MAJOR | Allvin calls out OEL and makes a concerning statement on the veteran defenceman
The Canucks acquired, at a very high cost, the then, great two-way defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. The thing is, OEL has not played near the standards he had set for himself in his days with the Coyotes.
The good thing is the fans weren't the only ones that noticed Ekman-Larsson's seasonal difficulties and the team's GM Patrik Allvin made no mistake in pointing it out during his season-end meeting with Rick Tocchet by his side:
The team's defense actually performed much better during the end of the season once OEL was shut down which brings out a very big issue since the veteran D-man is under contract for four more years. Allvin added a statement that should sound very concerning to your ears:
Be a good NHL player? That guy earns $8.25M / year and takes up to $7.26M on the salary cap and we can only hope for him to be a good NHL player. A player taking up this much cap space should be nothing less than excellent and that's what truly concerning about the Canucks moving forward.
Only 4 left-handed defencemen have higher salaries than OEL at this point in the NHL. Zach Werenski, Roman Josi, Miro Heiskanen and Darnell Nurse. The next 4 making a little less money are Thomas Chabot, Morgan Rieilly, Victor Hedman, and Quinn Hughes.
Contractual management is extremely important and spending that much money on an underperforming and aging player doesn't help a retooling much
| POLL | ||
Should the Canucks buy out OEL? | ||
| Yes | 956 | 70.7 % |
| No | 397 | 29.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
