Salary Cap: - Oliver Ekman-Larsson | Page 3 | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League

Salary Cap: Oliver Ekman-Larsson

I just wonder who plays the tough minutes for us. Who kills penalties? Who takes the D zone matchup ice time? We have Hughes, Rathbone, Schmidt, and OEL who are all PP puck moving types. Makes me think that Schmidt is still on his way out, idk. Still think the D needs some tweaking.

Anyway I obviously hope he finds new life here. As it stands this is a very risky acquisition.

Looks like OEL does PK. Myers of course is Green's incumbent on the right side.
 
Ah yes, Genius Jimbo dumped several bad contracts, acquired a Top 6 winger and a Norris caliber defenseman for a few picks. :lol:

So bloody cringe, you have to laugh at how desperate he is in his messaging.

His jumbled answer when asked directly if he sees the Canucks as contenders in 2 years time was great. "Wait and see"!
 
Talking about whether he can bounce back or not personally I'm going to be watching for the dead cat bounce. I'd imagine he'll have a bit of a bounce back starting on a new team with better forwards, which will trick some people into thinking Benning did a good trade. But between age and injuries and with the length of the contract it's extremely likely his game will spiral back downwards. Maybe not in year 1 like Eriksson, but unless he can do a Bouwmeester he's very likely our new Eriksson who's here to save Benning's job for a year or two.
 
We collectively just have to hope he re-finds his early form. Sometimes a change of scenery helps... hopefully.

He will strengthen the first defense pairing with Schmidt but the real use might be having Quinn and Myers as the second defense pairing making it likely Quinn's +/- will be better this year as well as Myers. Awfully talented blueline this year...Rathbone and possibly Woo.

And deep at forward. Trade is possibly in the works for a RD third pairing guy.

Miller - Pettersson - Boeser
Garland - Horvat - Höglander
Pearson - Motte - Podkolzin
Higmore - Dickinson - Hawryluk
MacEwen
 
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I'll throw the pessimists a bone and agree he has been horrible last few years. Can make excuses he will turn it around etc.

But what I think this really comes down to is Gudbranson and Myers have been massive whiffs, and this feels like three strikes youre out territory but I have faith over the former two cases.
 
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He will strengthen the first defense pairing with Schmidt but the real use might be having Quinn and Myers as the second defense pairing making it likely Quinn's +/- will be better this year as well as Myers. Awfully talented blueline this year...Rathbone and possibly Woo.

And extremely deep at forward. Trade is possibly in the works for a RD third pairing guy.

Miller - Pettersson - Boeser
Garland - Horvat - Höglander
Pearson - Motte - Podkolzin / Virtanen
Ferland - Dickinson - Hawryluk
Highmore - MacEwen


Virtanen will be bought out and Ferland is basically done.

Woo is still a couple years out if he makes it.

Rathbone/Juolevi will fight for that 3rd pairing LH spot but ya another RH d-man is needed.

Holtby has to be moved and another goalie brought in to backup.
 
Jim Benning's inability to evaluate a player's ability to defend never fails to astound me. Pretty much all of Benning's acquisitions (outside of Schmidt) have over-inflated their point totals on the power-play (where they will see next to no time here), or are "big, tough defensemen" who really just stand around in their own zone doing nothing while the other team clowns on them.

If Larsson puts up more than 30 points this year, it'll either be (a) a miracle, or (b) Hughes got hurt and Larsson got fed a ton of PP time. Somehow, I expect us to be even worse defensively next year if he has to take up Edler's defensive minutes.
 
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This is the sort of guy who could remake his game as a solid big-minute defensive guy, much like Edler did. That’s probably a best case scenario at this point.

Maybe with good coaching it’s possible.
 
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Here's my alcohol laced hopium:
  • Playing on the Coyotes was difficult for him (ie. GM bailed, GM breaking the rules, constant struggles building the fanbase, management being off/on with the direction of the team, Tippett/Tocchet, pressure of captaincy), and maybe Vancouver can make it easier for him to be motivated and clear-headed
  • Green's strategy of mobile D-men everywhere who aren't 'strong' defensively is ahead of its time and is magically going to work now that we added just one more (provided we keep Schmidt)

Well the username checks out.
 
so just as we are about to get rid of eriksson, we take on eriksson 5.0. this will be good for this year, but past that i think this is a terrible trade
 
I just look at our defence and just get...sad, for a lack of better term. Who do we even have that’s good in their own zone? Our top-4 at the moment is Hughes - Schmidt and OEL - Myers. If that isn’t scary I don’t know what is...going to need Demko to keep up this years performance and turn it up a notch if this team wants to make any noise. Going to be bleeding scoring chances
 
Virtanen will be bought out and Ferland is basically done.

Woo is still a couple years out if he makes it.

Rathbone/Juolevi will fight for that 3rd pairing LH spot but ya another RH d-man is needed.

Holtby has to be moved and another goalie brought in to backup.

Thanks! New to the Canucks! :)
 
*sigh*

Here's hoping he is somehow startlingly awesome again. I definitely liked him back in the day.

*sigh*
 
Buy him out now and the dead cap is 2.4 mil until 2031.

f***.

Lets hope he at least provides 3-4 good years. Aquilini just loves pissing away money.
 
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I knew Benning was going to cause a lot of damage if he weren't fired this year. Sad that I am right.

OEL is a bottom pairing defenseman at this point.

This trade is shit from the start. Going to quote this when the Benning Bros blame it on hindsight.
 

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