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Player Discussion Mattias Ekholm

FlameChampion said:
I think Larssons particular strength was being able to break cycles. He was pretty nasty on the boards (when he wasnt hurt which was like 50% of the time). Larsson had a bit of a mean streak to him. Ekholm apparently has it as well but picks his moments a bit more when he decides to use it (I havent really seen it from him yet).
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He also skates and moves the puck much better than Larsson
 
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Drivesaitl said:
i can't honestly understand why Nashville made this trade. I can see it fills the Oilers needs and holes. I'm not seeing it from the Nashville perspective. Unless the Preds are giving in to pure entertainment angle in that Barrie is more of an offensive player and maybe they want more offense or better PP or something. From a hockey purist POV it doesn't make sense to me as Ekholm seems to fit the Preds way of play.
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Nashville fan here, we aren't contending even with Saros and Josi playing at the top of their games, we're still fighting for a wildcard spot and with Forsberg and Johansen's injuries it didn't make sense to be buyers this year. With the prices we got it made sense to sell, we moved out 15m with our deadline trades and McDonagh slots back to 2LHD.
 
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The Nuge said:
I mean, Petry was a #2 dman and fairly comparable to Ekholm so I don’t see the issue there, but Gilbert isn’t even close to that level.

Whitney in 2010, so before the ankle injury, was playing like a legit #1 dman. His defensive game was rounding out, and he was on pace for over 60 points. He was the best player on our team that year. Do people seriously forget that Whitney was playing for the US in the Olympics right before we got him? That was a legit defense with guys like Rafalski, Suter, and Johnson. His ankle falling apart and ruining his career doesn’t take away from what he was
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tiger_80 said:
Whitney was never a No.1 or even No.2 defenseman. More like a 2nd pairing, power play specialist in the mold of Barrie, but with size. As to the short sample size, Yamamoto was a PPG player for 25 games or so.
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Whitney was a number 1. Prior to injury. Very good.

As for his ankle being pooched and taking away from what he had previously accomplished... it absolutely did. Whitney is an ass and when he came back post injury he insisted he was fine and the Oilers kept throwing him out there hoping he would magically heal. Post surgery the guy could barely skate and ended up looking omfg bad.

If I remember correctly he was getting beat like a red headed step child and blaming his line mates as well.

I would normally be more sympathetic to a guy losing his career to injury but he just was terrible on and off the ice. Simply a person who doesn't seem to be worth sympathy.

Believe he called out the Oilers many times just in a ridiculous and misguided fashion.
 
Aerchon said:
Whitney was a number 1. Prior to injury. Very good.

As for his ankle being pooched and taking away from what he had previously accomplished... it absolutely did. Whitney is an ass and when he came back post injury he insisted he was fine and the Oilers kept throwing him out there hoping he would magically heal. Post surgery the guy could barely skate and ended up looking omfg bad.

If I remember correctly he was getting beat like a red headed step child and blaming his line mates as well.

I would normally be more sympathetic to a guy losing his career to injury but he just was terrible on and off the ice. Simply a person who doesn't seem to be worth sympathy.

Believe he called out the Oilers many times just in a ridiculous and misguided fashion.
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I mean taking away from what he was in sense that he was still a #1 dman prior to the injury even though he wasn’t one after. His behaviour definitely affected his legacy. I’m forgiving of him because it can’t be easy to go through that, and he realized afterwards that the club wasn’t in the wrong, but I don’t necessarily disagree if others don’t see it that way
 
Trafalgar Sadge Law said:
Aight Ekholm is a great player and a full tier above the likes of Larsson/Ceci/Hamonic but lets not get carried away. Hall went on to win a Hart trophy and should've had 2 2nd Team All Stars at LW if NHL voters weren't stupid and pretended Ovechkin and Zetterberg were left wingers in 2013 and 2014.
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Hall is a one dimension 60 point play making winger. Guys like Ekholm are way more valuable than Hall
 
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Trafalgar Sadge Law said:
Hall at his peak was a 80-90 point playdriving winger who tilted the ice to a ridiculous degree. 31 year old Taylor Hall and the 24 year old Taylor Hall we used to have are completely different players.
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Hall had what one maybe two seasons at that level? Those are outliers.
 
