March 28, 2025 by Ryan Lotsberg

Mattias Ekholm earned a level of immunity from Edmonton Oilers fans because of how well he played after being acquired at the 2023 NHL trade deadline. “The Viking” won fans over with his brand of play that features rock solid defending, intelligent puck movement, and a dash of offence.

Ekholm hasn’t been his usual amazing self this season. My observation throughout the season is that he has made more appearances on the replays of goals against than he has in any of his other seasons with the Oilers. 

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For example, Ekholm was a negative factor in all four goals allowed to the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night. Ekholm got caught up ice after a bad decision on Wyatt Johnston’s goal. Then Ekholm failed to corral a puck with his glove at the defensive blueline and looked lost attempting to cover Jason Robertson on his first goal of the game. Ekholm made an ill-advised decision to pinch in the offensive zone in the final seconds of a powerplay, which led to a two-on-one on which Robertson was able to capitalize. Finally, he lost a race to a loose puck in a three-on-five situation, broke his stick slashing Robertson, and was unable to tie up Robertson (the eventual goal scorer) in front of the net as a result.

Wednesday’s game was particularly rough for Ekholm, but I’ve seen enough this season to feel that he hasn’t played up to his usual high standard. Let’s take a closer look at some other numbers here:

His five-on-five goals against per 60 this season is 0.52 more this season than it was last season, but Ekholm’s expected goals against per 60 is actually down by 0.1. He’s also allowing 0.23 fewer scoring chances per 60 than he was last season. However, his high danger chances against per 60 rate is up by 0.18. That tells me that he’s continuing to do the little things well, but there are more big mistakes happening this season. Some of that can be attributed to the increased giveaways per 60 rate of his defence partner, Evan Bouchard, this season; but as we saw on Wednesday, Ekholm is not exempt from fault.

Ekholm’s five-on-five on-ice save percentage is 88.55% this season, which is down from 91.51% last season. I feel comfortable saying that goaltending is clearly a factor. Once again, this does not totally absolve Ekholm though. An increase in high danger chances allowed should result in a reduced save percentage.

What surprised me while looking into these numbers was the offensive version of these numbers:

Ekholm’s offensive numbers are down across the board. His actual point production is only 0.05 points per game behind last season, but the underlying metrics suggest that chances are harder to come by this season.

Ekholm is still a net positive player for the Oilers, but it’s clear to me that he isn’t having the same impact on the game that he once did. I have a sneaking suspicion that he’s dealing with a nagging injury. On March 12, Bruce McCurdy of The Cult of Hockey wrote the following:

“Another core Oiler is defender Mattias Ekholm who has indeed been dealing with physical matters. He was ill before and during the 4 Nations, continued to take maintenance days after it was over, and in recent times has missed a couple of games with what is being whispered is a core body issue.”

Ekholm missed six games between March 4 and March 18. He also missed Thursday’s game against the Seattle Kraken because of what was called a “maintenance day”.

The injury being referred to as a “core body issue” worries me. If you recall, Ekholm missed a significant portion of training camp prior to the 2023-24 season. That was the season where the team held captain’s skates two weeks before training camp started. Ekholm only missed one regular season game because of that injury, but he missed a significant amount of practice time.

When asked if that injury would be something he would have to monitor going forward or if he was fully past the injury before returning to the lineup on October 14, 2023, Ekholm said that “… a groin is not like you break a bone and it’s healing, then it’s fine. It’s something you’ll have to monitor. I’ve never had it before, so I’m probably the wrong guy to ask, but I would be shocked if it just was one day it’s 100% and it’s all over and never coming back.”

Ekholm played 79 games plus 25 more in the playoffs after that injury and that interview last season. It was a short summer, and he’s played in 71 more games including pre-season, regular season, and the 4 Nations tournament this season. He has played a lot of hockey without much of a break since that injury.

Evander Kane played through most of last season with a significant core injury. The result was that his performance was hindered all season, he ended up being a scratch in the last five games of the Stanley Cup Final, and he will miss the entire regular season after having surgery to address the injury this past September. The assumption is that Kane will be ready for Game 1 of this year’s playoffs because it seems like every star player that ends the season on LTIR is ready for Game 1 of the playoffs, but we have no certainty of that.

Darnell Nurse suffered a torn hip flexor on April 22, 2022. He played the entirety of the 2022 playoffs with that injury. He played well below his peak level from then up until this season. Some of that can be attributed to playing with Cody Ceci up until Game 4 the Western Conference Final last season, but that injury had to have played a role. Nurse also sustained some kind of core injury in the Stanley Cup Final last season. He missed a portion of training camp this season while recovering from that injury.

My point in bringing up Kane and Nurse here is that Ekholm’s injury likely isn’t new. I’m not a medical expert, but I’d be willing to bet that the injury that Ekholm sustained in the fall of 2023 never fully healed, and he’s suffering the long-term consequences now.

Ekholm is an integral part of the Oilers, and his health is vital to the team’s success. It would be a catastrophic blow if Ekholm does have a serious core injury. The Oilers’ chances of winning this year go down if he’s not at 100%, and it would be a devastating blow if he was to have to miss a significant amount of time next season after having surgery to address the issue like Kane had to this season. Please keep in mind that this is purely speculative on my part. I have no inside information. I’m just putting pieces together based on publicly available information.

The other factor that could be working against Ekholm this season is age. He’s 34 years old, and he will turn 35 in May. Elite defencemen like Ekholm can typically play at a high level for a longer time than a lot of other players, but Father Time is undefeated. This could be the beginning of his decline.

Whether the issue is injury or age related or both, it’s not a great situation for Ekholm. I sincerely hope that he has a minor issue and he’ll be back to 100% in a jiffy. I’m not certain that will be the case here though.