The Vancouver Canucks announced on Friday, June 16th, that they have bought out defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s contract. Ekman-Larsson had a cap hit of $8.25 million, which Arizona retained 12% of his salary, $990,000 in total.
The buyout spans eight years and affects both the Vancouver Canucks and Arizona Coyotes. Via CapFriendly, you can see the buyout details pictured below.
Additional details to this buyout via CapFriendly on Twitter, the Arizona Coyotes will lose a retained salary slot for the next eight years as a result of Vancouver buying out Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s contract.
This entire buyout and trade scenario stings a little bit more when you look at it from face value. Vancouver dumped three bad contracts in Antoine Roussel, Jay Beagle, and Loui Eriksson, though they also gave up their 2021 first-round pick (9th overall – Dylan Guenther) and their 2022 second-round pick (47th overall – Hunter Haight). Arizona also owns Vancouver’s 2023 seventh-round pick, which is 203rd overall. Vancouver would receive the signing rights to Conor Garland and Oliver Ekman-Larsson in this trade.
After being bought out by the Vancouver Canucks, Oliver Ekman-Larsson is free to sign with any team on July 1st when free agency opens. There will be significant interest from contending teams to see if they can fit Ekman-Larsson in for cheap.
