13-year veteran expected to be healthy scratch for Vancouver on Thursday

The Vancouver Canucks are in Tampa Bay to take on the Lightning on Thursday night and there's a pretty good chance that 13-year veteran Oliver Ekman-Larsson will be a healthy scratch.

After the morning skate, head coach Bruce Boudreau was asked by reporters if the 31-year-old will be sitting this game out.

The Canucks are coming off yet another game where they've blown a multi-goal lead. In the first period of Tuesday's game against the Penguins, Vancouver went up 3-0, only for Pittsburgh to storm back and score five unanswered goals, propelling them to a 5-4 win.

Ekman-Larsson's time as a Canuck likely isn't panning out as management expected when they acquired the 2009 sixth overall pick back in July 2021. In 40 game this season, he has 19 points (one goal, 18 assists), 16 penalty minutes and is a minus-14.

The Karlskrona (Sweden) native has four more years left on his contract after the 2022-23 season, with a full no-movement clause and a cap hit of $8.25 million.

Source: TSN

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