Despite the performance review and ensuing questions about why he wanted the position, Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said an hourlong discussion over lunch Tuesday afternoon at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel & Spa next to Gila River Arena didn’t feel like a job interview.
“It was more casual,” he said.
But the meeting was still significant.
Not only did a portion of Team Sweden’s management staff for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey travel to Arizona to size up Ekman-Larsson’s credentials, but it was the first time the 24-year-old was able to have a sit-down conversation with his childhood idol, Nicklas Lidstrom.