Buyout to Stanley Cup: Inside Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s comeback from rock bottom to Maple Leafs

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On June 16, 2023, Oliver Ekman-Larsson was fired from his job. Or at least that’s how it felt.

Ekman-Larsson had just completed his 13th season in the NHL when the Vancouver Canucks, less than two years after acquiring him, bought out the four remaining of his contract.

“Obviously people who have got fired, people who have got laid off, they know the feeling,” Ekman-Larsson recalled in a long-winding conversation recently with The Athletic. “I don’t think anybody wants to go through it. But at the same time, it’s on you a little bit too. You can shut it down. You can come back even better and push even more.

“And I felt like that’s what I did.”

How did Ekman-Larsson climb his way out from rock bottom, to the exclamation point of winning a Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers last spring, to joining the Maple Leafs on a four-year deal soon after, to helping them to the second round this spring?

And what happened in Vancouver? How did someone who was expected to be “our No. 1 defenseman,” as then-Canucks GM Jim Benning described Ekman-Larsson after the trade from Arizona, crash out in just two seasons?

It’s a story of injuries, self-discovery and redemption.

Bruce Boudreau adores Ekman-Larsson.

Again and again, Boudreau went out of his way in conversation to make that point clear. Ekman-Larsson was a terrific teammate. He was coachable. He was a fine human being.

“He was a treat to coach,” Boudreau said.

But there was one night, as Boudreau remembered it, when he had to scratch the defenseman he held in such high regard. The former head coach of the Canucks, Boudreau can’t quite recall if it was his “call” or not. “But I remember talking to him,” Boudreau told The Athletic. “I said, ‘O, you’re not playing that well right now.’ And he understood. He said, ‘You have to do what you have to do.’ He probably hated me for it.”

How did it get to that point? A former Norris Trophy contender being held out of the lineup?

The story can probably be traced back to the 2022 world championships in Finland where Ekman-Larsson, representing Team Sweden after his first season with the Canucks, suffered a fracture in his foot. The timeline for recovery was 4-6 weeks. However, when he returned to Vancouver for his second season that fall, he didn’t look right. He couldn’t skate right.

“His ankle was bad, and his skating really deteriorated because of his injuries that year,” Boudreau said. “So he didn’t play as well. The team didn’t play as well.”

Ekman-Larsson excelled in his first season after the trade from the Coyotes, the team he’d spent the first 11 seasons of his career with.

Boudreau teamed him up with Tyler Myers and asked the two of them to do the dirty work, duel with top lines night after night. This came after all those years in Arizona shredding foes with his offense — his skill, his shot, the effortless glide of his skating.

“I was surprised at how well defensively he could play,” Boudreau said.

Ekman-Larsson was physical, too. He didn’t take any “crap.” He played over 22 minutes a night.

But that second year, things changed as Ekman-Larsson tried to play through injury. He never complained about it, never made excuses. “But you could see him struggling sometimes, turning and even that first step jumping into the play,” Boudreau said. “It’s gotta bother a guy with that much pride that he had.

“I just knew he was hurting and sometimes it showed up in his play on his first step trying to turn when guys would go to the outside.”

Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s stint with the Canucks lasted only two seasons. (Marie Sorvin / USA Today)

“Looking back,” Ekman-Larsson said now, “maybe I should have been a little more selfish, thinking about myself a little bit more and taking the time that I really needed to heal instead of being unselfish and jumping right into it.”

With hindsight, Ekman-Larsson wishes he had taken the time to heal.

“I think that would probably have been the smartest move,” he said. “But yeah, it’s kinda in (my) DNA a little bit too to battle through stuff. Obviously I want to be out there helping the team. I felt like I was working hard. I felt like I was doing the work.”

Ekman-Larsson doesn’t love to talk about himself and said as much. But it’s evident in his willingness to share his feelings that all of this still eats at him somewhat. That he tried to do more than he could.

“It sucks being hurt. It sucks not feeling like you’re having success or you’re feeling like it’s a struggle,” Ekman-Larsson said. “But everybody goes through struggle, and I was fortunate enough to do it a little bit later in my career. I had a pretty easy run for a few years there in the beginning. Some people struggle early on. Some people struggle in the middle. And some people struggle at the end. That’s how I look at it. It’s what you do with it, and how you handle it yourself.”

