TORONTO -- Oliver Ekman-Larsson has, in the words of Swedish Olympic coach Sam Hallam, “reinvented himself.”

The Swedish defenseman’s career appeared to be in limbo after a miserable injury-plagued 2022-23 season with the Vancouver Canucks in which he had just 22 points (two goals, 20 assists) in 54 games, finished minus-24 and battled an ankle sprain.

Then he flipped the script.

After helping the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup in 2023-24, Ekman-Larsson signed a four-year, $14 million contract ($3.5 million average annual value) with the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 1, 2024 and has been a key contributor for coach Craig Berube ever since.

To that end, Ekman-Larsson is tied with the Calgary Flames’ Rasmus Andersson as the highest-scoring Swedish-born defenseman in the NHL this

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