The time has come to recognize Mattias Ekholm and the spectacular job he has been doing for the Edmonton Oilers this postseason. In all situations Ekholm is a calming presence for fans, coaches, and teammates alike. He rarely makes mistakes with the puck, can always be found on the defensive side of the puck when it’s needed, and is not lacking on the offensive side either.
The big Swedish defenceman was drafted in the fourth round, 102nd overall in 2009 by the Nashville Predators and made his debut in the 2011–12 season, though he didn’t play any real volume till the 2013–14 season. He spent 11 and a half seasons with the Predators until he and a sixth-round pick were traded to Edmonton in exchange for Tyson Barrie, Reid Schaefer, a first- and fourth-round pick in February of last season. At the time this seemed a little too rich of a return but for what Ekholm has brought to the Oilers it seems about fair now.
Ekholm’s time in Edmonton
Ekholm recorded his most productive season so far as a 33-year-old this 2023–24 season with 45 points in 77 games. An interesting Ekholm statistic of this past regular season, Ekholm’s first full season with the Oilers, is that essentially all his individual offensive stats took a considerable leap. Goals, assists, shots, Corsi, and scoring chances are all up from his average of years past. This is not much of a surprise considering Edmontons dominant offence, but it is interesting to see the evidence on the individual level.
While Ekholm was not the go to guy for penalty killing in the regular season, Cody Ceci and Darnell Nurse having nearly equal regular season PK time, he has become that man in the playoffs. Ceci and Nurse have been questionable defensively in 5v5 play this playoffs and, for that reason, have fallen out of grace with Coach Kris Knoblauch. As the resident man of steel nerves on the Oilers roster, Ekholm now takes the lions share of PK minutes with 16 minutes more than anybody else on the team.
Oilers star Leon Draisaitl recognized how important the penaly kill has been for the team on Sunday:
“…You can see how big, for example, our penalty kill is. We’ve won so many games on this run strictly because of our penalty kill. It’s not so much our power play or our offensive guys, it’s our depth and our penalty kill that wins us hockey games…”
All aspects of the team are contributing
There’s nothing more dangerous than a team who is confident in themselves and can point to their past to show why they’re confident. After hearing so often that they don’t contribute to the team, the bottom six and the penalty kill will be flying high, having contributed so heavily and getting such deserved support from one of the best players on the team. On a good team, every player should feel supported by their teammates but it means more when you know you’ve done well.
All year long the Oilers have been criticized as not being a deep team, of being reliant on McDavid and Draisaitl, of being power play merchants. While I didn’t consider the team to be too reliant on the power play, I am certainly guilty of considering the team too shallow to compete with both Dallas and Florida. The Oilers have loudly and resolutely proved me wrong. As Draisaitl stated, so many games in this post season, especially the last three rounds, have been won on the back of the penalty kill.
Ekholm has been a central part of that penalty kill all year long and now that he is the preeminent penalty killing defenceman, he is an even bigger part of the incredible recent success of the Oilers.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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