Three years after arriving from Nashville, Mattias Ekholm is still one of the most important non-superstars on the Edmonton Oilers roster.
That's saying something for a player who was already 32 years old when the trade was made and whose acquisition, at the time, felt more like a move designed to stabilize the defence than one that would fundamentally alter the Oilers D-pairings for years to come. Yet that's exactly what happened. Evan Bouchard's game took off almost immediately. The chaos that had plagued Edmonton's blue line seemed to disappear overnight. Suddenly, there was calm. There was structure. There was somebody coaches trusted in every situation.
And now, as the Swede approaches his 37th birthday, the Oilers are confronting an uncomfortable reality.
Time remains undefeated.
Nobody wants to talk about it because Ekholm is still a very good player, and smart defencemen tend to age better than most. They rely less on raw athleticism and more on positioning, anticipation and experience. Chris Chelios played until he was 48. Nicklas Lidstrom was still terrific into his forties. Zdeno Chara seemed indestructible.
But even those players slowed down eventually.
The scary part for Edmonton isn't the possibility that Ekholm suddenly falls off a cliff. Hockey players don't usually work that way. More often, the decline is subtle. A player who once got to loose pucks first now arrives half a second later. The gap closes a little slower. The recovery speed isn't quite what it used to be. Nobody notices at first because the hockey sense remains, and because good players are excellent at compensating.
Until one day, they can't.
The Oilers don't need Ekholm to be their best defenceman. They don't need him to carry the offence or quarterback the power play. What they do need is the version of Mattias Ekholm they've had since the day he arrived from Nashville, the player capable of handling difficult assignments while making life easier for everyone around him, particularly Bouchard.
And that's a lot to ask from somebody approaching 37.
It's also why Jake Walman's emergence last season felt so important. Walman can skate, compete, and play difficult minutes. Maybe he won't become another Ekholm, but perhaps he can help lighten the load. Edmonton will need that, and so will Bouchard, whose offensive gifts are undeniable but whose game has always looked its most complete when Ekholm is alongside him.
The larger question for Stan Bowman, though, is about the next two or three seasons, not this one.
Stanley Cup windows rarely slam shut. They narrow. A great player becomes merely a good one. A top pair turns into a second pair. A team that once had answers everywhere suddenly discovers that one of its biggest strengths is no longer overwhelming.
Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Washington all learned that. Eventually, every contender discovers that replacing aging stars is much easier in theory than in practice.
Maybe Beau Akey becomes part of the solution. Maybe another top-four defenceman arrives. Maybe Walman grows into an even larger role. Whatever the answer turns out to be, the Oilers would be wise to find it before they actually need it.
Because Mattias Ekholm remains one of the smartest and most dependable defencemen in the league, and there's every reason to believe he can continue playing at a high level for a while yet.
But eventually, everybody gets old. And if the Oilers are still depending on Ekholm to be exactly the same player he was at 33 when he's pushing 38, they'll have a problem.
Mattias Ekholm will not became a bad player, but expecting anyone to outrun time forever is asking too much.
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