Oliver Ekman-Larsson Sitting On Substantial Contract Extension Offer

Oliver Ekman-Larsson continues to be the biggest offseason question in Arizona, as the team approaches July 1st when he can be extended. Though we’d previously heard that the two sides were working on an eight-year deal, Bob McKenzie of TSN puts a dollar figure on the contract and updates where the negotiations stand. In the recent edition of Insider Trading, McKenzie explains:

Right now the ball seems to be squarely in Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s court. He is sitting on an offer from the Arizona Coyotes that is believed to be an eight-year contract extension at an average annual value of $8.25MM. If he wants to sign long-term and make a commitment to the Coyotes, that’s the deal that’s on the table. If he doesn’t want to do that, then the Coyotes would of course look at their options in terms of maybe going down the trade route. There doesn’t seem to be any sense of timetable on this but obviously sooner rather than later both sides would like to know where this thing’s at. 

Ekman-Larsson can’t officially sign an extension until July 1st, but it sounds like the decision hasn’t even been made over whether he’ll accept the deal. His current contract, a six-year $33MM deal signed in spring of 2013, expires next summer when he’s scheduled to be part of an elite free agent class. Alongside potential free agents like Erik Karlsson, Drew Doughty, Ryan Ellis and Ryan McDonagh, Ekman-Larsson could be another top-pairing defenseman on the market for the highest bidder.

Despite the opportunity he could find himself in next summer, Ekman-Larsson has always maintained that he’d rather stay in Arizona if given the opportunity. That opportunity is certainly there if the contract McKenzie and others have reported is still on the table, though there may be some who believe he could get even more should he wait out his full deal. Doughty and Karlsson are both expected to eclipse P.K. Subban’s $9MM cap hit on their next contracts, and if Ekman-Larsson was on the open market he might have a chance at doing the same. The Swedish defenseman is the youngest of the three and will see his current deal expire while he’s still just 27.