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.
