Coyotes Fall Victim to NHL's Controversial New Rule

On Friday, the Vancouver Canucks bought out veteran defenseman Oliver-Ekman-Larsson.

Fall From Grace

This was a move widely expected as OEL was no longer considered to be worth his heavy cap hit amidst massive decline.




When Ekman Larsson was traded to Vancouver in July of 2021, the Coyotes retained 12% of his cap hit. This is a common practice in NHL trades, as teams often retain salary on undeforming players.

Coyotes Implications

NHL teams get to retain on three contracts at a time, OEL was one of them for Arizona.

Because of the Canucks buyout of OEL, the Coyotes now have lost one of their retained salary slots for the whole of the buyout.


OEL will be on the Coyotes payroll for the next eight years (instead of the original four) at a total of $290,000 per season.


Now the Coyotes have lost a valuable retention slot which takes away their ability to retain salary in a possible trade. Often the Coyotes retain alary in order to get a valuable draft pick. Without this ability, their rebuild could be stalled.