Tag: mattias ekholm

EDMONTON, AB – Mattias Ekholm discussed with his family whether they should attend his first game back to play against the Nashville Predators.

The Edmonton Oilers defenseman has a strong connection to Nashville, selected by the Predators in the fourth round (No. 102) of the 2009 NHL Draft and spending nine-and-a-half seasons playing home games at Bridgestone Arena before he was traded Feb. 28.

“My wife and I, we debated back and forth,” Ekholm said Monday prior to departing with the Oilers for Nashville. “We’re arriving around 6 p.m., and leaving right after the game, so we decided for them to stay back. We have three kids, and one is only three months old, so to jump on a plane, four hours there, four hours back, my wife was probably making the right decision to say, ‘we’ll watch it on TV and support you.’”

EDMONTON, AB – The Nashville Predators traded defenseman Mattias Ekholm and a 2024 sixth-round pick to the Edmonton Oilers for blue-liner Tyson Barrie, forward prospect Reid Schaefer, a 2023 first-round pick, and a 2024 fourth-round pick, the teams announced.

The 6-foot-4 Ekholm recorded 18 points in 57 games this season for the Predators, where he’s spent his entire 12-year career. He’s posted excellent underlying defensive numbers.

NASHVILLE, TN – Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced today the team has signed defenseman Mattias Ekholm to a four-year, $25 million contract that will keep him in Nashville through the 2025-26 season. The contract will begin in the 2022-23 season and carries an annual average value of $6.25 million.

NASHVILLE, TN – To this day, when Mattias Ekholm recalls his best memories in the game of hockey, he’s back in Sweden, a young boy on the ice with his friends, learning the game without a care in the world.

That first sensation of a pair of blades gliding along, the breeze in his face, the feel of the puck on his stick – there’s nothing like it.

That’s the feeling he wants all children to experience for the first time – especially those who may not have the same opportunities as others their age – and that vision is becoming reality in Nashville.

Mattias Ekholm of the Nashville Predators was not born to be a defenseman. Instead he grew into the role, slowly but surely becoming an elite player at the position at the highest level.

“It’s funny to look back to it how well it turned out,” Ekholm said earlier during the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs.