The Vancouver Canucks have landed their big fish, acquiring Oliver Ekman-Larsson from the Arizona Coyotes. The team will also land restricted free agent forward Conor Garland, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports. The Coyotes are expected to receive Vancouver’s first-round pick this year (9th overall), a 2022 second-round pick and forwards Antoine Roussel, Loui Eriksson and Jay Beagle, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, who also notes that the Coyotes will be retaining 12 percent of Ekman-Larsson’s salary. CapFriendly adds that a 2023 seventh-round pick will also be going to the Coyotes.
This is a huge deal in terms of salary, as the Canucks clear three bad contracts off the books to make room for Ekman-Larsson. The 30-year-old defenseman carries a cap hit of $8.25MM through the 2026-27 season, but is owed $10.5MM in actual salary each of the next three years. Even after the Coyotes retained a portion of it ($990K/season), Vancouver is taking on a huge risk that the veteran defenseman will be able to not only maintain his current level of play, but rebound to the levels that landed him that deal in the first place.
In 2018 when he signed the eight-year, $66MM extension, Ekman-Larsson was coming off a 14-goal, 42-point campaign with the Coyotes. He had previously received votes for the Norris Trophy on four occasions and had just posted his fifth consecutive season with double-digit goal totals. The risky part, even then, was that it was a true extension, signed with a full year still left on his previous deal. While that final year at $5.5MM was also very productive, this new contract hasn’t brought much success for the Swedish defender.
In 2019-20, he scored just nine goals and 30 points in 66 games, while seeing his possession numbers drop across the board. Despite still seeing prime powerplay time, his effectiveness with the man-advantage dropped, resulting in just seven powerplay points. This season, he scored just three times in 46 games, logging his lowest point total since the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign. That came after a 2020 offseason filled with trade talks, with Vancouver and Boston the two teams he told Arizona he’d be willing to go to.
To make room for him in Vancouver, the team is moving out three contracts that total $12MM in cap room this season, but will actually require just $8.1MM in actual salary (minus some of the bonus payments that were likely already made by the Canucks) from the Coyotes. The most crucial part for Arizona is that each of Roussel, Beagle and Eriksson will become unrestricted free agents next season, meaning this is very little commitment from the Coyotes. A high first-round pick to swap Ekman-Larsson’s expensive deal for ones that will only affect the team this season is a steal, though there is of course that other player heading to Vancouver.
Garland, 25, has come on as the Coyotes most impressive forward in recent years, scoring 39 points in each of the last two seasons. His 47 goals in 164 games since entering the NHL will be a welcome addition to the Canucks lineup, though how much it will cost is still uncertain. Garland is an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent with quite a case, after his previous two-year, $1.55MM (total) deal expires.
In all, this is a risk from the Canucks standpoint. Betting on Ekman-Larsson to rediscover his top-end form in a flat-cap era is one that could cost them good, young players in the future, especially given the other negotiations that the Canucks have coming up this summer. Sure, they moved out some bad money for this year, but this deal has financial ramifications that far outreach the 2021-22 season.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
I can’t believe Eriksson is finally gone.
When a Beagle meets a pack of Coyotes, I really don’t fancy the Beagle …
dang, why didn’t Philly do this instead?
OEL had a full no move clause. He did not want to go to Philly.
is this known as a fact?
Last year, OEL said he’d go only to BOS or VAN.
Also, who cares, Risto is way better.
That’s a lot of money changing hands lol
Maple leafs should get him!! To stretch the cap room
the fact they got out from under the eriksson deal is amazing.
And parlayed it into a worse contract.
Eriksson only had 1 year left. No big deal. OEL has 6 left at 8.25M. Not as clean as it looks on the surface.
AZ cleaning house.
This is a salary dump for the Coyotes, as aside from getting back the pick they screwed themselves out of, the three guys they’re getting are all bad expirings. They also had concerns about Garland’s arby award. Beagle might go on LTIR. The 6 year retention is going to be a real pain down the road.
The retention will not matter for them, they never are close to the cap as they have an internal budget. This is a great move for Arizona!
Not a terrible trade. OEL is signed for 6 more years so we’ll see how it looks in a few years. Not a bad move by Benning all things considered tho imo
Money aside, Vancouver got better and Phoenix became an even bigger dog than they were. Hehe. :D
those saying wow they got out from Eriksson, if OEL looks like he did the last two years, that contract will look the same as Louis’.
This could be a home run if OEL returns to form and Garland continues his progression. or OEL could stay the same, Garland take a step back and this is what puts the Canucks in the basement for years to come
Oh, plenty of other factors beyond these two players will keep Vancouver in the basement for awhile
This deal will haunt the hockey world for years…
This is epitome of every fan’s “how about we give them all of our bad players for all of their good players” trade proposal…and now, it happened in real life.
And every time someone else says “that’s nuts, get out of here” they’ll be able to point to the OEL and Garland for every piece of junk Vancouver had sitting on the curbside.
