For the last decade, the Edmonton Oilers have been in a nearly neverending search for an answer at defence. A solid, shutdown defender who has skills and talents in all facets of the game. A true top pairing, elite defender. It took a while, but they finally got one. His name is Mattias Ekholm.
The Swedish defender joined the Oilers at the 2023 trade deadline in one of the best decisions former GM Ken Holland ever made. Ever since then, he has been mostly stapled alongside Evan Bouchard as they have combined to make one of the, if not the, best defensive pairings in the entire NHL.
In fact, Ekholm on his own was named the 16th best defender in the league in NHL Networks position rankings.
Ekholm’s playing career
Ekholm’s junior career was primarily spent with the Mora IK organization near his hometown of Borlange. He spent four seasons between their junior team and top team, which jumped between tier one and tier two of the Swedish hockey system during his time there.
Within his tenure there, he was selected in the fourth round of the 2009 NHL Draft by the Nashville Predators.
Ekholm ended his time in Sweden with Byrnas IF, where he won the SHL rookie of the year award in 2010–11. He signed his first NHL contract shortly after this.
Ekholm played primarily with Byrnas in 2011–12 as well, but he did play two games with the Predators at the beginning of the season before returning to Sweden. After this, he has spent the rest of his career since in North America.
After one season mostly in the AHL with the Milwuakee Admirals, Ekholm joined the Predators full time for the 2013–14 season, where he slowly developed into one of the steadiest and most reliable defenders in the league.
Ekholm ended up spending most of the next 10 seasons with the Predators, appearing in one Stanley Cup Final. He had a career high 10 goals in 2017–18 and 44 points in 2018–19.
At the 2023 trade deadline, Ekholm was traded to the Oilers, where he immediately fit into the lineup and made a major positive impact on the team.
In his first full season with the Oilers, Ekholm set a career high in goals (11) and points (45). It was also the second time in his career that he received Norris Trophy votes.
International play
Ekholm was a regular fixture on Team Sweden’s defence through the first part of his career. It started off with a gold medal at the 2007 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament and a fourth place finish at the 2008 U18 tournament.
Ekholm took part in the 2010 World Junior Classic, in which he had one assist in six games. Sweden took home the bronze medal that season.
Three consecutive seasons, 2014, 2015, and 2016, Ekholm took part in the World Championship. His peak performance was in 2014 where he had seven points in 10 games en route to a bronze medal.
In 2016, he also took part in the World Cup of Hockey.
Ekholm played in two more World Championships in 2018 and 2019, taking home the gold medal in 2018.
Ekholm’s career statistics
| Season | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | ATOI | BLK | HIT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-12 | NSH | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 12:25 | 3 | 0 |
| 2012-13 | NSH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 16:05 | 0 | 0 |
| 2013-14 | NSH | 62 | 1 | 8 | 9 | -8 | 16:49 | 55 | 42 |
| 2014-15 | NSH | 80 | 7 | 11 | 18 | 12 | 19:01 | 102 | 57 |
| 2015-16 | NSH | 82 | 8 | 27 | 35 | 14 | 20:15 | 106 | 67 |
| 2016-17 | NSH | 82 | 3 | 20 | 23 | 4 | 23:28 | 108 | 61 |
| 2017-18 | NSH | 81 | 10 | 24 | 34 | 25 | 23:35 | 117 | 75 |
| 2018-19 | NSH | 80 | 8 | 36 | 44 | 27 | 23:22 | 107 | 68 |
| 2019-20 | NSH | 68 | 8 | 25 | 33 | -1 | 23:22 | 100 | 49 |
| 2020-21 | NSH | 48 | 6 | 17 | 23 | 19 | 22:52 | 46 | 23 |
| 2021-22 | NSH | 76 | 6 | 25 | 31 | 14 | 23:29 | 96 | 79 |
| 2022-23 | TOT | 78 | 9 | 23 | 32 | 28 | 21:28 | 104 | 91 |
| 2022-23 | NSH | 57 | 5 | 13 | 18 | 0 | 21:44 | 76 | 62 |
| 2022-23 | EDM | 21 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 28 | 20:47 | 28 | 29 |
| 2023-24 | EDM | 79 | 11 | 34 | 45 | 44 | 21:03 | 93 | 136 |
| 12 yrs | NSH | 719 | 62 | 206 | 268 | 104 | 21:48 | 916 | 583 |
| 2 yrs | EDM | 100 | 15 | 44 | 59 | 72 | 21:00 | 121 | 165 |
| Career | 13 yrs | 819 | 77 | 250 | 327 | 176 | 21:42 | 1037 | 748 |
Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/2/2024.
