Canucks Below the Microscope: Can Oliver Ekman-Larsson simply be enough?

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We’re trying again on the 2022-23 Vancouver Canucks with a spotlight in the present day on Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Within the coming weeks, we are going to break down the season and try how participant conditions mission going into 2023-24.

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Oliver Ekman-Larsson

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Age: 31.

Place: Defenceman.

Profession stats: GP: 902. G: 135. A: 304. Pts: 439. PIM: 556.

Contract standing: 4 years left at a cap hit of US$7.26 million (the Phoenix Coyotes retain a cap hit of US$990,000).

How 2022-23 went: Terribly.

It’s onerous to overstate what a genuinely good man Oliver Ekman-Larsson is. He’s at all times prepared and keen to speak with the media.

HIs ardour for the sport, his love of speaking about hockey, about how issues needs to be, is gigantic.

You don’t root for groups if you cowl hockey, however you do come to hope the very best for gamers.

Ekman-Larsson is a type of guys. And so to look at him wrestle by means of 2022-23 was much more tough.

His season was horrible. He is aware of it. He spoke on the finish of the season about how tough it was bodily.

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And you need to consider it was draining mentally as nicely.

If you’re a participant who has been one of many league’s finest defencemen, grinding by means of a season the place you’ll be able to’t play something near what you suppose you’re able to is immensely tough.

He accepted a commerce to Vancouver as a result of he wished to play in a hockey market and since, from afar, he thought the Canucks had been on to one thing with the likes of Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko.

He thought he may assist. His first 12 months, he was helpful.

This previous 12 months, he clearly wasn’t.

How the longer term seems to be: Can he get wholesome once more?

Ekman-Larsson broke a foot a 12 months in the past. That set him again in his preparation this season.

When the season received going, he wasn’t in a position to compete. In any respect. He couldn’t defend the push. He struggled to defend within the zone. He appeared like he was skating in cement at occasions.

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After which he sprained an ankle, which ended his season.

With a full low season to relaxation, recuperate, recharge and put together, he believes he’ll be capable of get again nearer to his outdated self.

He’s on a mission, even.

“I hope that I’ve a extremely good summer time. I actually wish to get higher and show that I’m nonetheless an excellent participant,” he stated.

Biggest strengths: Puck abilities. He’s nonetheless a stable point-producer, even when he doesn’t get a ton of power-play time.

Biggest weak spot: Skating. In his youth, he was a swish, highly effective skater. Now in his 30s, Father Time is chasing him. There’s no avoiding that. He insists that along with his foot totally healed, getting a full summer time of preparation, that he’ll be a much more efficient participant this season.

Is he commerce bait?: Certain, the Canucks would like to commerce him. However he has a no-movement clause and, given his enormous cap hit and brutal efficiency, what group is buying and selling for him?

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The large query: He’s by no means going to carry out at a degree that justifies his cap hit, however can he a minimum of be a succesful defender in his personal finish once more?

Extra from the Canucks Below the Microscope sequence:

• Canucks Below the Microscope: Thatcher Demko
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Arturs Silovs
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Elias Pettersson
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Nils Hoglander
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Phil Di Giuseppe
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Sheldon Dries
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Vitali Kravtsov
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Andrei Kuzmenko
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Vasily Podkolzin
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Kyle Burroughs
• Canucks Below the Microscope: J.T. Miller
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Brock Boeser
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Jack Studnicka
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Quinn Hughes
• Canucks Below The Microscope: Nils Aman
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Anthony Beauvillier
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Dakota Joshua
• Canucks Below the Microscope: Conor Garland

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