While Oliver Ekman-Larsson was the subject of trade rumours earlier this offseason, his October 9th deadline for a trade from the Arizona Coyotes came and went without a deal being struck by either of the teams that he would agree to waive his no-trade clause for, the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins.
This seems to be the preferred outcome for Ekman-Larsson. In an interview with Swedish language website hockeysverige.se, he says that he wanted to stay with the Coyotes all along.
“It was more that if they wanted to remove me, I set up the two clubs as an alternative, but, as I said, I wanted nothing better than to continue in Arizona so it feels good that it turned out the way it did,” said Ekman-Larsson via Google Translate.
Ekman-Larsson offered the Canucks and Bruins to the Coyotes as acceptable trade destinations in order to accommodate the team’s desire to shed his salary, but trade talks with those teams broke down. For now, he’ll remain with the Coyotes, and it sounds like he’s hoping that will be the case for the long term.
“I want to be in Arizona until I am 36 years old,” he said.
Ekman-Larsson gets his wish to stay in Arizona, although this offseason included a good amount of change for the team. The future of this team could be uncertain, but for now, OEL is going to be a part of it.
