Confirmed Signing with Link: [TOR] D Oliver Ekman-Larsson signs with the Maple Leafs (4 years, $3.5M AAV)

[leafsfan5]

Found he played with an edge under Maurice.
Assume Berube has him playing with a similar snarl?

Yeah he's very physical around the net, it was honestly a surprise to me that we now have a puck-moving defenseman who can play a bit of a gritty game

OEL has been the pickup of the off-season for us so far, hope he can keep it up

 

[Legion34]

Found he played with an edge under Maurice.
Assume Berube has him playing with a similar snarl?

He has been a beast. I have been shocked how physical he is.

Reverse hits/clearing the crease. He has Been very physical.

Not what I was expecting at all. He plays with Jake McCabe and he has looked like the more physical of the 2 to be honest

 

[Jared Dunn]

Found he played with an edge under Maurice.
Assume Berube has him playing with a similar snarl?

Definitely been more physical than I thought he had in him

I'd be worried playing nearly 23 minutes a game will be incredibly unsustainable and could result in his game falling off a lot throughout the year, but maybe he'll prove me wrong

 

[BlueAzN]

Signing of the season so far imho.

 

[cupdreaming]

what a rockstar. so far it looks like a hell of an offseason for Brad

 

[ShootIt]

He has been a beast. I have been shocked how physical he is.

Reverse hits/clearing the crease. He has Been very physical.

Not what I was expecting at all. He plays with Jake McCabe and he has looked like the more physical of the 2 to be honest

I didn't watch the Canucks all that much, but I too was surprised at how physical he was with the Panthers.

Definitely a defenseman I would of liked to seen stay, but Zito had some tough decisions to make with limited cap.

 

[BrannigansLaw]

This guy is f***ing awesome

 

[Szechwan]

I didn't watch the Canucks all that much, but I too was surprised at how physical he was with the Panthers.

Definitely a defenseman I would of liked to seen stay, but Zito had some tough decisions to make with limited cap.

I think the buyout was a big eye-opener, and the knee injury which made him nearly unplayable in Van seems to be behind him.

Couldn't pivot, slow skating and soft in front of the net. Glad he's reinvented himself, he seems like a good dude that just had a rough patch.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I think that having a bad contract and being acquired in a trade that people call one of the worst of all time are things that can wear on your mentally and affect your game. So, in this case, a change of scenery at a more realistic number might have been things that helped him

 

[FinlandPanther]

He was pretty damn good on Florida no surprise he’s doing great on Toronto.

 

[SirKillalot]

Looks like he found a last part of career adjustment. Going from more technical aspect and losing a bit of that ability to being told to and getting used to using his physicality more. Less top end product, but more useful depth qualities.

 

[Snarky Coyote]

Losing his mother had a huge effect on his game, then lingering injuries and lets face it being on the Coyotes was damaging in and unto itself. I'm glad to see OEL having success again.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

He was also relied upon to being the #1 do it all d-man in Vancouver when clearly that part of his career was over. The Vancover organization when OEL arrived was a tragic, rotten place where players came to fizzle out. No structure, bad coaching, horrible management and likely a bad lockeroom. The buy out was absolutely necessary when Alvin came in and cleaned it all up. You could see there was a good player there deep down.

This is definitely a pro scouting win by Toronto. Lots of people laughed and thought it was a massive overpay but when OEL is in a structured and insulated environment he flourishes. A good coach like Berube is an excellent fit for OEL.

This really cannot be emphasised enough. Benning literally described him as a bonafide #1 defenseman and something the team lacked. At the time, Hughes hadn't yet taken his step so the sentiment wasn't entirely wrong but... OEL just wasn't capable of playing that role anymore.

Like Vector said, he was quite decent his first year but between injuries and vastly overestimating what he was things just didn't work out. Glad he seems to have turned things around. Seems like a pretty good guy and if I recall, most of the team had only positive things to say.

Unfortunately, Vancouver back then was a disaster of a team run by a circus monkey and a blueberry fool who couldn't stay out of his own way.

 

[Strangelove]

Well he certainly stunk it up in Columbus last night...

 

[HockeyVirus]

Well he certainly stunk it up in Columbus last night...

lol. Can you tell me who didn't stink last night?

 

[Strangelove]

lol. Can you tell me who didn't stink last night?

True, but we were talking about OEL.

 

[HockeyVirus]

True, but we were talking about OEL.

He wasn't a bad standout though. Seems like a weird comment tbh.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Signing of the season so far imho.

For the leafs, probably.

 

[Strangelove]

He wasn't a bad standout though. Seems like a weird comment tbh.

That piping hot pizza he served up to Werenski was the stinkiest moment of the game!

The old-timer was minus-3 on the night...

Not a "weird" observation to make in a thread dedicated to him IMO.

 

[Community]

That piping hot pizza he served up to Werenski was the stinkiest moment of the game!

The old-timer was minus-3 on the night...

Not a "weird" observation to make in a thread dedicated to him IMO.

I agree.

Obviously everybody was poor last night; however, I thought OEL made the more blatant and significant errors.

I'm not going to judge him based on 1 game where the whole team sucked, but I do agree that he was one of the worst performers in a terrible group "effort" yesterday.

As I've said earlier in some of the posts praising our new players, it's too early to know who is just on a hot streak to start the year and who are quakity additions.

I think Tanev and OEL will both be the latter, but it still remains to be seen... despite some posters already deciding that a bunch of our other players are LTIRetire worthy already based on less than 10 games.

 

[Ryuji Yamazaki]

Yeah OEL was extremely solid for us. You guys will love him.

 

[RebuildinVan]

I didn't watch the Canucks all that much, but I too was surprised at how physical he was with the Panthers.

Definitely a defenseman I would of liked to seen stay, but Zito had some tough decisions to make with limited cap.

Its a bit frustrating to watch now, he was nearly invisible in his time in Van. Like you had to look at the stat sheet to see if he played

 

[BlueAzN]

For the leafs, probably.

Nope, the entire NHL, point blank.

 

[Seanaconda]

Its a bit frustrating to watch now, he was nearly invisible in his time in Van. Like you had to look at the stat sheet to see if he played

I mean he was the coyotes franchise player and captain before he randomly got bad and then went to you guys

 

[ijuka]

I've always felt like OEL was a bit over-romanticized and overrated through most of his career, but at this cap hit and for his abilities, I think that he should easily be a positive.

And I need to give Leafs credit for always finding solid second pairing defense at these reasonable deals, even though they've had some struggles with finding a proper partner for Rielly. I guess in hindsight, going for a real first pairing defenseman to partner Rielly should have been the priority instead of Tavares, but we'll see what Leafs can do about that when the contract situation eases up a little. They've had this hole on defense for Matthews's entire prime but hopefully they can do something about it.