The Edmonton Oilers should be getting a reinforcement when they return home this week.
Per Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic, head coach Kris Knoblauch said that the team expects defenceman Mattias Ekholm to return to the lineup by no later than Thursday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets.
Ekholm remained in Edmonton while the Oilers went on a four-game road trip through Buffalo, New Jersey, and New York. The veteran defender has been dealing with an illness since late January that seemed to get worse during the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. He missed his first game of the season on February 1 against the Toronto Maple Leafs and had been listed as a game-time decision in the weeks before that.
After suiting up for Sweden in the 4 Nations, Ekholm struggled mightily when he returned to the Oilers. While the team went 1-4-0 on a five-game Eastern Conference road trip, the usually steady Swede posted a minus-seven rating across the five games. He played in Edmonton’s 6-2 loss at home to the Anaheim Ducks immediately after that road trip and has been out of the lineup since.
Through 60 games this season, the 34-year-old has eight goals and 27 points. He’s logging an average of 22:36 per game, second on the team behind only Evan Bouchard, and he’s tied with Zach Hyman for third on the Oilers with a plus-10 rating, behind Leon Draisaitl and Bouchard.
The Oilers moved the newly acquired Jake Walman up to the team’s top defensive pairing alongside Bouchard in Ekholm’s absence and the duo has seen some success. Over 52 minutes with Walman and Bouchard on the ice together at even strength, Edmonton has outshot opponents 29-to-17 and they’ve outscored them 3-to-1. That’s a small sample size but it might be enough for the new pairing to get some more runway when when Ekholm is back.
Ekholm has almost exclusively played with Bouchard on the blueline since joining the Oilers in a trade from the Nashville Predators in February of 2023. He’s logged 2,396 even-strength minutes with Bouchard during his time in Edmonton, more than any other player. Ekholm’s next most frequent defensive partner on the Oilers has been Darnell Nurse, with the two having played 157 minutes together.
If the Oilers keep Walman and Bouchard together along with Brett Kulak and Ty Emberson on the third pairing, they could try Nurse and Ekholm together in more of a shutdown role. It’s a small sample size, but Nurse and Ekholm have outscored opponents 10-to-7 during those 157 even-strength minutes.
