Confirmed with Link: Leafs sign D Oliver Ekman-Larsson (4 years, $3.5M AAV)

[CabanaBoy5]

Our old fart failed experiments gave us a skewed perspective on the other old farts in the league.

OEL, Tanev and Pacioretty have been welcome additions thus far. Glad to have them aboard for this seasons run.

Great point. I'm thinking which old farts got off to good starts and I'm stumped. Not Foligno, Thornton, and Marleau. Maybe O'Reilly and Spezza? On defence, Giordano was good right from the start. But we've failed on as many as we hit on.

 

[Puckstuff]

OEL has some bite to his game and has some decent size and defensive positional awareness. That is nice to see for a guy who is known more as an offensive threat. I can see why he was considered a #1 d-man for the Coyotes.

 

[Roo]

Who else remembers that puck carry at full speed into the NJ zone last night during one of our PPs? No pass back bs, just did it himself… elite puck movement right there.

 

[dubplatepressure]

Really like his game so far. All 3 FLA signings are solid so far.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Everyone who has posted here needs to read their previous posts in this thread.
Some bad hot takes for sure.

Tre > HF here so far.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Here is your PP1 defenseman....

nice.

View attachment 890654

Treliving rebuilding the Leafs defense.

nice.

I really don’t think this is a bad signing. Time will tell. We needed someone with some puck skills and a shot from the backend

Nice.

He will put up 50+ points this year, and provide 2/3 pairing level defense.

Nice.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Everyone who has posted here needs to read their previous posts in this thread.
Some bad hot takes for sure.

How do you do that ?


https://forums.hfboards.com/search/?t=post&c[thread]=2970581&c[users]=HamiltonNHL&o=relevance


replace member name and HamiltonNHL. (and then click the search button).

For people with a space in their name you need to put a + sign in place of the space.

If my name had a space (Hamilton NHL):

https://forums.hfboards.com/search/?t=post&c[thread]=2970581&c[users]=Hamilton+NHL&o=relevance


Tre > HF here so far.

 

[Puckstuff]

Everyone who has posted here needs to read their previous posts in this thread.
Some bad hot takes for sure.

How do you do that ?


https://forums.hfboards.com/search/?t=post&c[thread]=2970581&c[users]=HamiltonNHL&o=relevance


replace member name and HamiltonNHL. (and then click the search button).

Tre > HF here so far.

I've manually done a few users: (First page hot takes).

Jimmy Firecracker

https://forums.hfboards.com/search/?t=post&c[thread]=2970581&c[users]=Jimmy+Firecracker&o=relevance

Skullz

Search threads

forums.hfboards.com

Primary Assist

https://forums.hfboards.com/search/?t=post&c[thread]=2970581&c[users]=Primary+Assist&o=relevance

The Masters

https://forums.hfboards.com/search/?t=post&c[thread]=2970581&c[users]=The+Masters&o=relevance

PromisedLand

Search threads

forums.hfboards.com

Steven1562

Search threads

forums.hfboards.com

Enjoy.

It’s been 2 games man… he’s not even through 0.5 % of his contract. A little early to judge this deal on either end. He’s looking good though.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

It’s been 2 games man… he’s not even through 0.5 % of his contract. A little early to judge this deal on either end. He’s looking good though.

hard to argue.

I did mention that the first time I posted. Looks like it missed the final draft.

Tre clearly saw what happened last year: Rielly is looking slow and regressing. He needed to try something.

 

[4thline]

I feel like your sugar coating these comments pretty heavily.

"Top pair for half the season" - 5th in TOI per game, 1.5 minutes less than 4th

The thing about TOI *per game* is that it only takes into account games that players play. When Everyone was playing, he was Florida's 5. But they weren't all playing a lot of the time. Resulting a year where OEL had more 5v5 minutes with one of Forsling or Montour in Florida's top 4 than he did on the bottom pair with Kulikov

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Leafs needed a stay at home guy for Rielly.

Why are people impressed with his offence.

NOT TO MENTION: he gets burned alot pinching.

he scores once every 10 games.

none in the last playoffs. Skates like a Dad now.

 

[rumman]

Are they or is one? And now we know you don't know what you talk about and if did. Accurate is not one of your traits.


I think he was overvalued which made the fall looks worse.

He earned his cheque imo until the latter half of the 2022/2023 season, it was all downhill from there…….

 

[VanW27]

The thing about TOI *per game* is that it only takes into account games that players play. When Everyone was playing, he was Florida's 5. But they weren't all playing a lot of the time. Resulting a year where OEL had more 5v5 minutes with one of Forsling or Montour in Florida's top 4 than he did on the bottom pair with Kulikov

Sure but TOI per game a more accurate representation of how the player was used over the year. If anything it's skewed heavily to make OELs usage seem more important. In the playoffs, with a full lineup he played 15:27 a game. Still 5th out of 6 D to dress and a full 3 minutes a game less then Mikkola who was 4th.

