Coyotes Put Ekman-Larsson on Trade Block Again, Taking New Approach

It looks like the Arizona Coyotes are going to try and move Oliver Ekman-Larsson again. A trade that never materialized last offseason, there was plenty of talk he might be moved. Unfortunately, the defenseman had a down year and the Coyotes are still a team making big changes. His $8.25 million salary per season for the next six seasons is problematic for that franchise.

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Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the Coyotes will, once again, put Ekman-Larsson on the market. This time, instead of going to him first and asking which teams they should talk business with, the Coyotes are going to shop him around to every team, get the best deal they can from the interested suitors and then come back to Ekman-Larsson with their options. Who knows, after such a poor year, he might be more inclined to accept a deal to other teams beyond the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins.

While other teams kicked tires, it was the Bruins and Canucks who were the frontrunners for the blueliner. It wound up that he put a time limit on any deal so the trade never happened, but that was believed to be partially because he didn’t really want to be moved. Perhaps now, with so much doubt about the future of the Coyotes and the fact he’s a 29-year-old captain who may not be a trade asset teams value down the road, this is the right time to look at his options and land with a team he can see playing the next six seasons with.

What Is Ekman-Larsson Worth?

The big question will be what he can command on the trade market? Some teams will see his salary as a huge albatross in a flat cap NHL marketplace. That he lost out his spot on the roster (in a manner of speaking) to Jakob Chychrun doesn’t help his cause. Others will believe his track record as a top-two defenseman is still very much worth gambling on and that he can solidify a blue line for a team that badly needs a top-level player with experience.

Can the Coyotes convince a team to part with key assets? Or, is this going to be a salary dump type of trade for Arizona in the hopes he is open to a handful of teams that want to get an effective, but expensive defenseman without giving up a lot in return?

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