Oliver Ekman-Larsson | #23 | D

[alucard]

Thank you Benning.

[dougieL]

On 12/29/2022 at 1:39 PM, Kenny Powers said:

I don’t get the OEL hate.  He passes the eye test 9/10 games, and is overpaid at most ~ $2M. A buyout doesn’t even come close to making sense. 

 

He looked good with Myers last season, and again last night. If Myers keeps it simple, they’re a solid 2nd pair.
 

 

 

 

 

I think he's been pretty horrid and hasn't passed the eye test for me at all. He lateral movement and pivoting are slow, and he routinely loses races to pucks. His decision-making on the defensive end has at times been extremely poor. 

[Ted Lasso]

23 minutes ago, dougieL said:

I think he's been pretty horrid and hasn't passed the eye test for me at all. He lateral movement and pivoting are slow, and he routinely loses races to pucks. His decision-making on the defensive end has at times been extremely poor. 

Oh yep. His play fell off significantly since I posted that.

[kloubek]

..and he didn't improve up to his injury.

A potential buyout looks to be a rather whopping 8m in savings next year, then 5.6 the following, and 2.8 the two years after that. Then his contract ends. Yet we'd pay 2.4 for the following 4 years... which kind of sucks, but with the cap inevitably going up, it will be a bit more palatable at that time. And besides that, by then, hopefully we draft well and replenish the cupboards to bring quality players up with ELCs so we aren't in such a crunch by 27-28.

With ownership/management wanting to try to be a playoff team sooner than later, it stands to reason they MUST be considering a buyout in light of OEL's dramatic regression.
 

[ilduce39]

On 2/18/2023 at 7:19 PM, Kenny Powers said:

Oh yep. His play fell off significantly since I posted that.

I know this is a super old post but I went through the same thought process.  Watched him fairly closely to start the year - he looked pretty good most nights.  
 

Some flubs trying to clear the puck but had zero help supporting getting it out.  A lot of his issues were true across the whole team for anyone not named Quinn.

 

Down the stretch though he looked slow, hesitant to block shots and much less engaged in the offensive zone.  Really thinking injury / just that overall mental fatigue the whole team had. 
 

At bare minimum give him some rest here and a chance to try again next season before ponying up for that buyout.  It’s one less season of dead cap.

Edited March 16, 2023 by ilduce39

[NHL'er]

19 minutes ago, kloubek said:

..and he didn't improve up to his injury.

A potential buyout looks to be a rather whopping 8m in savings next year, then 5.6 the following, and 2.8 the two years after that. Then his contract ends. Yet we'd pay 2.4 for the following 4 years... which kind of sucks, but with the cap inevitably going up, it will be a bit more palatable at that time. And besides that, by then, hopefully we draft well and replenish the cupboards to bring quality players up with ELCs so we aren't in such a crunch by 27-28.

With ownership/management wanting to try to be a playoff team sooner than later, it stands to reason they MUST be considering a buyout in light of OEL's dramatic regression.
 

Plus what will make up for Luongo's cap recapture dead cap space? OEL's dead cap will keep us company for more years to come. 

[Smashian Kassian]

On 12/28/2022 at 6:39 PM, Kenny Powers said:

I don’t get the OEL hate.  He passes the eye test 9/10 games, and is overpaid at most ~ $2M. A buyout doesn’t even come close to making sense. 

 

He looked good with Myers last season, and again last night. If Myers keeps it simple, they’re a solid 2nd pair.
 

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, ilduce39 said:

I know this is a super old post but I went through the same thought process.  Watched him fairly closely to start the year - he looked pretty good most nights.  
 

Some flubs trying to clear the puck but had zero help supporting getting it out.  A lot of his issues were true across the whole team for anyone not named Quinn.

 

Down the stretch though he looked slow, hesitant to block shots and much less engaged in the offensive zone.  Really thinking injury / just that overall mental fatigue the whole team had. 
 

At bare minimum give him some rest here and a chance to try again next season before ponying up for that buyout.  It’s one less season of dead cap.

 

Same here. I thought he's had some very bad games this season which were glaring but also often makes alot of good plays & has been fine alot of the time. When Bear first came aboard I thought they were playing really well together.

