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Benning talked to the general managers who controlled those players and Edmonton was the team ready to deal.

“My agent asked me if I was interested in returning and I told him ‘it depends,'” Larsen said. “I only wanted to come back if it felt right. I didn’t want to go to a place I didn’t know a lot about. But my gut eventually told me to do it.”

It helped that Larsen knew Willie Desjardins, from his time in Dallas, and Jannik Hansen, who like Larsen is from Denmark.

But the opportunity Larsen will have in Vancouver could be unlike any he could hope for anywhere else in the world.

Larsen is not only expected to be the Canucks third-pairing, right-side defenceman, he is also expected to be the point man on the first power-play unit. You know, the one with the Sedin twins whose success with the man advantage will go a long way in determining just how long Vancouver can hover in the playoff race.

Now, things can change. Yannick Weber appeared to be in the same position a year ago, but he was beat out in training camp, and virtually disappeared by the time the season started in October.

Can things be any different for the slight, 185-pound, 26-year-old Larsen who has played 125 NHL games and managed just seven power play points?

To hear Larsen tell it, he is a different player from the one who walked away from a prominent role with the Oilers after putting up 12 points in 30 games, averaging more than 17 minutes a game.

“To be honest, I don’t know if I was ready for that role. I never really got comfortable in Edmonton,” Larsen said. “I had to move somewhere to get my career back on track.”