Leo Carlsson offer sheet is good for the NHL

I get why people are questioning it. Leo Carlsson hasn’t proven he’s a true 1C yet, so paying him like the best player in the league is a huge gamble. That’s a completely fair criticism.

But I don’t think this is automatically bad for the NHL.

People keep saying this contract “breaks the market,” but the salary cap is about to keep climbing over the next several years. An $18M cap hit today isn’t going to feel like an $18M cap hit in five years. Teams have to start thinking ahead, not just paying for what a player has already done.

I also think people compare contracts across every position when maybe they shouldn’t. In the NFL, nobody is surprised when quarterbacks are the highest-paid players because everyone knows they’re the most valuable position. I think a true 1C is the hockey equivalent.

A legitimate first-line center drives play, plays in every situation, takes the toughest matchups, and makes everyone around him better. They’re incredibly hard to find, and every team that doesn’t have one spends years trying to get one.

If this contract ends up setting the standard that franchise centers are the highest-paid players, I honestly don’t hate that.

It might even have an impact on player development. If young players realize the biggest contracts are going to elite centers, maybe more kids stay at center instead of moving to the wing as they get older. The league is always talking about how hard it is to find true 1Cs, so giving players another reason to develop at that position doesn’t seem like a bad thing.

If Carlsson never becomes that guy, then yeah, this contract will look terrible. But if he does become a franchise center, maybe we’ll look back at this as the moment teams started valuing the hardest position to replace the way they should have all along.