LATEST | Ekman-Larsson's performances coming back to bite the Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks had a difficult decision with defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson during the summer as they opted to buy out the remaining four years of his contract, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Patrik Allvin's decision to buy out Ekman-Larsson's contract certainly wasn't an easy one, but it may have been the only option to move on from him, but now the Canucks are paying him just over $17 million spread out over the next eight seasons. Thankfully for the Canucks, the salary cap is expected to go up significantly next summer and will likely go up even more over the next eight years to a point where Ekman-Larsson's cap hit will look minuscule.
After being bought out by the Canucks, Ekman-Larsson found a new home relatively quickly, signing a one-year contract worth $2.25 million with the Florida Panthers.
It's still very early in the 2023-24 season, but so far, Ekman-Larsson appears to be fitting in quite well with the Florida Panthers and on Thursday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the 32-year-old Swede scored his first goal with his new club.
Ekman-Larsson had the puck at the Maple Leafs blue line, took a couple of steps in and shot it through a screen where it beat Toronto goaltender Ilya Samsonov to make it 2-0 Panthers with 6.9 seconds remaining in the opening frame.
Last season with the Canucks, Ekman-Larsson only had two goals, and so far, it's only taken him four games this season to find the back of the net in Florida.
It will be interesting to see how Ekman-Larsson gets on with the Florida Panthers and how Paul Maurice utilizes him throughout the season. With the Panthers looking to return to the Stanley Cup Final, they'll need depth players like Oliver Ekman-Larsson to play critical roles and contribute to help the team succeed, especially later in the season down the stretch.
| POLL | ||
Do you miss Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the Canucks? | ||
| Yes | 167 | 11.7 % |
| No, it was time to move on | 1058 | 74.1 % |
| Not sure how I feel about it yet | 134 | 9.4 % |
| See Results | 68 | 4.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
