Coyotes attempting to coerce OEL into expanding his list of cities to which he would accept a trade
By now, most have learned of Arizona's intent to shed some serious salary during the offseason, and that team captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson and his $8.25M AAV for seven more seasons is very likely to be a cap casualty.
With the Coyotes' internal cap expected to come in somewhere in the $70M range for next season, rumours had begun to swirl about pressure from ownership on new GM Bill Armstrong to find a new home for the 29-year-old captain. Apparently OEL, who has a full NMC, indicated to his GM that he would only waive if the landing spot was either Vancouver or Boston. For more on that story, click here.
Per TSN's Pierre LeBrun, the Canucks remain very much in the mix to land Ekman-Larsson, though the Coyotes are believed to be in the process of attempting to convince OEL to expand his list a bit more.
LeBrun has made no mention of additional potential destinations for the Yotes captain, as there is no indication that OEL even has an interest in landing anywhere besides Vancouver or Boston.
It's unclear at this point what is holding up the deal, whether it be Vancouver or Boston needing to move some money around to make it all work or whether the return just isn't up to par for Armstrong and company in Arizona. My guess is it's the latter. With only two possible landing spots on the current list, I believe both Jim Benning and Don Sweeney realize that the options are limited for Armstrong, and with pressure from up the chain for the Coyotes GM to move OEL's contract, maybe Benning and Sweeney are grinding for the best possible deal, because why wouldn't they?
We will continue to monitor this one closely and provide updates as they become available to us.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Roope Hintz | - | 4 | 4 | |
| Ross Colton | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Jason Robertson | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Logan Stankoven | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Sam Steel | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mika Zibanejad | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Thomas Harley | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Oliver Kylington | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Will Cuylle | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jonathan Drouin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jack Drury | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Matt Duchene | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Warren Foegele | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vinnie Hinostroza | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Wyatt Johnston | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Matthew Knies | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Trevor Moore | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| William Nylander | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 60 | 42 | 15 | 3 | 87 | |
Capitals | 59 | 38 | 13 | 8 | 84 | |
Stars | 59 | 38 | 19 | 2 | 78 | |
Maple Leafs | 59 | 37 | 20 | 2 | 76 | |
Golden Knights | 59 | 35 | 18 | 6 | 76 | |
Panthers | 60 | 36 | 21 | 3 | 75 | |
Lightning | 58 | 34 | 20 | 4 | 72 | |
Hurricanes | 59 | 34 | 21 | 4 | 72 | |
Oilers | 59 | 34 | 21 | 4 | 72 | |
Wild | 60 | 34 | 22 | 4 | 72 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||