I'd say Broberg will be as good as Ekholm by the end of his contract. It's the hockey IQ that I always loved about him. As he ages he will tighten up his game and speed up the decision making. He was already showing that in the playoffs.
I'll just add that although I view this situation as a massive unforced error by our management, it's not the end of the world. Florida won the cup, and they let Weagar go, who is better than Broberg today, and they let better players than Holloway go too. Management can salvage their reputation by getting us that RD we need, and of course by winning the Cup. Situations like these unnecessary offer sheets should be putting more pressure on them to get this organization a big win
He's still very young though and it didn't look all that bad.
I didn’t watch Ekholm when he was younger but I feel like hes been pretty darn good for a long time. I don’t think Ekholm and Broberg are comparable at all though. Feel like they are being compared because they are Swedish lol
The biggest thing I notice with Ekholm is his composure. Its vastly better than most other players.
Broberg just doesn’t have composure to a level of Ekholm that I have seen. Dude struggles with reads, decisions, confidence etc.
He may be better in terms of skating and general movement but I’m not holding my breath he will be better than Ekholm.
Ekholm is also way more durable because he doesn’t put himself in bad situations like Broberg. Broberg has improved in this regard, he was getting clobbered when he was a rookie. But he still finds himself in tough situations.