The Vancouver Canucks decided to buy out Oliver Ekman-Larsson's contract on Friday. They and the Arizona Coyotes will now owe him money for eight more years.
The Vancouver Canucks needed to free up cap space, and they made a big move on Friday to do so.
Canucks GM Patrik Allvin announced the team bought out defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson after two seasons with the team. During that time, the 31-year-old has amassed 51 points in 133 games with a minus-19 rating and an average of 21:27 time on ice per game.
He carried a $7.26-million cap hit for the next four seasons on the Canucks' roster, with the Arizona Coyotes retaining the rest of his $8.25-million cap hit.
Allvin thanked Ekman-Larsson for his time with the Canucks in a statement.
"The business of hockey is very complex, and tough decisions have to be made if you want to remain competitive," Allvin said. "Buying out Oliver gives us a lot more flexibility and cap space the next couple of years and significantly reduces his hit in the subsequent seasons.
"It is our expectation that following this year, the cap will also raise considerably, making this the right time to execute this buyout."
Ekman-Larsson was a buyout candidate heading into the off-season, although some thought his pricey cap hit for four more seasons would've created an undesirable buyout penalty.
CapFriendly indicates the Canucks will now be paying the defender $146,667 next season, $2,346,667 for 2024-25, $4,766,667 for each of 2025-26 and '26-27, then $2,126,667 for the four years afterward, going through 2030-31.
The cap relief comes at a big moment for the Canucks. They missed the playoffs for the third season in a row and the seventh time in eight years, but they weren't bad enough for the past two campaigns to get a high draft pick.
They also still have strong players, such as Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, Quinn Hughes, Thatcher Demko, Andrei Kuzmenko and more. If they're trying to stay competitive rather than do a proper full-on rebuild, the $6.4 million in cap space allows them to look toward free agency or the trade market to fill out their defense corps. They could also negotiate a new deal for RFA Ethan Bear, although he is expected to miss six months after undergoing shoulder surgery.
Since the Arizona Coyotes retained 12 percent of the salary on their former captain's contract when they traded him to Vancouver, the buyout will fill up a retained salary slot, according to CapFriendly. They owe Ekman-Larsson $20,000 next season, $320,000 in 2024-25, $650,000 in '25-26 and '26-27, and $290,000 for the following four years.
This could affect the Coyotes' ability to weaponize their cap space by retaining salary on more of their players or eating cap hit in a three-team trade. It's also not a relatively big chunk of change for them to be stuck retaining for eight years, either. However, trading Ekman-Larsson gave the Coyotes the draft pick to select Dylan Guenther, and he's expected to be an important part of their core in the long term.
The buyout window opened on Friday and runs through June 30 at 5 p.m. ET.