"When injuries happened and they had no choice he played more" isn't really a positive argument to make in favor of a player.

Regardless, I think he's fine at 3.5 no need to try and pump him up beyond what he really is.

 

[1specter]

View attachment 915189

Why are people impressed with his offence.

NOT TO MENTION: he gets burned alot pinching.

he scores once every 10 games.

none in the last playoffs. Skates like a Dad now.

Can we just enjoy one player without needing to tear down another? Mo is the heart and soul of this team, time to stop slandering the man for being the only competent puck moving D on this team for so many f***ing years.

 

[4thline]

Sure but TOI per game a more accurate representation of how the player was used over the year.

No. Why seek a "representation" when we can look at the detail? His breakdown last year was
380 minutes top pair with Forsling
109 Minutes mid pair with Montour
460 Bottom pair with Kulikov.

Literally half of his 5v5 minutes were in the top 4 of a 110 point team getting good results- Albeit with a Forsling/Montour not a McCabe.

"When injuries happened and they had no choice he played more" isn't really a positive argument to make in favor of a player.

The why isn't important compared to the "what" and "how well"

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Can we just enjoy one player without needing to tear down another? Mo is the heart and soul of this team, time to stop slandering the man for being the only competent puck moving D on this team for so many f***ing years.

He needs to be the D quarterback for PP2.

 

[notbias]

View attachment 915189

Why are people impressed with his offence.

NOT TO MENTION: he gets burned alot pinching.

he scores once every 10 games.

none in the last playoffs. Skates like a Dad now.

He produced more last season in 72 games than any season OEL has had (that wasn't even his best season).

You mentioned playoffs... Rielly has been a stud

OEL: 49GP 4G 10A 14P
Rielly: 57GP 11G 29A 40P

I'd hate to see how bad you think OEL is offensively (only using him because it is his thread) or most D in the league.

Offensively, I think Rielly is a top 15 D and I don't think there is much of a debate to be had about it.

 

[LeafSteel]

Can we just enjoy one player without needing to tear down another? Mo is the heart and soul of this team, time to stop slandering the man for being the only competent puck moving D on this team for so many f***ing years.

Always this.

I don’t understand the constant need to shred a perfectly good player on the team to build up someone else.

A player can be good in addition to another player being good, albeit for different reasons.

We are allowed to have more than 1 good player at each position.

Never understood the “player A is good, therefore player B must be trash” mentality.

 

[leafsfan5]

It's still early, but he's been my favourite player so far. Adds an element we sorely needed on the backend and looks competent defensively

Hope he keeps it up!

 

[MarMarSab3]

Always this.

I don’t understand the constant need to shred a perfectly good player on the team to build up someone else.

A player can be good in addition to another player being good, albeit for different reasons.

We are allowed to have more than 1 good player at each position.

Never understood the “player A is good, therefore player B must be trash” mentality.

Except Reilly hasn't been good, he's slandered because of his contract and the expectations that come with it.

 

[Suntouchable13]

It's still early, but he's been my favourite player so far. Adds an element we sorely needed on the backend and looks competent defensively

Hope he keeps it up!

2 games, it’s hard to say these things that early. Such a long season. We’ll see. 2 positive games, though. That’s a fact. After that, who knows. Time will tell.

 

[notbias]

Except Reilly hasn't been good, he's slandered because of his contract and the expectations that come with it.

Are we now bashing Rielly?

He's been one of the best Leafs in the playoff and consistently elevated his game.

He has his shortcomings, but he has been great overall.

His contract is also fine...

 

[zoA]

OEL is playing like he's still on the Panthers and I'm all for it. I didn't expect him to clear the crease the way he does or move anything and everything away from the goalie after the whistle. One thing I've noticed though is that he's often the only one doing it and I hope that doesn't lead to him not doing it anymore (hoping it's the reverse and everyone buys in). That collective mindset on the Panthers is something I hope the Leafs develop this year and I'm glad to see OEL doing it.

Definitely happy with his overall play so far. I just hope we don't overuse him too much during the regular season since I think he can add a lot of value during the playoffs.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Always this.

I don’t understand the constant need to shred a perfectly good player on the team to build up someone else.

A player can be good in addition to another player being good, albeit for different reasons.

We are allowed to have more than 1 good player at each position.

Never understood the “player A is good, therefore player B must be trash” mentality.

I do this with Liljegren. I tear him down. I'm ok. I can sleep at night knowing I've done this.

 

[egd27]

Great point. I'm thinking which old farts got off to good starts and I'm stumped. Not Foligno, Thornton, and Marleau. Maybe O'Reilly and Spezza? On defence, Giordano was good right from the start. But we've failed on as many as we hit on.

Marleau scored 27 his first season. That's a good start no?