Multi-player monster trade between Canucks and Coyotes which includes 1st round pick tonight!

There was a lot of chatter today coming from the desert. And it is leading to this trade: the Arizona Coyotes are trading captain Olivier Ekman-Larsson and top forward Conor Garland to the Vancouver Canucks in return for forward Antoine Roussel as well as Jay Beagle and Loui Eriksson. On top of that,  the Coyotes get the Canucks' first round pick, 9th overall. This pick is two positions higher than the pick that they had to forfeit.

Two more picks were added in the move to Arizona. 

Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman explained the full trade, which sends Ekman-Larsson and Garland to Vancouver in return for Beagle, Eriksson, Roussel and their first-round pick (9th) tonight, a second-round pick (2022) and a seventh (2022). 

On top of that, the Coyotes will retain 12% of OEL's salary. Quick math tells us that the Canucks will be paying $7.35 AAV for the star defenseman.

Frank Seravalli of Daily Face-off is reporting that this "is a whopper of a financial transaction. At least $63.5 million in real cash changing hands!"

As you know, the team, under the ruling by commissioner Gary Bettman, the Coyotes forfeited their second-round pick (49th overall) in 2020 and their first-round pick in 2021, which turned out to be the 11th overall selection. This happened because the Coyotes acknowledged that it had violated the policy by conducting physical testing on 2020 draft-eligible players prior to the combine. This 9th pick is their way in. 

Ekman-Larsson has spent the entirety of his NHL career with the Coyotes after being selected sixth overall in the 2009 NHL Draft. The defenseman has 128 goals and 260 points over his Arizona career, for a total of 388 points. He recorded three goals and 21 assists in 46 games. 

He has been the captain of the team for the last three seasons. Back in the summer of 2018, the Coyotes signed Ekman-Larsson to an eight-year, $66 million extension. There are six more seasons left on it. 

As for Garland, he  has been one of the Coyotes’ primary goal scorers in the previous two seasons. The winger had a team-high 22 goals in the 2019-20 season and 12 last season.

Garland is a restricted free agent this offseason, but will cash in some doe signing in Vancouver. 

In this monster trade, the Canucks are getting rid of high-priced veterans Beagle ($3 million), Eriksson ($6 million) and Roussel ($3), who are all in the last year of their respective deal.