Oliver Ekman-Larsson

With the complexities of a trade involving Arizona Coyotes’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson increasing between the two teams the defenseman put on his short list, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Saturday evening on Sportsnet’s Hockey Central that Arizona went back to their captain and asked him to expand his list of teams. His response was ’No.’

“Ekman-Larsson is only willing to stay at Boston or Vancouver, so that’s how Arizona has to proceed if it wants to get this done,” said Friedman.

Friedman also notes that Arizona Coyotes’ new general manager Bill Armstrong was with the St. Louis Blues when they acquired center Ryan O’Reilly from Buffalo in which there was some money exchanged as Buffalo had to take back Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka. However, essentially, the team got a prospect, a first-round pick and a second-round pick as the key to that deal. That is what the Armstrong is looking for in an Ekman-Larsson deal.

“Berglund and Sobotka were part of that deal, but it was Tage Thompson, a first and a second and that’s what he would like to do, I think, if he can,” said Friedman. “I believe that the Coyotes like the prospects in Boston better than they like the prospects in Vancouver. But I think that at this point in time, Vancouver might be the team that’s more eager to get the deal done than Boston in terms of the want.”

While that might be a case, getting a deal done won’t be easy. The Canucks have plenty of cap issues to deal with that that’s without factoring in Ekman-Larsson’s $8.25MM AAV for the next seven years, which they have to factor in. The team still has three key unrestricted free agents to deal with, including Tyler Toffoli, Jacob Markstrom and Chris Tanev, and little cap room to accommodate all three, plus a number of restricted free agents, including Jake Virtanen. The Canucks also have to consider soon-to-be RFA’s Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes to long-term deals next year, as well as the fact that they are still paying $3.04MM for the next two years on the recapture penalty from Roberto Luongo. The Canucks also lack some of the necessary draft capital with no first or second-rounder to deal in the upcoming draft on Tuesday and Wednesday. The team may also be hesitant to move future picks.

Regardless, the team would still be interested in bringing in Ekman-Larsson, who along with Hughes, would give the team a solid No. 1 and No. 2 defenseman on the left side for the next seven years. The team has little depth on their defense after the 2020-21 season. The team has Tyler Myers locked up at $6MM until 2023-24, but veterans Alexander Edler and Jordie Benn will both be unrestricted free agents in one year.

While Boston was considered the frontrunners only a few days before, Friedman reports that the Bruins may not be ready to make a strong offer as the team can just bring back UFA Torey Krug as a less costly option rather than trade prospects and picks to get Ekman-Larsson.

The hot stove is heating up in the NHL and Oliver Ekman-Larsson is at the center of it all. He was listed as the top name on Frank Seravalli’s Trade Bait board for TSN and linked to the Edmonton Oilers. Darren Dreger threw cold water on the Edmonton connection as the Oilers are not currently on a short list of teams that the Coyotes captain would waive his no-movement clause for, but Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet has turned up the heat once again. Friedman tweets that the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks are on that list of approved teams, while Craig Morgan of AZ Coyotes Insider says that Boston is a “favored destination.”

When a GM told Seravalli that a number of “franchise-changing” players are being discussed each day, perhaps this is what he meant. Ekman-Larsson is the Coyotes highest-paid player, their captain and has been an anchor on their blue line for years now. The 29-year-old defenseman has seven years remaining on a $66MM extension he signed in 2018 and carries an $8.25MM cap hit.

In a normal year, it’s hard to imagine Arizona even considering a move like this. But with new management in GM Bill Armstrong and a payroll that could need to be drastically slashed thanks to lost current and future revenue, Ekman-Larsson may have played his last game for the Coyotes.

If that’s true, he leaves behind quite a legacy in the organization. The sixth-overall pick in 2009, Ekman-Larsson was a full-time player for the Coyotes by the 2010-11 season and tallied 364 points over 723 regular season games. That puts him behind only Teppo Numminen for the franchise lead, even counting the original Winnipeg Jets years. His 125 goals lead all franchise defensemen and put him among the upper-echelon in scoring defenders in the NHL.

That offensive production could certainly be why the Bruins have checked in, given they could be losing Torey Krug to unrestricted free agency in the coming days. Krug is one of the top offensive defensemen in the league, but his role could certainly be filled by Ekman-Larsson in the coming years.

How either Boston or Vancouver fit an $8.25MM cap hit into their current structure is unclear, but a deal like this would require plenty of moving pieces even without cap implications. Vancouver for instance could potentially get out of a bad contract like Loui Eriksson, who is owed just $5MM in actual salary over the last two years of his contract once his signing bonus is paid. That said, adding long-term cap doesn’t seem prudent for a Canucks team that will have to sign Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes before long.

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