Welcome Matt: Buying out Ekman-Larsson was the right call by Canucks
It had to be done. For short- and long-term reasons, the Vancouver Canucks made the correct call in buying out defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson Friday.
Because if you were going to buy him out at any point in the next four years — and let’s face it, that was very likely — the immediate cap savings of $7.1 million (all figures US) for this season was too tempting to ignore. Buying him out in later years would’ve eschewed this one-time, get-out-of-jail-free savings.
The pain — and there will be pain — kicks in three years from now when Ekman-Larsson will be a dead-cap charge of $4.76 million. But that’s still $2.4 million less than what they would have been paying him.
How the Ekman-Larsson buyout breaks down (CapFriendly.com)
And what would he have looked like three years from now given the precipitous decline over the last few years? The writing was on the wall.
The $2.1 million dead-cap charge in years four through eight — all the way until 2031 — will also be cumbersome, but there’s good reason to believe the salary cap will have increased substantially by then, making it more digestible than it appears now.
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Look, the Canucks were backed into a corner. Poorly-run organizations — and they’ve been every bit of that for the last nine years — eventually get to a crossroads where they are forced to swallow hard and accept something they would not otherwise accept.
Buying out OEL was always the path of least resistance. And when the Canucks couldn’t trade Brock Boeser, Conor Garland or Tyler Myers without unpalatable money retention or sweeteners, this became their best (only?) option.
The cap savings allow the team to go free-agent shopping, pursue names on the trade market, and round out their roster, increasing depth, without penny-pinching.
They should still probably trade a winger, but they don’t have to trade a winger.
They still need a defenceman (probably two), but they’re not over a barrel in trade discussions.
They could still trade down from the 11th draft pick, but they’d do so by choice not because they’re forced to shed salary.
All in all, this opens avenues for the Canucks that wouldn’t have been there, even with a Boeser, Garland, or Myers trade.
It was the right call by hockey operations, and a big assist to ownership for acknowledging the mistake of trading for OEL, and bucking up to course correct.
Don’t say this often, but stick-tap to the Aquilinis. Credit due.