Oilers Important Defender Having Huge Year

Caleb Kerney

Nov 27, 2024, 14:15

Caleb Kerney

Nov 27, 2024, 14:15

There is no downplaying how much the Edmonton Oilers rely on this defender.

EDMONTON -- Point production isn't everything.

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The name of the game in hockey is scoring goals, but preventing them obviously plays a key role in winning games. One Edmonton Oilers defender is more than proving their worth this season in both areas.

Mattias Ekholm is the cornerstone of the Oilers defense group. And it's easy to see why when you observe what he brings to the team.

Ekholm Can Be Utilized In Every Situation

The 34-year-old Swede plays an outstanding two-way game. Looking at his ice time in all situations reveals that the coaches feel the same way.

Here is a chart outlining Ekholm's time on ice and where he ranks on the team:

Overall, even strength and powerplay time on the ice rank Ekholm second to Evan Bouchard in every category. In penalty kill time on the ice, Darnell Nurse is the next highest after him.

If the Swede continues on this trajectory, it will be the most time on ice he's averaged over a season in several years. His 23:07 is a little shy of his 23:29, which he averaged in 76 games for the Nashville Predators in the 2021-22 season.

Ekholm Can Stop Opposition's Top Players

It's one thing to play a lot, and it's another to be effective defensively against those players. Ekholm does both.

According to PuckIQ, the 34-year-old defender has played 165 even-strength minutes against the opposing team's top players, which ranks first on the Oilers' blue line.

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Additionally, he ranks third in Dangerous Fenwick For Percentage (DFF%) against elite competition, with 57.2 percent. Dangerous Fenwick is similar to Corsi, except it excludes blocked shots and assigns a "danger" factor to each shot depending on the type of shot and the distance that shot was taken from the net.

Brett Kulak (63.3) and Nurse (58.3) are the only defenders with a higher DFF% than Ekholm against elite competition.

No matter how you look at it, Ekholm is an important cog in the Oilers' defense group. His 10 points in 22 games are helpful, but as you can see, he brings so much more to the table.

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