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In his 30-game run with the Oilers, Larsen did show ability on the power play. Four defencemen spent at least an hour at five-on-four with Edmonton in 2013-14, here are their rate stats: Larsen: 4.3 points/hour, 13.8 shots/hour, 29.3 shot attempts/hour Justin Schultz: 2.3 points/hour, 7.6 shots/hour, 18.6 shot attempts/hour Jeff Petry: 1.9 points/hour, 6.5 shots/hour, 11.2 shot attempts/hour Anton Belov: 0.9 points/hour, 7.7 shots/hour, 20.6 shot attempts/hour We’re only talking about 70 minutes of ice-time for Larsen, but he did good work in that span. He was trigger-happy, which is a rare and desirable trait among recent Oilers point options, and he picked up a bunch of points.

The flip side of all this is that fringe NHL defencemen are generally pretty easy to find, and that Larsen has yet to show he’s the kind of player who can be leaned on full-time at hockey’s highest level. Edmonton already has something of a logjam at the bottom of the defensive depth chart, and even though Larsen has some unique skills it’s hard to imagine the team prioritizing him over someone like Griffin Reinhart. Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli should probably be pretty happy with landing a fifth-round pick for a player who obviously wasn’t in the plans.

However, this is also a pretty interesting gamble by the Canucks.

The first item here is cost. A fifth-round pick isn’t nothing, but selections outside the top-100 rarely pan out and the fact that Edmonton doesn’t get it until 2017 is a mark in Vancouver’s favour. If and when the Canucks bring Larsen over, his contract is likely to be pretty reasonable, too; if I were to guess I’d suggest a one-year, one-way deal for under $1.0 million. This is a low-risk move for Vancouver.

The second item is familiarity. Vancouver’s coach is Willie Desjardins, who knows Larsen as well as anyone thanks to their shared history with the Dallas Stars. One assumes that Desjardins was in favour of taking a chance on a player he knows well, and there isn’t likely to be the same kind of adjustment for Larsen as there would be with most other NHL teams. He’ll be entering a familiar situation.

Vancouver knows the player, will give him a fair shot at success and didn’t pay too much to acquire him. This is the kind of smart gamble that I love seeing NHL teams make. If it works out, the Canucks will add a cheap, young right-shooting defenceman who can play on their power play. If it doesn’t work out, they will have sacrificed a fifth-round pick.