After finding his game in Florida, Ekman-Larsson ready to help Maple Leafs

Fresh off a Stanley Cup victory with the Florida Panthers, Oliver Ekman-Larsson is already excited for his next challenge.

The newly minted champ signed a four-year, $14-million contract with the Maple Leafs on Monday as part of general manager Brad Treliving’s efforts to renovate Toronto’s blue line.

While the bump in salary shows the going rate for a veteran puck-moving rearguard with winning experience in today’s game, it’s the term of the deal that means a lot to the 32-year-old Swedish rearguard.

“Knowing that I had a good year and that Toronto was interested,” he said Thursday during his first media availability as a Maple Leaf. “I mean, I wanna play until I am super old and they carry me off the ice.”

After two injury-plagued seasons in Vancouver, Ekman-Larsson found his game in Florida, his one-year, prove-it pact with the Panthers paying off in more ways than one. And while there’s undoubtedly more than a little exhaustion that comes from a long run to the Cup — not to mention the celebrations after hoisting it — the defender indicated he feels better than he has in a long time.

“I feel a lot better than what I did when I was 25, to be honest with you, body-wise,” he explained.

He said that with the game’s rise in tempo, he’s been working on his own pace and trying to get quicker. “I feel like I’ve been putting in a lot of work the last couple years to get better,” he said. “That’s what it comes down to, that’s how I feel, and that’s what I’m gonna keep doing to get better. I want to play for a long time, so I feel like I can do that.”

It wasn’t so long ago that Ekman-Larsson was considered one of the premier puck-moving defencemen in the league, his 11-year tenure with the Arizona Coyotes including three as captain. But a trade to Vancouver just two years into the eight-year, $66-million extension he’d signed in the desert brought a major dip in performance that ultimately led to the final four years of the pact being bought out by the Canucks.

“It’s obviously hard to get bought out,” he said Thursday, when asked about that experience. “Just knowing that they want to make changes and they want to go in a different direction, so pretty much getting fired.”

Health played a major role in those seasons of struggles with the Canucks, he explained, adding that it was ultimately his decision to play through the injuries, so, “I can’t really make that as an excuse.”

The buyout brought a fresh start in Florida in the form of a low-cost, low-risk one-year deal with an opportunity to jump right into the action for a Panthers team that opened the season without two of its top rearguards in Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour as they healed from off-season procedures. He first suited up alongside breakout defender Gustav Forsling, who helped him feel at home on Florida’s blue-line from the start.

“I have a lot to thank him for. I felt like myself and played my game and I thought I had a really good year,” he said.

In addition to bringing in Ekman-Larsson, Treliving also signed fellow veteran rearguard Chris Tanev to a six-year pact carrying a $4.5-million cap hit and inked Jani Hakanpää for two at a $1.5-million AAV.

Ekman-Larsson said he really likes the group assembled in Toronto. “I felt like I can help them,” he said, adding that he’s ready for any role he’s assigned.

“If it’s power play or PK or five-on-five, it doesn’t really change,” he said. “I just want to be the best version of myself and I feel like I can be that in Toronto with a lot of good players around me.”