The Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2024-25 season has started off strong, and one NHL Insider has labeled Oliver Ekman-Larsson the biggest surprise of Toronto’s good start.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were heavily hyped entering the 2024-25 season. Bringing in a bevy of role-playing veterans with postseason experience, they paired their new additions with a new head coach in Craig Berube, who will extract every ounce of toughness, grit, and passion from these players on the Maple Leafs’ road to the Stanley Cup. Chris Tanev, Anthony Stolarz, Jani Hakanpaa, Max Pacioretty, Steven Lorentz, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson have all arrived with winning experience, senior leadership, and much-needed size, as Toronto has altered since a year ago.
Speaking of Ekman-Larsson, he’s been a bright spot for the Maple Leafs even if his stats aren’t popping out on paper. An offensive juggernaut for his career, he’s found an extra pep in his step and has often been the sparkplug for the Leafs while on the ice. It’s his arrival in Toronto that has been the biggest surprise this season according to NHL Insider James Mirtle, who commented on the ‘JD Bunkis’ Podcast on Sportsnet’s Fan 590 about Ekman-Larsson; giving him high praise already in this short start of the season:
‘Ekman-Larsson surprises me the most. He was a third-pair guy for the Florida Panthers, he played a little bit in the Top-4, but that’s one of the best teams in the league. They had to play him in the Top-4 last year the first month when Aaron Ekblad was out, and they were like ‘No this isn’t it, we’re going to put him on the third pairing’ he’ll be a 16-17 minute guy, and that’s what he was when they won the Cup.
A lot of friends and people I talked to in Vancouver said ‘This is a bad signing, he can’t play.’ Then you watch him and he looks fantastic. He looks like Arizona Ekman-Larsson when he was a number one defenseman making big money and making a big impact on the game. If there’s a renaissance and he can play like that, that’s a huge win for the Maple Leafs.’
Oliver Ekman-Larsson: Renaissance Man?
It’s a massive endorsement for Ekman-Larsson, who signed with Toronto this offseason to a 4-year, $14M contract to help shore up their defense and give Toronto a deadly weapon on the powerplay. Fresh off a Stanley Cup last season, Ekman-Larsson joins his fellow former Panthers Anthony Stolarz and Steven Lorentz in Toronto as he tries to help them end their 56-year Cup drought. Last season, Ekman-Larsson registered nine goals and 23 assists, a big improvement after he had a career downturn from 2020-2022 during his final year in Arizona and the two years spent in Vancouver.
For his career, Ekman-Larsson has 474 points in 986 games but from 2011-2018 was one of the league’s elite offensive defensemen, scoring 115 goals and 323 points and averaging over 100 hits. Where he really shines though is the powerplay, having 59 goals and 127 assists for his career on the man-advantage, a stark reminder of his dominance considering his team often finished in the lower half of PP%. He’s showing new life under Craig Berube and has brought fire to the ice whenever he steps foot on it:
OEL finishes that check pic.twitter.com/CHiDPaUset
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) October 17, 2024
Oliver Ekman-Larsson tonight
— 2 assists
— + 2
— 4 sog
— 21:00 toiBest game as a Leaf? #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/oIdjvHaJ3F
— Big Head Leafs (@BigHeadLeafs_) October 17, 2024
Auston Matthews on Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who leads Leafs in ice time through 3 GP:
"Extremely skilled … He's hard on the puck defensively as well. I didn't realize how much bite he plays with on the defensive side of the puck until seeing him here"https://t.co/y5rtNGmOps
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) October 15, 2024
The Maple Leafs have craved for a defenseman like Ekman-Larsson. While he may no longer be in his prime, he is playing as if he is, providing the Maple Leafs more chances to win. If he can help turn Toronto’s powerplay around after a shaky start, he may have a chance to etch his name in the Stanley Cup for the second year in row.
