Joel Eriksson Ek

A 6-3 centre who wins faceoffs, kills penalties, stands in front of the net and quietly puts up 50 points.

Season	Team	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	PP	SH	GW	S	S%	TOI

2016-17	MIN	15	3	4	7	+1	4	0	0	1	15	20.0	10:37
2017-18	MIN	75	6	10	16	+2	22	0	0	0	124	4.8	12:47
2018-19	MIN	58	7	7	14	-7	20	0	0	2	111	6.3	13:30
2019-20	MIN	62	8	21	29	+7	22	1	0	4	102	7.8	15:43
2020-21	MIN	56	19	11	30	+16	20	0	0	2	119	16.0	17:03
2021-22	MIN	77	26	23	49	+16	28	12	0	3	223	11.7	18:35
2022-23	MIN	78	23	38	61	+4	44	12	2	1	247	9.3	19:00
2023-24	MIN	77	30	34	64	+18	60	12	1	5	267	11.2	20:32
2024-25	MIN	46	14	15	29	+9	22	5	0	1	140	10.0	19:46
2025-26	MIN	70	19	32	51	+16	32	7	0	3	194	9.8	19:05
2026-27 so far	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Career	—	614	155	195	350	+82	274	49	3	22	1542	10.1	17:13

This Season So Far

The 2026-27 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

19 goals and 51 points in 70 games, plus-16, 7 of the goals on the power play, on 19 minutes a night. He spent 69 percent of his 5-on-5 time with Boldy, whose career year happened alongside him.

The Finesse Game

Better hands than his reputation allows. He tips pucks, he finishes in a crowd, and he has a genuinely good backhand in tight — which is where a centre who lives in front of the net does most of his scoring. On the power play he is the net-front man, and the deflections are a real weapon rather than a hopeful stick.

He is not a rush player and does not create off the entry. What he does is hold pucks below the goal line, win them back, and let his wingers work. The passing is unshowy and mostly correct.

The skating is adequate rather than good — heavy strides, respectable straight-line speed, and no separation gear.

The Physical Game

This is why he plays. 6-3 and 207, and he goes to the hard parts of the ice every shift: net front, corners, in front of his own goaltender on the kill. He blocks shots and takes cross-checks without retaliating.

He plays a punishing style and has missed time in most seasons because of it. 70 games is roughly his normal.

The Intangibles

A first-round pick who took years to produce and became a complete player in the meantime. Coaches use him against top lines, on both special teams, and in the last minute of a 1-goal game.

The read is straightforward: he is the most valuable player on this team who will never lead it in scoring, and his body is doing work that shortens careers.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2025-26 · 906 minutes

Expected goals: 49.5%; 50th pct
Shot attempts: 49.8%; 55th pct

Goals while he was on the ice: 47 for, 30 against. Expected: 39.1 and 39.9.

The eye and the numbers

Sighted

Report

98th

Numbers

50th

The report ranks him 48 points above where the numbers do. It was written with these numbers on screen and departs from them anyway, which makes the gap a judgment rather than an oversight. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.

Both bars are percentiles among the 656 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 84 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.

Tracked

NHL Edge, 2025-26 · 70 games

Top speed: 22.4 mph; 61st pct
Bursts over 20 mph: 1.36 a game
Distance: 2.86 miles a game
Hardest shot: 91.4 mph; 89th pct

A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.

Recent form

Last 20 appearances, 2025-26, oldest first

points in his last 10 games — 2 goals, 5 assists, 35 shots

Each bar is one game by points. Filled bars are games he scored in.

Usual linemates

2025-26 · 906 minutes at five-on-five

Matt Boldy81%
Marcus Johanssonoff the roster55%
Kirill Kaprizov25%

Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.

Why the numbers land there

Five-on-five, 2025-26

The club: MIN took 50.5% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.5% — 1.0 below the club he did it on.
The role: Second line, 906 minutes at five-on-five — 49th percentile in ice time.

With and without

Teammate	Together	Him apart	Mate apart
Matt Boldy	50.7%	43.5%	54.0%
Marcus Johansson	50.5%	48.3%	55.6%
Brock Faber	53.5%	45.5%	51.7%

50.7% together, 43.5% for him apart and 54.0% for Boldy apart. He was the one being carried: the share went with Boldy and did not follow him.

Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.

Where he shoots from

goal on goal missed

271 unblocked shots in 2025-26, 19 of them goals. His median goal came from 10 feet. 50% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 17% from beyond forty.