The ink is now dry on Leo Carlsson's new contract with the Anaheim Ducks, an offer sheet that was initiated by the Philadelphia Flyers, and it is a deal that's historic in more ways than one. Carlsson's $18M cap hit will be the largest in the salary cap era, and it likely will be the last of it's kind due to changes to the NHL's CBA which officially kick in for the 2026-27 NHL season. This is something people might have forgotten about, and if that's true for you, allow this to serve as a quick refresher.
Carlsson's contract structure is very familiar
Carlsson's deal has a $19,950,000 bonus this year, a $18,100,000 bonus next year, a $15,200,000 bonus the year after, and a $15,000,000 bonus in the final year of the deal. All in, Carlsson is taking home $83.5 million in bonuses with the remaining being salary paid throughout the course of each league year.
Under the new CBA, only 60% of a player's contract can be signing bonuses, and this change means that powerhouse teams like the Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs will have no longer be able to wield their financial might over other NHL teams.
The other important feature for the CBA change for Canadian teams is the signing bonus limits.
— Marco D'Amico (@mndamico) June 19, 2026
Used as a way to lower tax impact for cross-border players in Canada and US, signing bonuses will be limited to a max of 60% of the total contract.
Raddysh's contract will have a ton. https://t.co/x8mPbUexmC
The "best" offer will essentially be the same across the board, because such an offer would be capped in terms of signing bonuses.
The Rangers had deployed this strategy very successfully in recent years, and with the salary cap exploding like it has, the league likely wanted to prevent the Blueshirts from handing out a bunch of deals similar to Carlsson's.
Looking back at times Rangers got bonus happy
As for deals already on the books, the first year of Igor Shesterkin's new $92 million contract saw him earn $15,050,000 right away, and in total $85 million of his deal is made up of signing bonuses. Artemi Panarin took home a $13 million signing bonus during the first day of his $81.5 million contract, and $74.5 million of his deal was paid in bonuses.
There's also Vladislav Gavrikov who was the Rangers' big signing last year, and he made $9 million in year one of which $8 million was a signing bonuses. His total deal was for $49 million, and $35.2 million of it is paid in signing bonuses. Mika Zibanejad's deal also fits under this category, as $60 million of his $68 million deal signed in October of 2021 are paid in signing bonuses.
Blueshirts deviated from strategy a bit with Dorofeyev
Interestingly enough, the Rangers did not go as aggressive as they could have with bonuses for their latest big signing, and it could be a case of them not wanting to make it hard to trade him down the line if he doesn't quite pan out as expected.
That said, Dorofeyev took home a $13 million signing bonus on July 1, a massive overall win for him as a player. His total deal is worth $77 million over seven years, and the Blueshirts new top winger will get $35 million of that via a signing bonus.
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