Maple Leafs' Secret Weapon for Power Play Success Finally Revealed: Oliver Ekman-Larsson
With 985 career NHL games, 472 points, and fresh off a Stanley Cup, Oliver Ekman-Larsson has had a stellar career; and he's also Toronto's secret weapon.
The Toronto Maple Leafs had one of the best powerplay units last season, ranking seventh in the NHL with 24.0%, and it wasn't often you saw the Leafs with the man advantage and they didn't capitalize. However, a powerplay is two-fold, and having good defense on your blueline is crucial to keeping pressure, and the Maple Leafs only managed a 20.2 Net PP% (a more accurate measurement accounting for shorthanded and powerplay goals). It's not so impressive when you realize they gave up nine shorthanded goals with only 57 PP goals and something needed tweaking.
The Swedish defenseman has been one of the league's elite offensive defensemen since being drafted by the then-Phoenix Coyotes in 2009, showing impressive consistency and coming into his own starting in 2013 where he enjoyed a six-season stretch averaging 16.5 goals and 44.5 assists. Often the bright spot for the Coyotes, Ekman-Larsson quietly became one of the greats but was often overshadowed by names like Kris Letang or Erik Karlsson.
But where Ekman-Larsson shines and no one talks about is his quarterbacking on the powerplay:
Ekman-Larsson for his career has 59 goals (10 outside of the last decade) on the powerplay as well as a wild 127 assists for 186 career powerplay points. Not too bad for a guy on a team who consistently finished in the bottom of the league on the man advantage.
Toronto is currently 0-9 on their powerplay and has felt without any life. A change is needed so who better than one of the best powerplay defensemen in the last 15 years? It can't get any worse than zero goals and with Ekman-Larsson's ability to pick his spots and control the powerplay into a more focused "shoot first, rebounds, crash the net" mentality, it could lead to a lot of success. Toronto passes too much and needs to get the pucks on the net to create chances, something Ekman-Larsson can help with immensely.
Craig Berube still has a lot of time left in the season to tinker with his powerplay, and bringing in Marc Savard was supposed to help elevate the Maple Leafs' powerplay but so far it's been dismal. If he wanted to give Toronto's powerplay a fighting chance, he should look to Ekman-Larsson to ensure they start finding that success.
| POLL | ||
Should Craig Berube use Oliver Ekman-Larsson as his powerplay's secret weapon? | ||
| Yes, history shows he can do it! | 252 | 87.5 % |
| No, let the big boys run wild! | 36 | 12.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
