Mattias Ekholm reached a personal milestone when he found the back of the net early in the second period.
As the Oilers were cycling the puck in the Vegas end, Ekholm found an open lane while the Golden Knights were more concerned about watching the puck. Ryan McLeod spotted that quickly and sent Ekholm a crisp cross-ice pass, who made no mistake with his slapper from the faceoff dot.
This play not only set a new personal best for him for goals in a season but it also equalled the highest point totals he recorded in a season. Heading into this game, his previous high in goals was 10 which he set while with the Predators during the 2017-18 campaign while his career year offensively came a season later when he produced 44 points.
It’s safe to say that Ekholm is playing the best hockey of his life right now and these new personal best further solidify that fact. Despite being on the wrong side of 30 and having already played in over 800 career games, he has not slowed down whatsoever as evidenced by his crushing hit on Mikko Rantanen earlier this week. He has been effective while having the fourth-highest ATOI among Oilers skaters and has formed a great partnership with Evan Bouchard on the top pairing.
Ekholm was never known as a point producer throughout his career, but seeing him elevate that part of his game to new heights is quite impressive to watch. And to top it all off, he still has an outside shot of reaching the 50-point mark with five games remaining after tonight’s content. Not bad for a guy who only cost Edmonton Tyson Barrie and Reid Schaefer along with a first and fourth-round pick.
His point totals are nowhere close to Bouchard’s, but Ekholm is having a great season of his own from a production standpoint and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
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