahead of Leonard in the 2023 NHL Draft by the Flyers.
As for Leonard, who was placed on a line with Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome to start training camp, he still seemed amazed at the position he’s been put in at age 21.
“When you hear that a team in an organization has a trust in you like that, it’s kind of hard not to turn it down,” Leonard said. “And, yeah, it’s just super rewarding to hear that they have that trust in you. Obviously you just want to get it done as quickly as possible. It was really nice to get it done and (I’m) super happy.”
