The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning make sense as Oliver Ekman-Larsson UFA destinations

The Vancouver Canucks have bought out defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, which means two things:

1) His hefty contract is no longer on the Canucks’ books for the next four years, and they’ll save a ton of money in the 2023–24 season. But on the flip side, they’ll be paying Ekman-Larsson’s buyout costs for the next eight years.

2) Ekman-Larsson is now set to hit the unrestricted free agent market on July 1.

While the ramifications of that first point are pretty complex, the second is more straightforward. And on Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli discussed where OEL could land when the UFA market opens on Canada Day.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Just quickly here, before we move on — the other side of this, Oliver Ekman-Larsson is going to be a UFA on July 1. Any teams that you think should have interest in him?

Frank Seravalli: Oh man, I think there’s probably a whole bunch, and it’s all going to come down to his willingness to play for a short-term, short-money deal, which I would think at this point is the smartest thing for him. He can double-dip, he’s already getting paid basically $2.5 million from the Canucks for the next number of years — you’ve got that in your pocket already. Go sign a one-year deal somewhere with a contender: Boston, Tampa, go down the list. There’s a whole bunch of teams. I would imagine even the Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights. A lot of teams could add a left-shot defenceman. That makes sense.

I mentioned Boston and Tampa. Florida, Seattle, Carolina, Detroit, and maybe the Vegas Golden Knights or the Islanders. Those are all teams that I think of right off the top of my head saying, man, they could use a player like this on a short-term, short-money deal, to go out and prove it and then cash in next summer yet again when the salary cap goes up in a significant way. Go and prove yourself.

Watch the full episode here: