As expected Mattias Ekholm, the Edmonton Oilers’ best defenceman, was named to Sweden’s 4 Nations Face-Off roster for the February tournament and he might have his right-shot Calgary Flames’ rival, Rasmus Andersson, as his partner.
Oilers winger Viktor Arvidsson, who has started the season slowly offensively (five points in 16 games) and has been out more than three weeks with a suspected lower-body issue after being hurt against the New York Islanders — originally a day-to-day concern, now week-to-week — was also named to the team. He could be in a bottom-six role as an energy player with Tre Kronor, a guy who can kill penalties.
In a zoom call Wednesday, Swedish head coach Sam Hallam said Ekholm’s experience was a drawing card.
“He’s a really solid, two-way defenceman, a guy we can pair up with pretty much anybody from first to third pair,” said Hallam.
“He’s a bit more stay-at-home than the other ones (defencemen named) but at the same time when he’s given the puck at the other blueline, he can give us offence.”
The seven defenceman named are Victor Hedman, Erik Karlsson, Gustav Forsling, Andersson, Jonas Brodin, currently out with a shoulder problem in Minnesota, Rasmus Dahlin and Ekholm. Ex Oilers defenceman Adam Larsson may be a reserve, for injury replacement.
“Four of our defencemen were on our world championship team last spring,” said Swedish GM Josef Boumedienne, also on the zoom call, referring to Hedman, Karlsson, Brodin and Dahlin.
Ekholm, 34, obviously wasn’t because he played all 25 games last spring as the Oilers got to Game 7 of the final against Forsling’s Florida Panthers. But he was on Sweden’s solid 2016 World Cup of Hockey roster — the last best-on-best tournament — along with Hedman and Karlsson.
Ekholm’s certainly been a rock on both the Nashville and the Oilers roster in 844 NHL games. As an Oilers player, after his trade for Tyson Barrie, Reid Schaefer and a first-round pick, playing alongside Evan Bouchard, he’s a staggering plus-76 in 125 regular-season games.
Arvidsson, 32, hasn’t had much impact here with just two goals for the Oilers after being signed to a two-year free-agent contract last July. His injury, which has put him nine games now, certainly is a factor in his low stats. But, when healthy, he’s proven to be versatile and hard-working, something the Swedish team is looking for. They picked Arvidsson over, say, a younger William Eklund from San Jose.
“We’re confident he’ll be back in time, fit to play in the 4 Nations,” said Boumedienne, well aware that Arvidsson hasn’t played in many weeks.
“We know him well from his career in Sweden and his NHL career. He can play in multiple different ways for us, probably more of an energy player, a little lower in the lineup. He’s played with Draisaitl on the second line in Edmonton this year but what we’re looking for from Viktor is him playing that tenacious game, hard on the forecheck and being a tough player to go against … something he’s shown throughout his career.
“We’ve had multiple conversations with Viktor and the Oilers and we’re really happy to have him on the roster,” said Boumedienne.
Boumedienne said the Swedish selection process was heavy on experience.
“With a short tournament like this, basically do-or-die games, we went with a little more experienced group, with leadership we’re excited about,” he said.
The 4 Nations tournament — Canada, U.S.A., Sweden and Finland — starts Feb. 12 and ends on Feb. 20. Each team will play three games, and the two teams with the best record in the round-robin portion will meet in the final.