NHL GM puts a lot of pressure on his young star!

Despite bringing in a bunch of new talent this offseason, this GM is absolutely sold on his homegrown star player.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
NHL GM puts a lot of pressure on his young star!
KEYSTONE PRESS

The Coyotes have had a busy summer out in the Arizona desert.

Coyotes general manager John Chayka has been shoring up his roster after a disappointing season, and he's made some pretty shrewd moves so far this offseason. The one player he's most excited about may come as a little bit of a surprise, however.

It isn't first-line center Derek Stepan, who Chayka brought in from the New York Rangers, along with goalie Antti Raanta, in exchange for a 7th-round draft pick and Anthony DeAngelo.

It's not stalwart three-time Stanley Cup Champion Niklas Hjalmarsson, who will be playing his first NHL season outside of Chicago after he was exchanged for Connor Murphy and Laurent Dauphin.

In fact, it's not any new addition to the team that has Chayka beaming, and that's  not a knock against those players, it's just that the Coyotes GM is just completely sold on young defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. He was the Coyotes' first-round pick, 6th overall, in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

According to Chayka, Ekman-Larsson is a “super star” for the Coyotes. The left-shooting defenseman scored more than 20 goals twice in his 7 NHL seasons and put up 12 goals and 39 points last season. 

Chayka had this to say of the 26-year-old Swedish blueliner and his plans for next season:

“It’s a bit of a reboot here but I think we’ve got a good core, a young nucleus led by Oliver Ekman-Larsson.He’s going to carry us. You only go as far as your top players can bring you.”

Talk about putting the pressure on! Still, it's not a situation Ekman-Larsson isn't used to by now.

 He led the team last season playing 24:36 of ice time per game, and he played in pretty much every conceivable situation.

There's a reason that Ekman-Larsson has been the target of rumors say he'll be the Coyotes next captain now that Shane Doan has moved on.
Time will tell if Chayka is right about his young star defender, but right now it's hard not to buy into his Ekman-Larsson hype.