It’s like Jim Benning found a lamp and rubbed it…
I don’t know if you’ll have this same thought 6 years from now. There will be a lot of people laughing at Benning for taking on this contract questioning what he was doing.
OEL is definitely not on of the Coyotes best players.
Literally just made almost the exact same comment, then I scrolled and seen yours
What they were doing was cleaning out the street sweepings AND getting OEL AND Garland for a teensy price. Yes, a few years down the road OEL’s contract will be a weight around their necks. That’s what buyout is for.
The Coyotes are schooling Seattle on how to use cap room. Seattle could have had so many picks for taking on bad contracts that don’t even go beyond 2023. Francis is the anti-Vegas model.
“We live in a time where cap space is king. And Seattle will soon be calling the shots from the throne.”
I guess you weren’t impressed by the “Tyler Pitlick for a fourth in next year’s draft” shot from the throne?
The Coyotes couldn’t school a special ed classroom. Four playoff wins in a decade lol
OEL is now an average 2nd pairing defenseman whose contract is top 10 at the position and after salary retention Vancouver will be paying top 20 at defenseman. This is a great move by Arizona to sell high on Garland and dump OEL for 1 year deals.
Did they sell high though? Sure number 9 overall is fine and great, but all they really did with this deal is gain cap space that their owner won’t let them use anyways….
Do you think his value will ever be higher?
I do. It depends on how you look at the OEL part of it. If the #9 had more to do with taking on a bad contract, then you gave up garland for pennies
Meanwhile, the Yotes are getting close to going full Major League.
Hopefully, they do a few background checks on this year’s draft class.
“Hopefully, they do a few background checks on this year’s draft class.”
No kidding.
They should also wait on assessing players physically. That also doesn’t hurt their drafting.
Hello,
After the word ‘a 2022 second-round pick’, can you also add ‘seven-round pick?
“The Coyotes are expected to receive Vancouver’s first-round pick this year (9th overall), ‘a 2022 second-round pick ‘and forwards Antoine Roussel, Loui Eriksson and Jay Beagle”,
Perhaps you missed the end of the paragraph that states capfriendly says a 7th is going to Arizona too.
But your the police around here. Go get em sarg.
“you’re” ;)
Question will be would you rather have OEL and Garland or Reinhart? But to unload what they did is quite interesting.
My first thought was that this was a really good deal for the Canucks but now that I see all the contracts they traded away are up this season I’m not so sure it’s a good deal at all. If the cap was the issue for them then why did they take on 8m for 5 years plus the high pick, in the short term it’s great but I have a feeling Jim Benning will be fired before this time next year
Garland 40 goal man playing with Pettersson…you watch..
I can’t help but think the coyotes got fleeced though I’m seeing mixed opinions on here. OEL’s salary is ugly but Hes a good player. The overpriced 4th liner/minor league combo with more salary than OEL..is it worth a first in a relatively weak draft plus a 2nd and seventh? Though in 6 years that8 mil may look pretty gross.
Benning may have just saved his job for a few yrs damn
Arizona finally shows a bit of potential and they blow it up and start taking other teams’ garbage… again lol.
Bill Armstrong knows what he’s doing, he wasn’t a part of the scandal losing them picks and just joined them last year, so he’s having to clean up their mess and start from scratch. He’s showing Seattle what they should have done, by getting all of these picks. They have like 7 second round picks combined from this year and next, by taking on SHORT term bad contracts and then moving out long term bad contracts so he can build a team. As a Blues fan and Arizona in central now, I hate it, bc the man is amazing hockey mind and could very well build amazing team out there. Fortunately, it will take him awhile given the situation he inherited.
Great trade for Vancouver
OEL is north of 30, and his numbers have steadily declined. He’s lost a step, and has very little confidence right now. He is WAY overpaid as well, Arizona is thrilled to be out of that albatross of a contract with that salary and term.
To all of those questioning Bill Armstrong, that’s not smart, the Arizona Gm who just took over a year ago, is a very intelligent man. As a Blues fan, we were all very sad to see him leave, especially considering Arizona is now in central. He’s showing other GM’S how it’s done when rebuilding a franchise, he’s literally got FIVE second round picks now for next year, on top of the first and couple of second round picks he got this year as well. He got gostisbehere and a second for literally NOTHING, got ladd and bunch of picks FOR NOTHING again, then cleared out OEL as well, he will soon trade Kessel as well, and then try and rebuild gostisbeheres value and flip him. Ghost only has two years left at a reasonable cap hit of 4.3, and if he can regain anywhere near his numbers from a couple of years ago that’s just cherry on top. He’s schooling Ron Francis and Seattle here, showing how to take advantage of flat cap and extracting NUMEROUS picks, while shedding long term contract on top of it. As a Blues fan I’m really hoping they don’t win lottery for Shane Wright or in two years for Connor Bedard. But, Arizona is in good hands with Bill Armstrong, and a team to watch out for in 3-5 years once his rebuild has been fully implemented and will see what roster looks like then. I’m hoping the cheap owner hurts him, but Armstrong is very intelligent hockey mind, especially when it comes to drafting and evaluating talent.