Danny Briere set off some fireworks before the Fourth of July.
The Flyers on Friday tendered an offer sheet to Ducks center Leo Carlsson. The offer is a five-year, $90 million deal, which has an average annual value of $18 million.
That would require four of the Flyers’ first-round draft picks over the next four seasons as compensation.
In the next seven days, Anaheim has a chance to match that offer if it wants to keep Carlsson. The 21-year-old restricted free agent is coming off 29 goals and 67 points in 70 games last season.
If the Flyers were to land Carlsson, it would be a massive addition to an already young team that made the playoffs last season and won a first-round series. The Flyers have needed high-end talent down the middle and Carlsson would provide it.
He would also become the highest-paid player in the NHL right now. The Flyers have built some cap space and the league’s salary cap is only going up.
“If we have the chance to take a big leap, we will jump on it,” Briere said two days ago.
Carlsson was the second overall pick in the 2023 draft, five spots ahead of Matvei Michkov, who the Flyers selected at No. 7. Carlsson is 6-foot-3 and 208 pounds. He has put up 141 career points in only 201 games so far.
He had 11 points in 12 playoff games last season.
The Flyers have done business with the Ducks in recent years. There was the Cutter Gauthier trade in January 2024 and then the Trevor Zegras trade last summer. But this is a different kind of business.
On Friday morning, Briere was watching the Flyers’ prospects compete in a 3-on-3 tournament to wrap up development camp. He stood along the back wall. And he sure had something up his sleeve.