The reaction to the Edmonton Oilers signing Mattias Ekholm to a three-year deal was fast and furious. Here are some of the highlights:

TSN’s Ryan Rishaug @TSNRyanRishaug
No Movement Clause for Ekholm. $2M signing bonus first year 2 base salary. 4m base salary next two years.

Chicago hockey writer Tab Bamford @The1Tab
That $4M AAV (at least) they saved on McDavid’s deal? Spent.

Oilers fan KANE IS THE GOAT @Howard4Hart
“Players don’t like playing in Edmonton”
– McDavid on a team-friendly deal
– Draisaitl on a team-friendly deal
– Ekholm on a team-friendly deal
– Bouchard on a team-friendly deal
– Nuge on a team-friendly deal
– Hyman on a team-friendly deal

Oilers fan Gram @Grammica
The Swedish hockey gods gave us Ekholm to make up for Klefboms shoulder

Sportsnets Mark Spector🇨🇦🇺🇦 @SportsnetSpec
Ekholm at $4 M is excellent value – even if he becomes a 2nd pairing Dman in his latter 30s. He’s still a classic No. 2 until he proves he isn’t, a high-character leader, and the Ekholms wants to raise their kids in EDM.
Nice deal here.

Oilers fan RG3 @rascalgas
Isn’t that pretty cheap? I was expecting $5M+ on any extension.

Oilers fan sløppƴ @TakenKhariaYa
They really didn’t need to rush this one 🫣

Edmonton stats analyst Mathew Panchyshyn @mathewjdp
Edm signs Ekholm for 4m by 3 years. A reminder LA has Ceci for 4.5m by 4. Unreal work. Ekholm is still an elite Dman. If and when he drops off eventually, 4m is an easy pill to swallow. That shouldn’t be for another two years I reckon.

Oilers fan Sumit Tripathi @Sumit_Tripathi_
I see Ekky’s future in Oilers management after winning the cup with us

WHL hockey scout Dan Tencer @dantencer
One of my pound for pound favorite players in the last many years. A true 2-way defender, tough as nails with elite character…and has embraced this city in a massive way.

Oilers fan Canada Mike 🇨🇦 @mikebayrak
For a #2 defenseman, this is the best d-man contract in the league by a mile-high margin!!!

Stats analyst Darcy McLeod Woodguy @Woodguy55
Another Oiler going under his value to keep the band together.
Walman hadn’t got paid big before in his career and he did well on his contract, but he could have got more somewhere else too.

Oilers fan Kyle Brox @Kylebrox
OMG, why would they do that. They guy had groin issues a coupe years ago a said “I’m not sure that ever goes away”. And last year his core blew up. Absolutely no reason to extend at this time.

David Staples, the Cult of Hockey @dstaples
We all love Mattias Ekholm, veteran defenceman and hockey hero of the Edmonton Oilers, the king of the north, the Viking of the blueline. But as a fan of the team before I’m a fan of any one player, I can’t say I love Edmonton extending Ekholm just now for this cap hit and this term. Ekholm will be 35 this year on a deal that has a cap hit of $6 million for the Oilers. Ekholm’s new deal will kick in when he’s 36. But just eight d-men 36-years and older played in the NHL last year and just two of them, Brent Burns and Kris Letang, were Top 4 d-men on their teams. The odds start to get daunting if you’re counting on a 36-year-old d-man to play solid two-way hockey in a Top 4 role. We saw a him of what might go wrong with Ekholm in the Stanley Cup Final when he was playing hurt and playing slow, which saw him get beat repeatedly on big plays for big goals. Age and injury are undefeated in the NHL, no?

Oilers fan Dyl @dhockey13
Makes 500K less than Cody Ceci. God I love Ken Holland when he’s not the GM of my team man.

Oilers fan Resplendent Beetle @rangerbob94
Maybe a year too long but the AAV is good. Can’t complain really, nice work.

Oilers fan justin 🌞💧🧘🌬🏋️ @primal__health
After what McD did, this couldn’t have been 3M?

Spittin’ Chiclets podcast @spittinchiclets
Mattias Ekholm is staying along for the journey!

