Vancouver Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau changed things on Thursday when he admitted defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larson could be healthy for the game against the team. Tampa Bay Lightning tonight.
“Look, we’ve got to scratch some guys,” Boudreau explained. ” I suspect [Ekman-Larsson] It could be better, but I think there are a lot of guys who could be better. Now it comes to accountability. It’s a lot of things, so it’s not something you want to do. He is arguably our best defender but sometimes you have to do what you think is best for the team at the time and that seems to be where I am. »
Ekman-Larsson was actually dropped from the team and forced to watch the match from the press box. It was the first time since March 29, 2011 – 4,307 days ago – that he suffered unfortunate discrimination.
A 13-year NHL veteran, Ekman-Larsson was on the ice scoring 57 goals as the Canucks finished 12th in the Western Conference with 37 points. They trail the Edmonton Oilers by 10 points from their last wild run by three games.
This season, his second with Vancouver, Eckman-Larson has 1 goal, 17 assists, and a career-high 45.2 scoring average of 20:28 ice time per night.
The Sweden native was acquired from the Arizona Coyotes in 2021, along with future Conor Garland. The Canucks sent Loui Eriksson, Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, and a number of draft picks to Arizona State as part of the deal.
Aikman-Larson is currently in the fourth year of an eight-year, $66 million contract that he signed while at Arizona and features a full immobility clause. That press seat gets pretty pricey at $8.25 million.
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