This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Mattias Ekholm
Edmonton Oilers Defense
Plus-44 at 34, third in this edition, and the man who makes the other half of the pair work.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-12 | NSH | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 12:25 |
| 2012-13 | NSH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 16:05 |
| 2013-14 | NSH | 62 | 1 | 8 | 9 | -8 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 58 | 1.7 | 16:49 |
| 2014-15 | NSH | 80 | 7 | 11 | 18 | +12 | 52 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 86 | 8.1 | 19:01 |
| 2015-16 | NSH | 82 | 8 | 27 | 35 | +14 | 44 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 114 | 7.0 | 20:15 |
| 2016-17 | NSH | 82 | 3 | 20 | 23 | +4 | 34 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 120 | 2.5 | 23:28 |
| 2017-18 | NSH | 81 | 10 | 24 | 34 | +25 | 46 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 135 | 7.4 | 23:35 |
| 2018-19 | NSH | 80 | 8 | 36 | 44 | +27 | 47 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 146 | 5.5 | 23:22 |
| 2019-20 | NSH | 68 | 8 | 25 | 33 | -1 | 32 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 154 | 5.2 | 23:22 |
| 2020-21 | NSH | 48 | 6 | 17 | 23 | +19 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 110 | 5.5 | 22:52 |
| 2021-22 | NSH | 76 | 6 | 25 | 31 | +14 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 145 | 4.1 | 23:29 |
| 2022-23 | NSH/EDM | 78 | 9 | 23 | 32 | +28 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 135 | 6.7 | 21:29 |
| 2023-24 | EDM | 79 | 11 | 34 | 45 | +44 | 47 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 177 | 6.2 | 21:03 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 819 | 77 | 250 | 327 | +176 | 398 | 11 | 4 | 17 | 1381 | 5.6 | 21:42 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 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
79 games, 11 goals and 34 assists for 45 points, 2 on the power play, 1 shorthanded, 47 penalty minutes, 21:03 a night and plus-44. He took 62.1 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,409 minutes, the 99th percentile, and his ice went 88-49 against an expectation of 87.25-53.28.
The plus-44 was third in this edition behind Gustav Forsling and Dylan DeMelo. Four goals fewer conceded than the chances called for and level at the other end: a pair that earned every bit of its record.
The Finesse Game
177 shots at a median of 47 feet with 61 per cent from beyond 40, converted at 6.2 per cent. The shot is a delivery rather than a threat and he has never pretended otherwise.
250 career assists in 819 games. The first pass is early and flat and it is the reason Evan Bouchard spends so much time with the puck moving forward.
The Physical Game
He defends with his reach at 6-5 and closes the gap before the winger has decided what to do.
He is hard to move in front of his own net and he clears it when he has to. 47 penalty minutes in 79 games at twenty-one minutes a night is a disciplined rate for a man who defends this much.
The Intangibles
A fourth-round pick in 2009 out of Borlange, thirteen seasons, 819 games and a career plus-176. He was the best defenceman in Nashville for most of a decade and arrived here at 32 without any fuss about it.
He kills penalties and has 4 career shorthanded goals. At 34 the legs will go before the head does, and the head is most of what this pairing runs on.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,409 minutes
- Expected goals
- 62.1%
- 99th pct
- Shot attempts
- 60.1%
- 99th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 88 for, 49 against. Expected: 87.3 and 53.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 18 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 316 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 72 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.
Usual linemates
2023-24 · 1409 minutes at five-on-five
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, 2023-24
- The club
- EDM took 56.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 62.1% — 5.2 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,409 minutes at five-on-five — 94th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evan Bouchard | 61.9% | 63.2% | 64.8% |
| Connor McDavid | 65.3% | 57.5% | 59.7% |
| Zach Hyman | 65.9% | 57.9% | 59.6% |
61.9% together, 63.2% for him apart and 64.8% for Bouchard apart. Splitting them up moved neither man. Whatever is driving the share, it is not this pairing.
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
241 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 11 of them goals. His median goal came from 32 feet. 13% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 61% from beyond forty.