Player profile
Ekholm is a fantastic example of an all-around defender. His strongest suit is his defensive game, where he is quite simple solid, well-rounded, and reliable.
Ekholm is no slouch offensively either. He has a wicked shot that is among the hardest in the league and a great breakout pass too.
He has developed into a top pairing defender and one of the best in the league over his career and has only gotten better since arriving in Edmonton.
Strengths
I could just say “everything” and end this section. But that doesn’t make for good content, does it?
Ekholm’s skillset covers nearly everything he needs to do from his position. He plays well and puts up impressive numbers against the highest quality competition. He makes the players around him better, shown by his success with his primary partner Bouchard, whose game also took a leap forward once paired together.
All-in-all, there are so many things to praise in Ekholm’s game. But here are just a few that are worth an extra mention.
Durability
For a player that plays as hard of and as many minutes as him, Ekholm is incredibly durable. Over the past five seasons, Ekholm has missed just 22 games. In the same stretch, he has averaged between 21 and 23 minutes of ice time per game.
In his entire career prior to that, the least amount of games he’s played is 62 in his rookie season. Every other year, he played in 80+ games.
It’s hard to be a good player when one is hurt or out of the lineup a lot. Ekholm’s reliable and regular presence in the lineup adds a significant amount of value to himself as a player.
Puck retrieval
Puck retrievals are among the many things that Ekholm excels at defensively. He is fantastic at hunting down and obtaining loose pucks. His size and strength give him an advantage in most of these situations and he is able to leverage those to gain possession of the puck. His defensive acumen gets him to the puck quickly and from the right angle to be able to make a quick play or pass off of it from the retrieval.
For a team in the Oilers that excels on the rush, a trait like this becomes highly valuable and can help amplify the offence.
Defensive IQ
The general everything for Ekholm’s defensive game is a massive strength, but his defensive IQ is the overarching theme that helps him excel. He knows where the puck is going to be. He knows how to read plays and anticipate the next move. He knows how to block passing and shooting lanes. He knows how to drive players to the outside and limit high danger chances against.
And, he is smart enough to play his own position while teaching and mentoring Bouchard in his development.
Weaknesses
Ekholm has next to no weaknesses in the way he plays. Every facet of his game is solid, steady, and reliable. You don’t need to worry when he is on the ice because 99% of the time he will do the right thing.
There are a couple of small, linked weaknesses in his game, however.
Foot speed
This is not to say Ekholm is a bad skater. He is a completely average and adequate in that facet of his game. But, it is a noticeable area where he is not near the top of the league. According to his NHL Edge Stats page, Ekholm is below the 50th percentile in top skating speed and speed bursts above 20 miles per hour.
His top skating speed from the 2023–24 season was 21.92mph. League average was 21.67mph. So even in a weakness area, Ekholm is still approximately average in top speed.
Age
The way Ekholm plays, it is easy to see why he might be able to remain the same solid, steady defensive presence to an older age and sort of defy his age curve through his mid-30s. But, he is now 34 and age does start to come up as a factor more often.
Players’ footspeed almost always suffers as they age, and if Ekholm is already a lower tier skater, that is likely to regress even more.
Ekholm’s durability has always been a strong suit of his, but that is another trait that is often affected by age. He has always been a minute munching, tough matchup eating defender, and over the next season or two we may start to see some regression in his ability to do that.
If there is anything that plays in his favour in these areas is that he has never been an overly physical player. That would wear his body down, so with his playstyle he may be able to prolong his effective years a while longer. And his lower ranking in top speed bursts but ranking highly in skating distance travelled per game shows he knows how to monitor and regulate his exertion in a way that maximizes his efficiency.
Ekholm should still be effective even as he ages. But, it is still a factor that may come into play soon.
Where Ekholm fits into the Oilers lineup/organization
Without any question or doubt, Ekholm is the Oilers top left-side defender. He encompasses the perfect skillset to excel in this role. His well-rounded game with very few weak points makes him a fit in any situation, matchup, and game state.
As was the case last season, his expected line placement is on the top pairing alongside Bouchard. The two will look to continue their reign atop of the league’s defensive rankings.
Ekholm may not see much power play time, but he is a crucial part of the defence on the penalty kill.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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