Game Day 62: Oilers vs Habs
The Edmonton Oilers are reportedly not liking the d-man market at the NHL trade deadline, but I can think of one veteran d-man they need back: Mattias Ekholm.
In the past month Ekholm’s game has crashed along with his health. Both he and John Klingberg are out for tonight’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, with the Oilers calling up left-shot puck-moving d-man Cam Dineen and newly-acquired grinding forward Max Jones from Bakersfield on an emergency basis.
As for the d-man market, NHL insider Frank Seravalli said on the Kevin Karius show today on Sports Radio 1440 that d-man Carson Soucy of Vancouver might make sense for the Oilers, but he can’t see Vancouver trading him to division rival Edmonton, with Soucy needing some salary retention as well.
“So it would be nice to have (Soucy) the Irma native, but I don’t think that’s going to make sense or ultimately come to pass. I was told that it was a pretty quiet day in the Edmonton Oilers offices yesterday, that they were sifting through some options but nothing that really stood out and nothing that made them busy or gave them something to think about. So they’re still processing, operating under dual tracks of: Are we spending this Evander Kane money? And the other side: are we not?”
As for Ekholm, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said he’s now missing practice due to maintenance. “Maybe a couple days rest would be good for him…It’s day to day and we’ll determine later. Before the break he was extremely sick. You could tell in the meetings he did, he was very sick. You could hear it in his voice. And now just with the body a little bit, just a little maintenance thing… With where we are in the season, it’s certainly something we don’t want him to prolong.”
Ekholm missed a game in early February due to illness, then went to play for Team Sweden at the Four Nations Cup, but he hasn’t been the same player this past month, which his play falling off a cliff.
In the first 52 games of the season, Ekholm was playing at an all-star level at even strength, which is why he was picked as a key player for Team Sweden at the Four Nations.
This strong play was reflected in his Grade A shots plus-minus. Given the defensive nature of the position, it’s rare to see a d-man make more plays to create Grade A shots than he makes mistakes on Grade A shots against, but Ekholm was one of three Oilers d-men accomplishing that feat for most of the year.
But in the past eight games he’s been in a slump nearly as bad as the one Darnell Nurse was in during the 2024 playoffs, when Nurse leaked far too many Grade A shots and goals against.
Ekholm has been beat repeatedly on the attack and his offensive game has lost much of its oomph. Overall he appears to be slow and lacking focus, almost as if he was still fighting off some wicked respiratory infection, which is exactly what he’s been doing the past month.
Things look even more grim when we compared his major contributions to goals against his major mistakes on goals against.
In his first 52 games, Ekholm made a major contribution to 26 goals and made major mistakes on 24 goals against at even strength. That’s excellent work for any d-man, as they have all kinds of defensive responsibility but not so much offensive opportunity.
In his last eight games, however, Ekhoilm has contributed to one goal for and made mistakes on 10 goals against.
Ouch!
One hopes that with some rest and better health kicking in, Ekholm’s performance will return to its previous superior form. But that day can’t come soon enough for the struggling Oilers.
P.S. The projected forward lines as per Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic for tonight are:
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
Janmark-Henrique-Brown
Jones-Kapanen-Perry
Major movie event about Ukrainian players in NHL
Big event coming up, Kelly Hrudey and Friends event at Ford Hall Rogers Place on March 10. Hrudey is going to MC the event which will be the Canadian unveiling of “Uke” Untold Stories of Canadian Hockey Heroes, a documentary featuring former NHL stars of Ukrainian descent; featuring Gretzky, Hawerchuk, Sawchuk, Johnny Bower, Mike Bossy, Hrudey and many others. Of course there will be a pyrogy dinner. Here are all the details and who to buy tickets for this great event.
At the Cult of Hockey
STAPLES: Debating raging between insiders on whether or not Oilers need another goalie
McCURDY: Player grades against Anaheim
Staples on politics
There’s one excellent went to fight Trump’s USA, but are Canadians up for it?