Oilers fan Trey Lutyck-Neufeld @treyneufeld6
What a deal!… provided he’s healthy an stays healthy

Daily Hive writer Preston Hodgkinson @NHLHodgkinson
Excellent deal for Ekholm… he takes a bit of a pay cut as he is starting to reach the latter half of his career. He’s still a top pair guy… but this remains a good deal if he regresses down to the second pair in coming years.

Oilers fan Russ Jericho @RussJerichoArt
Bargain!

Oilers fan DougieDman @OilDoug
$4 million is a good number……as the cap goes up and Ekky moves down the lineup its still very manageable….also Ekky is a smart player and will be great defensively and a leader through this deal.

Hockey stats analyst JFresh @JFreshHockey
Mattias Ekholm, signed to a 3x$4M extension by EDM, is a veteran two-way puck-moving defenceman who has had great success as the stabilizing presence on the Oilers’ top pairing. A calm and patient transition passer, struggled a bit coming off injury in the Final.

Oilers fan Sean @OilersFanSean
This is freaking awesome

Oilers Now host Bob Stauffer @Bob_Stauffer
Mattias Ekholm has gone +83 in 165 regular season GP with the Edmonton Oilers and averaged 21:28 TOI.
As per Natural Stat Trick Ekholm and defence partner Evan Bouchard have the 2nd best 5v5 xGF% (60.26) in the NHL over the last 3 seasons (500+ mins). He told me yesterday he wanted to stay in Oil Country!

Los Angeles hockey podcat Empty Netters @EmptyNettersPod
Running it back in Edmonton!… Taking a discount for the squad

US hockey business analyst Mark Mazza @MarkMazzaHKY
The Oilers have until McDavid’s contract expires to win. Ekholm will be 36 when this deal starts, so I’m not sure why they locked him up a year out. They need him to succeed, but this isn’t timed well….I don’t think the value is bad, but I’m never a fan of locking someone up a year out and will be closer to 40 than 30 when the contract kicks in. There’s a lot of unnecessary risk to doing that, and Ekholm won’t get better, so there’s no reason to sign him now.

Edmonton hockey podcaster Karman Gill @Kgill39
Oilers sign Ekholm to a 3 year deal, 4 million per year. Genius

Oilers fan Trent Wilhauk @TheMrWilhauk
Another great piece of work by Stan Bowman…. Nice having a GM that actually works and gets things done!

Oilers fan Brett @BRHarvie
Important to remember: A $4M AAV in free agency by summer 2027 will get you an average third pairing D. Even if Ek ends up in more of a complimentary role – he’ll remain important to the team’s success.

Oilers fan Shauna @SLShockeyfan
Viking!

Oilers fan BMAX64🎮 @BMAX644
THE VIKING FOR 3 YEARS LETS GOOOOO LOVE IT

Oilers fan Rob Soria @Oil_Drop
Considering where the cap is headed & the miles Ekholm has on him, this is a solid signing. If you’re in the camp that Mattias is regressing at an alarming rate, you’re not a fan. I do not see him as that guy & his mins will decrease. Nice piece of work by Bowman #Oilers

The Athletic’s stats analyst Dom luszczyszyn  📈 @domluszczyszyn
My model still loves Mattias Ekholm a great deal thanks to his strong resume. We’ll see if he can bounce back after returning from injury, but as long as he can stay at a second-pair level this is a great deal. Top comp: Ryan Suter, who did stay at that level.

Oilers fan Romulus’ Apotheosis @RomulusNotNuma
The only question here is aging and injury recovery, but at this price you’re pretty risk averse.
The gamble was likely over whether to wait and see how this final year goes.

P.S. Oilers line-up for tonight against Calgary

Draisaitl – McDavid – Frederic
Mangiapane – RNH – Savoie
Howard – Henrique – Tomasek
Podkolzin – Philp – Kapanen

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Regula
Kulak – Emberson

Skinner 

At the Cult of Hockey

STAPLES:  We all love Mattias Ekholm’s game but here’s why I’m not loving his new deal