Leo Carlsson spent the offseason as the most argued-about player in hockey. The Philadelphia Flyers tendered him a five-year offer sheet worth $18 million a season, the Anaheim Ducks matched it on July 9, and the entire league’s pay scale shifted underneath it. Nobody in the NHL is taking home more actual cash this calendar year.
Three games into the season, he has given the Ducks something no player in their 33-year history has managed.
What records has Leo Carlsson broken?
Carlsson had already recorded multiple points in each of Anaheim’s opening two games, which put him level with Ryan Getzlaf, Saku Koivu, Daniel Winnik and Andrew Cogliano. Setting up both of Beckett Sennecke‘s power-play goals against Edmonton on Wednesday took him somewhere none of those four ever reached, a third consecutive multi-point game to start a season.
The same two assists took his career totals to 62 goals and 86 assists for 148 points, moving him past Paul Kariya‘s 147 for the most career points by a Ducks player before the age of 22. Carlsson doesn’t turn 22 until December 26.
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His seven points through three games is also the most ever by an Anaheim skater to open a season, passing Troy Terry‘s six from 2022-23, and his six assists make him the first Ducks player with five or more through that many games to start a campaign.
Kariya’s name keeps appearing for a reason. The Hall of Famer still holds most of the franchise’s young-player marks, including 44 multi-point games before 22 against Carlsson’s 35, and Carlsson has been chipping away at that list for two seasons.
The night itself didn’t go Anaheim’s way. Lukas Dostal stopped six of 11 shots in a disastrous middle period before being pulled, and the Ducks lost 5-2 for the first time this season. Carlsson logged 23:36 and finished minus-2.
He had 29 goals and 67 points last season at 21, which was the production that convinced Philadelphia to make the offer in the first place.
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