MessierII said:
Hall had what one maybe two seasons at that level? Those are outliers.
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Pretty much most of his healthy years he was at this level. 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 were all at this level. Eberle had more points than him in 11-12 but we all knew who was driving the zone entries/primary puck carrier. He won a Hart trophy with the Devils, then was well over ppg the year after before his injury too. The guy was a monster and trading him away set us back years.
 
Trafalgar Sadge Law said:
Pretty much most of his healthy years he was at this level. 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 were all at this level. Eberle had more points than him in 11-12 but we all knew who was driving the zone entries/primary puck carrier. He won a Hart trophy with the Devils, then was well over ppg the year after before his injury too. The guy was a monster and trading him away set us back years.
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Screenshot_20230309-091309_Samsung Internet.jpg


Too bad he's had lots of injuries. Although if I were to pick between Hall and Hyman I'd pick Hyman.
 
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Trafalgar Sadge Law said:
Pretty much most of his healthy years he was at this level. 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 were all at this level. Eberle had more points than him in 11-12 but we all knew who was driving the zone entries/primary puck carrier. He won a Hart trophy with the Devils, then was well over ppg the year after before his injury too. The guy was a monster and trading him away set us back years.
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Well over ppg as in barely? 37 points in 33 games isn’t well over PPG. It’s just over PPG. His only 82 game season he had 65 points the year before we traded him. His hart win is one of the weakest in history. He had 2 1/2 seasons at a high level counting the lockout year.

Put him in the category of overrated players along with Klefbom and Ales Hemsky. Guys who looked good on really bad teams. Who we fondly remember as a legitimate NHL stars but in reality would be at best the 4th or 5th most important players on actual good nhl teams.
 
Jimmi McJenkins said:
He cost Barrie, 2023 1st and Schaefer, like what a great deal, sincerely.
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Idk about you but I also feel this has been the best stretch of Nurse hockey we have seen in a very long time. What a difference it makes when you have another guy the coach can soundly rely on.

The more I think of it the better this deal really is. There were very few D men of this impact available. Ekholm seems like a WAY better fit than Chychrun. Bouchard and Broberg are going to benefit immensely from this man.
 
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McNuge said:
Idk about you but I also feel this has been the best stretch of Nurse hockey we have seen in a very long time. What a difference it makes when you have another guy the coach can soundly rely on.

The more I think of it the better this deal really is. There were very few D men of this impact available. Ekholm seems like a WAY better fit than Chychrun. Bouchard and Broberg are going to benefit immensely from this man.
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This!

Now that Ekholm has been brought in, Nurse looks absolutely stellar... Bouchard looks great too. Ceci has regressed to his norm, but that's expected, because last year was an outlier.
 
McNuge said:
Idk about you but I also feel this has been the best stretch of Nurse hockey we have seen in a very long time. What a difference it makes when you have another guy the coach can soundly rely on.

The more I think of it the better this deal really is. There were very few D men of this impact available. Ekholm seems like a WAY better fit than Chychrun. Bouchard and Broberg are going to benefit immensely from this man.
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Unquestionably so. Being able to not have a 2nd pairing more sheltered than most team's bottom pairings (thanks Keith/Kulak/Barrie) is such a godsend for everyone on the team. Bouchard is also finally able to get in reps against opposing top 6 forwards/top pairing dmen, whereas when it was Keith-Bouchard or Kulak-Bouchard it was pretty much a guaranteed scoring chance against when the opposing elites step on the ice. It's not just affecting Nurse, Bouchard, Ceci etc too, it's helping the forwards out too knowing they have more support out there. The bottom 6 has been playing their best all year long Even Devin Shore whose been our worst non goalie player most of the year looks great out there right now. Straight up a full wipe of the slate for every player on the roster except Jack Campbell.
Canovin said:
Not gonna lie, the Kraken version of Larsson would really give the Oilers a boost. Must be the Krake
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The Kraken version of Larsson is very sheltered for a "top pairing", and only showed up to work 1.5 out of 5 years with the Oilers. Obviously part of that was his father's death but from the sounds of it he wasn't gonna get over it as an Oiler and it was best he moved on.
 
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