The Panthers take pride in the fact that so many of the players who join them, often via free agency, end up enjoying some of the best years of their careers. It was a testament, GM Bill Zito said, to the Paul Maurice-led coaching staff and “a pretty welcoming environment.”

“I hope that the players who come here feel like they have a real chance to continue to grow and to be celebrated for the things that they do well, and hopefully utilized in a manner that first and foremost helps the team win but also helps them realize as much of their own abilities as they can achieve,” Zito said in a brief chat with The Athletic earlier this spring.

Ekman-Larsson joined the Panthers on a one-year contract worth $2.25 million, two weeks after the buyout.

Healthier and with the buyout nightmare in the rearview mirror, he proved once again that he could still be a useful defenseman, a winning defenseman. When the Panthers were without top-four defenders Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour early last season, Ekman-Larsson stepped into major minutes as the team’s No. 1 defenseman. He thrived.

He found success, for the most part, playing on the Panthers’ third pair. He was a helpful supporting cast member in the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

“It was like a different defenseman altogether,” Boudreau said.

Ekman-Larsson helped the Panthers to a Stanley Cup last season. (Sam Navarro / USA Today)

Ekman-Larsson felt like he had changed as a person and player after hitting rock bottom. He had become wiser from the struggle. He joined the Leafs on July 1, a week after Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

“I obviously learned a lot along the way,” he said. “So (much) different stuff that happens over 15 years in the league. I feel like I learned a lot about myself, and I think the people around me learned a lot about me as well — without pumping my own tires too much.”

What he learned was between the ears.

“I’ve always known that I’ve been a pretty good hockey player,” said Ekman-Larsson. “But there’s so many more things that come into play. It’s not just being a good hockey player. You gotta take care of your body. You gotta take care of people around you. And you gotta do whatever you can to get that edge on people.”

Four — maybe five — years ago, Ekman-Larsson switched up his training. It was a big deal for him. “Even if I was playing good hockey and didn’t struggle,” he said, “I wish that maybe I switched it up a little bit earlier. When I switched it up, it took some time to get used to it, and that was when I was going through the struggle.”

He focused more on his legs and core and having quicker feet. It’s work that’s helped him remain relevant, still, in his 15th NHL season.

The 33-year-old has done a little bit of everything for the Leafs this season. He tangled with top lines alongside Chris Tanev when Jake McCabe wasn’t available. He played on his off-side with Morgan Rielly when asked and slid down to the third pair after the team’s trade for Brandon Carlo. He killed penalties when the Leafs needed him to and helped guide the No. 2 power-play unit. He brought puck-moving prowess and a calm disposition to the Toronto back end.

Ekman-Larsson has had a successful first season with the Leafs. (Bob Frid / Imagn Images)

Ekman-Larsson proved instrumental in the Leafs sliding past the Ottawa Senators in the first round, scoring twice in six games. He’ll now face the team he rebuilt his career with in the second round.

“It’s just the details that make a big difference in the long run,” he said. “I’m gonna be 34 (in July) and my body is feeling, knock on wood, feeling good. I feel like I have a lot of hockey left in me.”

Ekman-Larsson remains thankful for his support system.

His wife, young son, parents, grandparents, uncles, friends — his “No. 1 fans,” the ones who sent him “Great game!” texts when he was still in Vancouver, “when you’re struggling and you’re playing bad.” He learned a lot about those people then.

They had his back.

“It’s easy to have a lot of friends when things are going good. But you really know who’s family and friends around you when you struggle,” Ekman-Larsson said. “That’s how I look at it. I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of good people around me.”

Ekman-Larsson looks back now on the dip his career took, amid a year and a half’s worth of injuries, and believes it has only made him stronger. “I don’t look at it that I failed or whatever because I know that I worked hard, and I know everything I did to get back from the injury,” he said.

“He looks healthier, he looks younger. I think winning the Stanley Cup has changed him, probably on his outlook on the game — he looks happy,” Boudreau said. “Everything has worked out for him in the end.”

(Top photo: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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