 

Last year I thought he showed he could still be really good, playing 20+ mins regularly, doing a great job on PP1 when Hughes was out, and carrying Myers to his best analytical season here easily. Skating has been more of an issue this season (specifically straight line speed) but I do think he's been injured most of the year, for example I recall early in the year he was having maintenance days. 

 

Im probably more optimistic than most in thinking he can still be a good 2nd pair defender when healthy. The team playing better as a 5 man unit is a tide that'll raise all boats. Hopefully he gets back to 100% & I'd give him another chance before considering a buyout. 

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by Smashian Kassian

[higgyfan]

12 minutes ago, Muttley said:

The numbers behind Ekman-Larsson's lacklustre season

Ekman-Larsson's status as replacement level is further reinforced by Evolving-Hockey’s Goals Above Replacement (GAR) statistic, which attempts to measure a player’s contributions as compared to a replacement-level player. Ekman-Larsson has a 0.1 GAR this season, placing him almost exactly a replacement level. Even that is buoyed by an arguably overly-optimistic assessment of his value on the penalty kill — his even-strength offence and defence are a combined -2.0 GAR. 

According to Natural Stat Trick, among the Canucks defencemen who have played at least 250 minutes at 5-on-5 this season, Ekman-Larsson has been on the ice for the highest rate of shots against and the second-highest rate of expected goals against and actual goals against, behind only Riley Stillman, who has already been traded. 

I think he's had a nagging injury most of the season.  How 'bout pulling up last season's stats.  If he could return

to those stats, people could live with that contract (at least for a couple of years).

[-AJ-]

43 minutes ago, higgyfan said:

I think he's had a nagging injury most of the season.  How 'bout pulling up last season's stats.  If he could return

to those stats, people could live with that contract (at least for a couple of years).

He was certainly far more respectable last year (as was Myers).

[Curmudgeon]

March 22/23

 

Sad to hear that OEL won't be back this season. Those high ankle sprains are really difficult injuries to rehab. I hope he has a great summer and can be a solid contributor next season. I think we have to hope for the best since it seems almost impossible to trade him. If they can find the correct right side defenceman to pair with him, I believe he can be a reliable piece. In other words, he's going to be here, so we'd better make the best of it.

[Bobby James]

Yeah looks like he is done this year. That's fine, I just want him to get healthy and start training hard for next season. 

 

Rick Tocchet commented on him today and I hope it is true for OEL and he has a big bounce back season next year:

 

“No, I don’t think so,” Tocchet replied when asked if he thought the veteran would play again this season. “He’s walking now. He’s really worked hard, the last three, four weeks.”

 

He expressed full confidence that Ekman-Larsson could be a big contributor again next season, even if this season had been terrible for the Swede even before the injury.

“This is a big summer for him. I know a lot of people count him out. I don’t know,  I got a feeling that he’s going to have a really good year. There’s a there’s a gleam in his eye. I can tell that he’s going to use this as motivation; things haven’t gone his way a lot a bunch of years now and I think this is something that, he’s going to take this summer and into another level. I really believe it.”

[AnthonyG]

On 3/20/2023 at 6:04 PM, -AJ- said:

He was certainly far more respectable last year (as was Myers).

 They were such a strong pair last season, this season they've hardly played together. I've been screaming this all season. Now that we have Hronek, hopefully OEL can make a full recovery and have a solid off-season and they reunite Myers and OEL and pair Hughes and Hronek together. If we get the same results from OEL and Myers last season, this upcoming season. We will have a very legit top 4. Just gotta hope goaltending also shows up on time. 

[DownUndaCanuck]

I wonder if OEL gets healthy and starts next year if management will play him with Hronek. Might work well if OEL is back on his game and regains his foot-speed but if he's sluggish and slow, he'll anchor down our best RD.

 

I'd be happy for this team to bite the bullet and just leave OEL on our bottom pairing as a 5th defenceman, and either let him retire there or buy him out when the payoff isn't so brutal. If we get injuries to our top-4, he can elevate his game and play 20 minutes for us, but I'd start treating him the way LAK treat Edler - wheel him out for 18ish minutes a night, mainly on the PK where he can just stand still, and don't play him too much.

