Ekman-Larsson wants to be better; ready for challenge in Vancouver

The Vancouver Canucks made a big splash on Friday afternoon when they added Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland from the Arizona Coyotes.

Ekman-Larsson met with the Vancouver media virtually on Saturday to discuss the move to Canada, and admitted that needs to get his game back it's peak and start playing better after a few subpar seasons in Arizona.

"It was hard, I'm not going to lie," Ekman-Larsson said. "But it comes down to playing good hockey, and I haven't been able to do that lately, when rumours start and people start talking about trades and stuff. I'm the first to admit I haven't been good enough. I'm always going to look in the mirror first, rather than blame it on anybody else."

He went on to add, "It's been crazy, but I'm super excited to be in Vancouver and what's ahead of us. A little bit of a relief, too, in talking about this (trade) for a year now, and I kind of felt we were running out of time last year. But I'm happy. New start and a fresh start."

OEL was asked "So, what has gone awry? Is it reading the game, body and stick position or moving the puck?" and he responded with:

"All of that, and I felt I've struggled the last four years, and before the going was great."

"You always go through times like that, but it's the way you get out of it and learn from it. And I feel I've been doing that. It's a game of detail and a fast game. It's getting back to being happy and feeling good about myself and having the confidence. I know I'm a good player and can play top minutes. It's a matter of getting back to that. I'm comfortable that I can help a lot. I'm still young and have a lot of hockey left in me. I've been working out more and smarter, and that's helping a lot."

When you look at his stats, OEL still hasn't been terrible but his point totals have gone down each of the last two seasons. One other stat that has gone down is his time on ice, and it's gone down every year since 2013-14, but made it's biggest drop from 2019-20 to 2020-21. In 2019-20, he was averaging 23:01 per night, while in 2020-21 he was down to 20:58 per night.

Like Ekman-Larsson said, he's excited for a fresh start, and that's what he'll get in Vancouver. The Canucks are a team on the rise with stars like Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, and Brock Boeser. Ekman-Larsson's leadership will be extremely valuable to a young Canucks core who just lost 15-year veteran Alexander Edler to free agency.

Source: The Province

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