The Arizona Coyotes have been trying to trade captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson over the past few weeks, asking him to give them a list of teams that he would be willing to waive his no-trade clause to go to. The star defenseman has given them an option of just the Vancouver Canucks or Boston Bruins and has now put a clock on the negotiations as well.
Ekman-Larsson’s agent Kevin Epp of Titan Sports Management has contacted several media members including Darren Dreger of TSN, explaining that his client wishes to be traded before free agency opens on Friday. If a deal cannot be completed before then, Ekman-Larsson will remain in Arizona.
The 29-year-old defenseman is heading into just the second season of an eight-year, $66MM contract extension he signed in 2018 to stay in Arizona. When Ekman-Larsson signed that contract and included a full no-movement clause throughout, he likely believed that he would spend his entire career with the Coyotes, the team that drafted him sixth overall in 2009.
Instead, new management approached him this offseason with the potential of a trade, likely due to the need to cut payroll drastically after the coronavirus shutdown. Ekman-Larsson is the Coyotes’ highest-paid player and will be entering the most expensive years of his contract after this season. In each of the three seasons following 2020-21, he is owed $10.5MM in total salary, before his contract starts to fall off. Getting out from under that now would save Arizona plenty of cash, plus hopefully recoup several valuable assets.
If they’re going to pull it off, it’s going to have to happen quickly. Notably, the Coyotes do not have a selection in the first three rounds of tonight’s entry draft.
In that case the smart money is on him staying. Those teams have neither cap space nor picks to get anywhere on this.
Canucks should be running away from this. They have Hughes, Pettersson, Toffoli and the goalies to worry about.
I can see it making some sense for Boston.
Not sure why he’s playing such hardball, though. He’s going to end up stuck with the hockey desert version of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
At least Zona tries, I’d kill for the Pirates to trade for the baseball equivalent of Taylor Hall.
He needs to realize that the team doesn’t want him anymore. He could be in Edmonton tomorrow if he relented. Hope he goes to Boston though. He can screw up my buddies’ team.
Boston does have cap room, but they also have a lot of guys to sign. I would take Ekman-Larsson as an upgrade over Torey Krug.
The timing is completely wrong for an OEL trade.
Neither Boston nor Vancouver will give us even close to what he is worth right now.
OEL wants to be here and he is a great player with a good coach/system.
If you have to trade OEL, he will be worth more next year.
He will be worth even more right after the expansion draft when good teams lose a d-man.
Chayka screwed us really bad for the 2020 AND the 2021 draft.
The worst thing we can do is overreact and do more damage to this team.
We need to weather this storm and do the smart things to prepare for the Seattle expansion draft.
There will be chances to pick up players at the end of next season like we will not see again.
Many teams are gonna lose important people in the expansion draft that we can possibly pick up.
Trade all of our players with 1 year left on their contracts, either now or at the trade deadline.
Maximize return for these people… don’t just trade them now to dump salary.
Do not take on any bad contracts that continue past next year.
Sign anyone we can get on a 1 year contract that we can also trade at the deadline for prospects/picks.
Have the smallest salary possible moving forward in order to acquire prospect prior to expansion draft.
Use whatever cap space that is left after the expansion draft to pursue good free agents.
Use the money saved on entry level contacts for picks this year on College/International players.
Hope to hit on one or two of those to minimized the loss of draft picks this year.
Lastly… Hire me… because they need someone who thinks tactically to help them NOT screw up.
Timing may be wrong, but it’s painful to watch OEL and Kessel on the ice. Get rid of both of them.
lol… Kessel is not the same as OEL.
OEL is a high skill guy with 4-7 quality years left.
Even though Chayka messed up on the OEL contract (too much and for too long), almost every team in the league wants EOL on their roster.
OEL is a nice guy so he is not a Tocchet guy. I would rather have OEL than Tocchet even though I like both. OEL is not even a guy we would want as our captain because he doesn’t have the right demeanor for that. That said, relieve him of the captaincy and let him focus on DEFENSE and he will be one of the best players in AZ. period.
Alright pack your bags and trunk for Arizona your hired. Bring suntan lotion on your way to Phoenix you can stop off at the Grand Canyon ( Nice to camp down in canyon , does get chilly at night in desert)
Want a deadline? Call me & offer OEL for some top prospects & you’ll have a dead line. Hard pass on OEL & his ugly contract.