Things look to be blowing up in Arizona and the Coyotes are in a terrible spot. A bottom five team, the loss of draft picks thanks to a cheating scandal and a trade with the New Jersey Devils, and a cap space of virtually nothing once they sign the players needed to even set a full line up. They were a middling team this year and will continue to be a bottom feeder for years to come thanks to all of this, even after making the big move of acquiring Taylor Hall in December.
Rumors around the league claim that long time defensive lynchpin and captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson may be on his way out and a lot of teams will be making calls to in the very least see what they want. He is 29 years old as of now and brings a big cap hit of $8.25 million a year for another seven seasons. That’s a very big investment for any team looking to add him.
For his stats, this year he had 9 goals and 30 points, which was just below his normal pace. The bad side is he was a sub 50% Corsi and expected goals for, though the question is was this his play or mostly team influenced. He has also been given tough jobs in Arizona for a long time which is something he would be facing on the Devils as well.
He is at the age some players regress, but Ekman-Larsson has managed to go this far without missing much time playing 75+games every non-shortened season of his career. This means he should be able to go longer before a drop off in his play. He has been getting long offseasons to rest in Arizona, which is another bonus.
Playing the left side is important for the Devils as well, as it is by far our weakest position with Will Butcher being the team’s best option currently. Adding him would protect Butcher and Ty Smith this season while taking a lot of weight off P.K. Subban and Damon Severson.
He does have a no-move clause, so if the Devils were to inquire on Ekman-Larsson he would have to say yes to the trade. It would come down to if he thinks we can make the playoffs in a year or two and if he doesn’t want to just ride out his career in the desert quietly. The situation in Arizona the price shouldn’t be to high and a first round draft pick shouldn’t be thrown at a middle aged veteran but if the Coyotes just wanted some younger players in return to fill the line up and mid round picks to make up for those stripped from them the Devils should at least consider it. If a bidding war begins though the Devils should stay the course and wait for prospects even if it means being bad again.