It has been a tricky season, to place it evenly, for Canucks defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. It simply received a bit more durable as head coach Rick Tocchet instructed reporters that the veteran will probably be out “some weeks” as a consequence of an ankle damage, through Patrick Johnston of the Vancouver Province.
The 31-year-old has struggled significantly in his personal finish, which has helped contribute to Vancouver permitting the second-most objectives within the NHL heading into Saturday’s motion. On prime of that, Ekman-Larsson has underachieved offensively, scoring simply twice whereas choosing up 20 assists in 54 video games. These numbers are properly beneath what he was placing up with Arizona when he had a six-year stretch of recording at the very least 39 factors. Because of his struggles, his common ice time per sport has dropped to twenty:11, three minutes beneath his profession common and his lowest since his rookie marketing campaign again in 2010-11.
Ekman-Larsson nonetheless has 4 years left on his contract, with Vancouver being accountable for a $7.26M cap cost; Arizona is protecting a further $990K. With that a lot time period remaining, will probably be troublesome for GM Patrik Allvin to maneuver him; carrying an eight-year buyout cost definitely isn’t superb both. There’s no good scenario for the Canucks on the subject of the veteran, and now they’ll be with out him for at the very least a number of weeks. Christian Wolanin was recalled from AHL Abbotsford and will have a chance to get into the lineup pretty shortly.
