Player Discussion Oliver Ekman-Larsson

[Scorvat]

What's the realistic best case scenario for OEL's time in Vancouver?

He proves all the doubters wrong plays at a 1/2 D level while playing all situations (basically replacing Edler), and gives us a few playoff series for the first 3-4 years. When he starts his inevitable decline we use the buyout friendly option he has to send him off into the sunset

Just looking at his preseason play alone, he has a good chance of reaching that scenario

 

[Hit the post]

What's the realistic best case scenario for OEL's time in Vancouver?

He proves all the doubters wrong plays at a 1/2 D level while playing all situations (basically replacing Edler), and gives us a few playoff series for the first 3-4 years. When he starts his inevitable decline we use the buyout friendly option he has to send him off into the sunset

Just looking at his preseason play alone, he has a good chance of reaching that scenario

Bear in mind, we had Tanev when Edler was here (and Schmidt & Hamonic when Tanev wasn't here last season). OEL has?

 

[strattonius]

What's the realistic best case scenario for OEL's time in Vancouver?

He proves all the doubters wrong plays at a 1/2 D level while playing all situations (basically replacing Edler), and gives us a few playoff series for the first 3-4 years. When he starts his inevitable decline we use the buyout friendly option he has to send him off into the sunset

Just looking at his preseason play alone, he has a good chance of reaching that scenario

I'm agreeing that the projection is a good possibility but I'm having a hard time coming around to the idea that he is Edler's replacement. For one, they play completely different styles of game. And secondly, OEL has always been a better defenseman than Edler - Even at their peak. It's especially true the last couple years (even with OEL's perceived regression) where Edler had completely lost his foot speed and had a ton of difficulty transitioning the puck.

 

[4Twenty]

I'm agreeing that the projection is a good possibility but I'm having a hard time coming around to the idea that he is Edler's replacement. For one, they play completely different styles of game. And secondly, OEL has always been a better defenseman than Edler - Even at their peak. It's especially true the last couple years (even with OEL's perceived regression) where Edler had completely lost his foot speed and had a ton of difficulty transitioning the puck.

Well I very much doubt if OEL Is tasked with the minutes edler played that the results are as good. Oel hasnt had a workload close to edler’s.

Just like Tanev I suspect we’ll see it even more when he’s gone.

 

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

Hey, if an oldster puck-mover like Dave Babych can change up his game, surely OEL can... AMIRITE???!!!

 

[strattonius]

Well I very much doubt if OEL Is tasked with the minutes edler played that the results are as good. Oel hasnt had a workload close to edler’s.

Just like Tanev I suspect we’ll see it even more when he’s gone.

Last year OEL averaged 21:00min ...and that was his lowest average since his rookie season in 2010-11.

Not saying Edler didn't put up minutes. Saying OEL has put up big minutes his entire career. Thinking he can't handle Edler's 'workload' doesn't make sense.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

I'm agreeing that the projection is a good possibility but I'm having a hard time coming around to the idea that he is Edler's replacement. For one, they play completely different styles of game. And secondly, OEL has always been a better defenseman than Edler - Even at their peak. It's especially true the last couple years (even with OEL's perceived regression) where Edler had completely lost his foot speed and had a ton of difficulty transitioning the puck.

Edler also had a hard time getting his shot on the net..which was unfortunate, because he had a deadly shot in his prime.

OEL has a very accurate shot.

 

[Scorvat]

I'm agreeing that the projection is a good possibility but I'm having a hard time coming around to the idea that he is Edler's replacement. For one, they play completely different styles of game. And secondly, OEL has always been a better defenseman than Edler - Even at their peak. It's especially true the last couple years (even with OEL's perceived regression) where Edler had completely lost his foot speed and had a ton of difficulty transitioning the puck.

I'm not saying he's going to be Edler, but the role the Canucks coaching staff will give him is the Edler role of the last 6 years (all situations, top line match up duty)

I'm really concerned about him meeting that task, but I think so far in pre season he's held up

 

[4Twenty]

Last year OEL averaged 21:00min ...and that was his lowest average since his rookie season in 2010-11.

Not saying Edler didn't put up minutes. Saying OEL has put up big minutes his entire career. Thinking he can't handle Edler's 'workload' doesn't make sense.

OEL has faced secondary matchups for a couple years now. Edler was facing the top match every shift for a decade.

 

[strattonius]

OEL has faced secondary matchups for a couple years now. Edler was facing the top match every shift for a decade.

I don't buy in to the fabrication that Edler is an effective top pairing minute munching d-man while OEL is a second pairing, sheltered outcast. It's a bologna argument - OEL has been a better defenseman almost his entire career.

 

[Get North]

OEL has faced secondary matchups for a couple years now. Edler was facing the top match every shift for a decade.

Yeah and we got caved in everytime leading to 1-2 playoff apperences.

Edler at best took care of his own business defensively until like 2015. He looked good offensively when he was young in 2010~ and the league was slow. Now, the league is fast and Edler is like Phaneuf/Regehr in their late days. Wins his puck battles, but no support at all for the forwards.

 

[logan5]

I don’t recall seeing Edler look as good as OEL has so far. It’s early, but indications are OEL is a much better player than Edler.

