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The Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> sent shockwaves through the NHL on Friday afternoon when they announced that they signed Anaheim Ducks<\/a> restricted free agent Leo Carlsson to a five-year offer sheet.<\/p>\n The contract will pay Carlsson $18 million per season and make him the highest-paid player in the league on a per-year basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is now just a matter of which team will be paying it to him. \u00a0<\/p>\n The Ducks have seven days to match the offer.<\/p>\n If they do not, they will receive the Flyers’ next four first-round draft picks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether it works for the Flyers or not, it is one of the boldest moves the NHL has seen in years. It is also a worthy gamble.\u00a0<\/p>\n First, offer sheets are\u00a0not something NHL teams typically utilize.<\/p>\n Especially not for top players.\u00a0<\/p>\n You still have to find a player that wants to sign with your team, you have to be willing to give up the draft pick compensation that comes with a successful offer sheet, and the team that currently owns the player’s rights has to be in a position where it does not want to match it.\u00a0<\/p>\n That is a lot of things that have to go right, and all of them rarely do.\u00a0<\/p>\n There was also always a good-old-boys club element to this, where general managers did not want to rock the boat or leave themselves vulnerable to an offer sheet of their own in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n Slowly but surely, that mindset is starting to change. We saw successful offer sheets a couple of years ago when the St. Louis Blues<\/a> successfully poached forward Dylan Holloway and defenseman Philip Broberg away from the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those contracts started to get the ball rolling.\u00a0<\/p>\n This contract will significantly help it along.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nWhy the Flyers’ offer sheet for Leo Carlsson is so bold<\/h2>\n