Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong believes that trading Oliver Ekman-Larsson to the Canucks was the true start of their rebuild.
On July 23, 2021, the Arizona Coyotes made a monumental move trading Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Loui Eriksson, Antoine Roussel, Jay Beagle, the ninth pick of the 2021 NHL Draft, a 2022 second-round pick, and a seventh-rounder in 2023.
General manager Bill Armstrong believes that this trade was ultimately the turning point in the Coyotes’ rebuild.
“It changed our culture. We’d wanted to move OEL out and relieve some money at the time. It was an interesting period of time for us because we were looking to flip that switch and start the process of acquiring new players and drafting players and we didn’t have any picks at the time,” Armstrong told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Thursday.
Ekman-Larsson was a big part of the Coyotes for many years. He is widely considered as one of if not the best defenseman to ever represent the Coyotes.
He played in Arizona for 11 seasons where he had 128 goals, 260 assists and 388 points while serving as captain of the team his final three seasons.
His impact for the community and the team is why this trade was such a huge turning point for the Coyotes. By trading Ekman-Larsson, the organization was sending a clear message that they were ready to start fresh.
Armstrong also dove into all the young assets he acquired through this deal.
“When that deal came into light, and it was a pretty complicated deal, there’s a lot of pieces moving in that deal, it was like the sunshine came through. We ended up picking Guenther at No. 9. And we got another second-rounder in there to go get McBain eventually. So that was a huge day for us. We also got J.J. Moser out of that (2021) draft and Josh Doan. That was a big turning point for us in our organization, and it freed up some money so we could do some creative things in grabbing more players. That’s probably been the turning point in our rebuild with that trade.”
The main piece the Coyotes got through this trade is Dylan Guenther who is now one of the team’s top forward prospects.
As Armstrong said, it was this trade that really steered the Coyotes in the direction of a full rebuild and while it may have been a bit painful at times, Arizona is in a much better place because of it.
Over the past couple years, Armstrong has stockpiled draft picks and young talent, building one of the best young prospect pools.
The pieces are all finally starting to come together and soon enough, the Coyotes will be right back to where they were with the likes of Ekman-Larsson and Shane Doan years ago.