Canucks buy out Oliver Ekman-Larsson with four years left on huge deal

The Vancouver Canucks are buying out underperforming defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson after two disappointing seasons with the team.

Ekman-Larsson had four years remaining on his eight-year, $66-million contract, which carried an average annual value of $8.25 million. The Canucks will pay him not to play for them for the next eight years.

The 31-year-old scored only two goals and registered 20 assists in 54 games for the Canucks in 2022-23. He had a similarly uninspired 2021-22 season with five goals and 24 assists in 79 games, and posted negative possession metrics in both campaigns.

The native of Sweden was traded to Vancouver from the Arizona Coyotes along with Connor Garland in July 2021 in exchange for the No. 9 pick in the 2021 NHL Draft (Dylan Guenther), plus forwards Loui Eriksson, Jay Beagle, and Antoine Roussel.

Although it is unusual to see a team buy out a player with so many years remaining on his contract, the Canucks did so to alleviate a near-term salary-cap crunch. The team projected to enter the 2023 offseason approximately $668,000 above the cap prior to the transaction, but will have some money to play with in the veteran defenceman's absence.

The price of freeing up that space is a notable cap hit through 2030-31.

Making this move is an admission by the Canucks that adding the defender prior to the 2021-22 season was a major blunder. Ekman-Larsson's play was showing signs of decline at the time of the deal, but there was optimism that a change of scenery would rejuvenate him considering he was still in his twenties.

Prior to the trade, he was coming off a nine-year run with the Coyotes where he'd ranked 15th among all defencemen in points (345) and fifth in ice time (15,486:04). During that span he had two 20-goal seasons, led the Coyotes in points twice, and picked up Norris Trophy votes five times.

It will be interesting to see what kind of interest he generates on the free agent market as teams may see him as a player capable of contributing in a smaller role than he had in Vancouver — where he skated 21:27 per night over the last two seasons.