Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s individual season was one of the Maple Leafs’ more positive stories in a mostly miserable 2025-26 campaign.
At 34, he produced eight goals and 39 points in 78 games while averaging 20:36 per night, marking his best offensive season in both goals and points since 2018-19 with Arizona. He led the Leafs’ defense in scoring, becoming the first defenseman other than Morgan Rielly to do so in a season since 2019-20. It wasn’t empty-calorie production, either. In mid-January, OEL ranked 11th among NHL defensemen in five-on-five points. Notably, he was the only Leaf blue-line regular to win his minutes (albeit it was 71-70) at five-on-five. He also finished the season with a 6-0 on-ice goals-for/against record in three-on-three overtime.
Overall, OEL often supplied an element the Leafs’ blue line badly needed more of: a defenseman who could move the puck cleanly and contribute some legitimate offense. OEL can make a first pass, walk the offensive blue line, get his shot through, and jump into space to continue or finish a play. While he’s by no means perfect defensively, he also brings underrated jam—willing to engage physically, stand up for teammates, and generally bring a little piss and vinegar to the rink. He has repeatedly shown the toughness to play through injury/pain for his team and has finished the last three seasons—which also included a grueling Cup run in Florida—with 80, 77, and 78 games played during his age 32-34 seasons (two of the games missed were due to the birth of his children).
Above all else, Ekman-Larsson proved tremendously versatile. He played with many different partners (Morgan Rielly, Jake McCabe, Simon Benoit, Troy Stecher), moved between the left and right sides, handled top-four minutes, contributed on the power play, and could be dropped into three-on-three situations capably. Craig Berube repeatedly and accurately described him as a “selfless player.” On a blue line repeatedly disrupted by injuries and ineffective performances/pairings, OEL’s ability to plug and play almost anywhere carried considerable value.
There is an important distinction, though: Ekman-Larsson can play the right side, but that does not mean the Leafs should want him there. The Leafs basically acknowledged last training camp that OEL was more effective on the left, even briefly experimenting with Simon Benoit(!) on his offside to accommodate it. They quickly abandoned that idea and instead spent large stretches asking OEL to play the right.
At times, OEL didn’t just survive on his offside; he played quite well. By mid-December, he was averaging nearly 21 minutes per game, moving pucks cleanly, producing offense, and giving the Leafs a consistently competitive effort—all while mostly playing on the right.
That speaks to OEL’s overall quality and adaptability, but it shouldn’t obscure the larger point. The reads, puck touches, retrieval routes, and passing angles simply aren’t as seamless on the offside. Early in the season, some of those complications showed up in costly turnovers and penalties. With Chris Tanev out, the Leafs also frequently paired OEL on the right beside Jake McCabe in difficult matchup minutes, which is a true indictment of the team’s 2025-26 defense core but also the former coaching staff’s decision-making. Every marginal disadvantage matters when a pairing is regularly staring down the opposition’s best. Even Berube admitted during the previous season that he didn’t love OEL on his offside.
To be fair, the Tanev injury and Carlo’s injuries/underperformance greatly complicated matters on the Leafs’ right side, but it wasn’t always totally necessary to use OEL there. We’ve already mentioned it in the Jake McCabe player preview, but the former coaching staff (bafflingly) moved away from the McCabe-Carlo/OEL-Stecher pairings that were showing signs of life before the Olympic break and returned with OEL on the right beside McCabe, Rielly with Brandon Carlo, and Stecher with Benoit — the same pairs that didn’t work whatsoever during the team’s season-destroying losing slide in January. The results were predictable.
The question wasn’t whether OEL was capable of handling the right (he clearly was). The question was whether limiting one of the team’s most reliable defensemen to accommodate other (dubious) lineup choices was actually producing the best possible overall six-man unit. Too often, the answer was no.
With Darren Raddysh now added to a right side that also hopefully includes a healthy Chris Tanev, the Leafs should be in a much better position to deploy OEL where he is most effective. He can still move over, and that flexibility is part of what makes him so useful, but it should be treated as an option rather than the default plan. There is a difference between taking advantage of a player’s versatility and leaning on it so heavily that it starts to diminish the player.
If Ekman-Larsson is going to play the right, a Swedish pairing with Emil Andrae could make sense in softer minutes. The pairing would feature two defensemen capable of advancing the puck, while OEL’s size, veteran experience, and physical engagement could provide some balance. Andrae is also competitive for his size, and the combination might offer underrated bite and offensive punch. Alternatively, if Andrae struggles to gain traction in Toronto, pairing OEL with Troy Stecher would let OEL play his strong side alongside a partner with whom he has some familiarity.
Wherever he lands, the Leafs clearly will/should want to avoid asking Ekman-Larsson to play his offside in a matchup role against top lines night after night. He has shown he can handle the right, but he’d ideally play much of the season on his strong side. If on the right, a more offensively tilted pairing in softer minutes — such as our Andrae-OEL example — is a much more sensible application of his versatility and skill set than building a shutdown pair around it.
Ekman-Larsson is now 35 years old entering the 2026-27 season and has two years remaining at a bargain $3.5 million cap hit. Some age-related decline has to enter the conversation, but little about his 2025-26 performance suggests he is hanging on by a thread. He remains a good, competitive, versatile defenseman who can help in nearly every situation. The new coaching staff’s job now is to place OEL in the role that gets the most out of his skill set while finding the right mix on the backend.
