The 2024-25 season for the Toronto Maple Leafs has kicked off strong, and one NHL Insider named Oliver Ekman-Larsson the biggest surprise to Toronto's hot start.
Going into the 2024-25 season, the Toronto Maple Leafs had a lot of hype. Bringing in a wealth of role-playing veterans with playoff experience, they coupled their new signings with a new head coach in Craig Berube who is going to extract every ounce of toughness, grit, and passion from these players on the Maple Leafs' journey to the Stanley Cup. Names like Chris Tanev, Anthony Stolarz, Jani Hakanpaa, Max Pacioretty, Steven Lorentz, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson have all come in with winning experience, veteran leadership, and some much-needed size as Toronto has looked transformed from 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:
The Maple Leafs have yearned to finally have a defenseman of the ilk of Ekman-Larsson. While he may not be in his prime anymore, he's playing like he is and giving the Maple Leafs even more chances to fight. If he can help turn Toronto's powerplay around after their rough start then he may have an opportunity to etch his name into the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row.
