Ekman-Larsson, Arizona's captain the past two seasons, has a full no-movement clause in his contract. He gave the Coyotes a Friday deadline to trade him, reportedly to one of two teams, the Vancouver Canucks or Boston Bruins, his agent, Kevin Epp, told TSN on Tuesday.
The deadline passed without a trade.
"Obviously, when you're painted in the corner and you have two teams to choose from, they're not going to maybe give you their best hand," Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong said. "I think there was some try, but I'm not sure that it was a real try. You're open to listen, but at the end of the day, we always have to put the Arizona Coyotes forward and make sure we make good decisions for the organization. It just didn't happen. It wasn't there."
Canucks GM Jim Benning acknowledged they made offers for Ekman-Larsson.
"At the end of the day, you'd have to ask them on their side if we were close or not," Benning said. "We negotiated through the week to see if we could figure something out that made sense for them and made sense for us. I think we gave them our last offer this morning. They didn't think it was acceptable. We're going to move on and we've got other business to attend to."
Armstrong, who was hired Sept. 17, said he has an open line of communication with Ekman-Larsson, who scored 30 points (nine goals, 21 assists) in 66 regular-season games and four points (one goal, three assists) in nine postseason games last season.
"I think I reached out to him before and had a great conversation with him," Armstrong said. "I think I'll do that, and then when he gets back into town, we can talk again. But I think he has to understand too, I was kind of brought into this situation. It's not something that I caused, so I think that I can explain that to him and I think we've had talks about what my job is. He has a job to play and be the captain and be an impact player."
Epp told TSN that the Coyotes approached Ekman-Larsson about a trade, but he said the defenseman's preference is to remain with Arizona.
Ekman-Larsson signed an eight-year, $66 million contract ($8.25 million average annual value) on July 1, 2018, when John Chayka was the GM. The NHL salary cap will remain $81.5 million for this season, which is targeted to begin Jan. 1, 2021.
"I have a great respect for the player," Armstrong told NHL @TheRink podcast Thursday. "I know him all the way back since he's been 17 years old. He's a great player. To me, he's a player that has the ability and the talent to win the Norris Trophy as the top defenseman in the NHL]. He's our captain. He plays 23 minutes a night."
Coyotes left wing
[Taylor Hall
became an unrestricted free agent Friday.
Hall scored 52 points (16 goals, 36 assists) in 65 games with the Coyotes and New Jersey Devils this season, including 27 points (10 goals, 17 assists) in 35 games after he was traded to Arizona on Dec. 16, 2019. He scored six points (two goals, four assists) in nine postseason games.
"Taylor is a really good player, and I know the organization gave up a lot to bring him in (three prospects and two draft picks)," Armstrong said. "It's just one of those situations right now for us to move forward I think it was a mutual parting. It's probably better for him to test the free agent market and for us to go in another direction, to manage what we have and add a few pieces to make us a better team."
NHL.com independent correspondent Kevin Woodley contributed to this report
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