 

Of course that's an expensive 5th defenceman, but we can afford it with a relatively cheap top-4. If we can sign Livingstone and Graves to a combined 6M, all we need to do is flip Myers and the cap works out quite well. I have no problems paying Hughes 7M, Hronek 6M, Graves 5M and Livingstone/Bear/our 4th defenceman around 3-4M long-term. Take our wins and losses where they matter. Demko is playing like a 9-10M goalie and we've got him on a 5M deal, OEL is playing like a 3-4M defenceman and he's hitting 7M. It evens out in the long-run. Just plant a very cheap Dermott/Burroughs as the 6th guy.

[-DLC-]

 

[Maginator]

Calling it now...

 

OEL is going to have a solid season next year. OEL paired with Hronek playing 22+ minutes a night.

 

I said "Miller will be fine" around the new year, and many posters disagreed with me. I have the same hunch about OEL. He will have his best year as a Vancouver Canuck next year.

[Smashian Kassian]

On 3/22/2023 at 7:45 PM, AnthonyG said:

 They were such a strong pair last season, this season they've hardly played together. I've been screaming this all season. Now that we have Hronek, hopefully OEL can make a full recovery and have a solid off-season and they reunite Myers and OEL and pair Hughes and Hronek together. If we get the same results from OEL and Myers last season, this upcoming season. We will have a very legit top 4. Just gotta hope goaltending also shows up on time. 

 

He's played with Myers alot, Myers is just bad (doesn't process the game quick enough leading to mistakes) you even see it when he's playing with Hughes, OEL carried him last year. Playing with Hronek they will be a good pairing. 

[AnthonyG]

10 hours ago, Smashian Kassian said:

 

He's played with Myers alot, Myers is just bad (doesn't process the game quick enough leading to mistakes) you even see it when he's playing with Hughes, OEL carried him last year. Playing with Hronek they will be a good pairing. 

They’ve played just over 400 mins this year together. Most pairs top 4 in the league have played 2-3x that. There has been hardly any consistency this season with Myers and OEL being paired. One game they are together, the next one of them is with Stillman and the other is with Burroughs or Bear. Or they get split up during the game to try and help balance the dpairs. 

 

 

[CRAZY_4_NAZZY]

I wonder if they decide to move OEL beside Hughes.

 

OEL's biggest deficit is skating. Hughes can outskate OEL's issues. OEL doesn't seem to like to skate the puck out but likes to make small passes that lead to a breakout. What if his outlet...was Hughes? Who can easily skate and move the puck out without a hitch. Additionally, maybe move OEL to his offside. He gets burned a lot when players come wide as he rotates to his left. Would rotating to the outside on his right side be better, where is stick is already? It seems like OEL works best when he has a dman that can do heavy lifting skating in transition and carrying the puck out. Hughes seems to be the only proficient guy to do both.

 

That way if you really want, Hronek and another dman you acquire can take tough matchups, and the Hughes/OEL pairing can be the half court press pairing that just shoves offense down the oppositions' throat.

 

Try everything before you decide to buy him out. 

[DownUndaCanuck]

Hard to say what they're thinking about OEL but surely they are keeping him for at least next year after this injury. My big worry is that they think OEL will be good enough for 2LD duties. He sucked this year and is only getting older. We can hope/assume he'll be better under Tocchet and Gonchar/Foote the way Myers has gotten better, but what if he's not? Then we go into next year with a very crap 2nd pairing.

We really should sign or acquire an LD for insurance. Best case scenario - we have a solid OEL playing as our 5th guy. Worst case scenario, we probably still have him playing on our bottom pairing but have a solid LD to play 20+ minutes, and leave OEL out there for PK/3rd pairing responsbilities for 16-18 minutes a night.

 

I've got a feeling they'll try Hronek with OEL in training camp as a shutdown pairing though, but if we sign Gavrikov or Graves, there's our perfect top shutdown pairing right there. I'd take Hughes - Myers as a 2nd pairing and then play OEL with any young guy or AHLer for the bottom pairing an we're sorted.

[-Vintage Canuck-]