Oliver Ekman-Larsson buyout will affect Coyotes until 2031

Hey boy.

Those were the first words out of my mouth when I heard the news of Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s contract buyout. The news doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise because the player was making way, way too much money for what he’s worth at $8.25M per season until 2026-2027…

It’s seeing how the buyout will affect the Coyotes and Canucks over the next few years that’s incredible.

Basically, the Coyotes are penalized until 2031 because they were the ones who originally offered him his 8-year contract valued at $66 million. The Canucks are also penalized until 2031, but to a much greater extent:

2.1 M (on average) that will not be accessible on the Canucks’ payroll until 2031, that’s huge.

Like, HUGE.

Let’s also note that in the 2025-2026 season as well as the 2026-2027 season, the Canucks will be penalized $4.6 million on their payroll… Which is clearly not ideal in an accounting league like the NHL.

Ouch.

From the moment he signed his contract in Arizona, there was talk of an amount that was (already) too high for the player’s value. We knew that at some point, a team would buy out his contract… And that moment finally arrived today.

I imagine the Canucks regret the decision to pay (among other things) a first-round pick to acquire him in the summer of 2021, a pick the Coyotes took to select Dylan Guenther…

In fact, I hope they do.

The next step for Ekman-Larsson will be to test the free-agent market, which opens on July 1. If there’s one thing we do know, though…

It’s that he won’t be signing a new contract that will pay him eight million dollars a season, hehe.

It’s also worth noting that the Coyotes lose one of their 3 “spots” for salary deductions over the next eight (!!!) seasons.

A fine fiasco, this contract buyout.

Breaking: #Yotes lose one of their 3 retained salary (RS) slots for the next 8 years.

We recently learned that a buyout on a RS contract results in the original team losing a RS slot for the whole buyout duration

We’ve already updated the site to reflect that new understanding!

– CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) June 16, 2023

In full

– 🥶🥶🥶

George McPhee tells the story that Kelly McCrimmon asked Mark Stone to call Patrice Bergeron before they hired Bruce Cassidy.

Bergeron told Stone, “If Vegas hired Bruce, they’ll win the Stanley Cup next year.”

Well…

– Vegas Hockey Now (@VegasHockeyNow) June 16, 2023

– Love it.

Ten days ago, Matthew Bergeron signed his entry-level NFL contract, with a small $3.5M signing bonus! 💰😎 pic.twitter.com/XlZuOTIj7w

– Le 5 à 7 (@5a7RDS) June 16, 2023

– Zut de flute.