 

[wonton15]

He really does look revitalized out there. Hope he carries this into the season, but looks like he'll have to carry the anchor Myers.

 

[BWJM]

He's been watched by everyone under a microscope during this preseason and has looked very good.

I really hope tomorrow night we play a lineup with both OEL and Hughes in it.

 

[Gstank]

Honestly it looks like Poolman and OEL will be the least of our worries on the backend. I would be concerned about our lack of overall depth as we are bound to lose at least 1 of OEL, Hughes, Poolman, Myers for an extended period of time this year

 

[logan5]

Yeah, Poolman has quietly looked solid. Maybe our d isn’t so bad…

 

[VancouverJagger]

Yeah would love to hear all the thoughts from all the people who absolutely tore this guy to shreds at the time of the trade.

By all accounts he's been very decent looking out there............his play was probably the biggest wild card for this year and while I'm not gonna say our d is amazing right now this deal doesn't look soo bad at all............

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

He's been watched by everyone under a microscope during this preseason and has looked very good.

I really hope tomorrow night we play a lineup with both OEL and Hughes in it.

It should be interesting to see how Hughes/OEL....vs the Nurse/Barrie/Keith d cores match up...One of Hughes or OEL will be on the ice for the majority of the game.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

Something people are really going to be pleasantly surprised by is our transition game. With Hughes, Ekman-Larsson, and Rathbone (if he is good enough at this point to contribute already) on each respective pairing, we are going to transition quickly.

Our right side is not good enough, so we will get trapped sometimes, but I predict more odd man rushes for this team than we have had in years.

Ekman-Larsson is basically top 10 in the league in terms of breaking out via the pass. Watch for the weight he puts on his passes, it's basically always perfect. I'm not quite calling him a top ten break out D since he can't wheel like Hughes or Makar or even Heiskanen, but pure outlet passing, he turns it into an art.

Further, his wrist shot has apparently lost some zip, but he is an absolute master at making sure it gets through to the net for deflections and screens.

The risk is based on his defensive chops, though I think he's going to play well. But offensively, he is probably top 5 for D in our franchise history in terms of tools and hockey sense.

 

[canuckking1]

Yeah would love to hear all the thoughts from all the people who absolutely tore this guy to shreds at the time of the trade.

By all accounts he's been very decent looking out there............his play was probably the biggest wild card for this year and while I'm not gonna say our d is amazing right now this deal doesn't look soo bad at all............

I was one of them. I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but victory laps during Pre-season are a little premature. Loui is looking like an All-star down in Arizona himself.

 

[Hit the post]

Hey, if an oldster puck-mover like Dave Babych can change up his game, surely OEL can... AMIRITE???!!!

OEL has to grow a 70s pornstar style stache first.

 

[logan5]

I was one of them. I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but victory laps during Pre-season are a little premature. Loui is looking like an All-star down in Arizona himself.

Don’t know about victory laps. At least we are buffering our claims with “it looks like” or “early indications are”. But man, OEL looks good.

 

[VancouverJagger]

I was one of them. I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but victory laps during Pre-season are a little premature. Loui is looking like an All-star down in Arizona himself.

Well at least you can admit it..........pretty sure it would physically pain some of the members in here to have to admit Benning did a good thing.......

And I agree it's still early however early returns are good.........very good indeed.

 

[RandV]

What's the realistic best case scenario for OEL's time in Vancouver?

He proves all the doubters wrong plays at a 1/2 D level while playing all situations (basically replacing Edler), and gives us a few playoff series for the first 3-4 years. When he starts his inevitable decline we use the buyout friendly option he has to send him off into the sunset

Just looking at his preseason play alone, he has a good chance of reaching that scenario

It's not like he was really terrible in Arizona. The problem there is more he earned his contract his current contract at age 24 with a near Norris-caliber season, but in the past 5 seasons hasn't come anywhere close to repeating that and has been trending downward for a while now.

So now there are two question from the the Canucks perspective. The first isn't so much 'is OEL a good or bad dman', it's 'is OEL a guy you want to pay $7.26M a year from age 30-35'. The second is 'with the current makeup of the Canucks blueline is this a guy you want to be spending $7.26M of your cap on'. It's not really a matter of just whether he individually has a good season or not, since we're going to have him for a while really he will need to be judged based on how well he can help the younger core with the goal of competing in the playoffs. Like Loui Eriksson was a terrible contract because he was basically a 4th liner from day 1. But it still wouldn't have been a good contract if he managed to be a 20-30 goal scorer in his first 2-3 years, which is what I think most people actually expected.

 

[Tryamkin]

Yeah and we got caved in everytime leading to 1-2 playoff apperences.

Edler at best took care of his own business defensively until like 2015. He looked good offensively when he was young in 2010~ and the league was slow. Now, the league is fast and Edler is like Phaneuf/Regehr in their late days. Wins his puck battles, but no support at all for the forwards.

This is the most backwards post I’ve seen. Edler was miles better defensively from 2015 onwards than he was earlier in his career.

He use to be spoon fed easy minutes and a ton of PP time with Art Ross trophy guys and his stats looked great. But he turned into a very effective shutdown guy from 2015 onwards, I seriously don’t get how people still to this day don’t grasp this.