NHL Insider Names His Biggest Surprise of the Season So Far for the Toronto Maple Leafs

To be clear, we're very early in the 2024-25 season so far, but a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs seems to have turned back the clock a bit when it comes to his on ice play, and it's getting noticed. One NHL insider calls him the team's biggest surprise of the new season to date.

Ekman-Larsson was signed to a four year, $16 million deal by the Toronto Maple Leafs over the summer, after just coming off a Stanley Cup victory with the Florida Panthers. Ekman-Larsson had faced a lot of criticism over the past couple of seasons for appearing to have slowed down, and not being the force on the blueline that he once was in Arizona. However, according to The Athletic's James Mirtle, Ekman-Larsson has been the Toronto Maple Leafs biggest surprise through the first four games of the season, adding that he looks much more like the Ekman-Larsson of the Arizona Coyotes who earned his big money deal.

Mirtle noted that Ekman-Larsson started last season with the Florida Panthers in the team's top two defensive pairings due to an injury to Aaron Ekblad. It lasted just a month as he was moved to the third pairing, with his minutes getting lowered to 16-17 minutes per night.

So far this season, Ekman-Larsson has played more than 20 minutes in each of the team's four games, and maxed out at 25:02 in a 4-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday. He's buying into Craig Berube's philosophy, and it's working well for both of them.

The biggest task for Oliver Ekman-Larsson and the Toronto Maple Leafs now is to make sure the 33-year-old can maintain his current level of play for the team. OEL has dealt with some injuries over the years, playing in two injury-riddled seasons for the Vancouver Canucks that seemed to take a toll. Hopefully, those issues have been put to rest and he can keep going the way he's going now.