EDMONTON — Hang around the game long enough and you’ll see it more than once.
A younger player can have a bad season and we chalk it up to growing pains. An older guy has an average year, like Mattias Ekholm did last season, and it’s all about the clock.
Tick, tick, tick…
"I didn't think last year many people mentioned my age. But this year it seemed like I aged, like, five years," joked Ekholm, who opens a three-year contract ($4 million AAV) as a 36-year-old this season. "I still think I can play the game."
Ekholm has played on Edmonton’s first pairing with Evan Bouchard since arriving in that trade with Nashville four Trade Deadlines ago, a stud here since Day 1. But he opens this training camp with young Shakir Mukhamadullin as his partner, a sign that the Oilers brass plan for him to play fewer minutes than the 20:36 he averaged last season.
It’s fair. He’s 36.
Ekholm likely should trade in some of those top minutes against the Macklin Celebrinis and Connor Bedards of the world for second- or third-pairing minutes against second- and third-liners, and a role as a lead penalty killer, a major focus of improvement in Edmonton this season.
"You look around the league, and there's not many guys that are older than me now. So that's a fact," he allowed. "I’ve had a lot of discussions with my wife (about) this over the summer."
Ekholm is still a second-pairing D-man and top penalty killer all day long, not to mention a respected leader and top-notch guy in the room. All for $4 million, a bargain for sure.
But this is pro hockey, where Father Time is undefeated. And he knows it.
"Wherever they put me in the lineup, I'm going to try to do my best," he said, admitting that older guys have to get their heads around changing roles. "Corey Perry. He goes from being a 50 goal scorer… If he was stubborn, he probably would have been out of the league at 35. But he converted into a second career (as a depth winger) and he is still playing. I’m still only 36, but you’ve got to be smart about it.
"My biggest goal is to help the team, whether that is playing 23 minutes a night with Bouch, or if it's playing on a third pair or a second pair. All I've got left to do in my career is to win, and that's all I want to do."
For now, Ryan Shea has been installed next to Bouchard. But Ekholm will be there if the Shea experiment fails.
"I never take it for granted to play with a top five defenceman in the league,” he said of Bouchard. "We've had really good years. I think we have a really good friendship, a good bond. I think our games fit very well together. But I also understand that's probably a spot that a lot of guys want."
Line Dance
Edmonton scrimmaged on Day 2 of camp, with Mukhamadullin sending McDavid sprawling into the net at full speed, a moment that cast a pall over practice. McDavid stayed down for a bit, then scored on a lovely deke on the ensuing penalty shot.
“He quieted any doubt right after on that penalty shot move,” smiled Zach Hyman. “So it's all good. It's kind of part of camp.”
Did Ekholm say anything to his partner after he dangerously hauled down the Oilers’ best player in a training camp scrimmage? “Uh, ya,” Ekholm said.
Jason Dickinson was injured in the early practice and missed the scrimmage. Babcock does not expect him to miss much time.
Here were the lines they used Friday, with the pre-season opener versus Winnipeg on tap for Saturday night:
Draisaitl-McDavid-Podkolzin
Howard-Nugent-Hopkins-Hyman
Frederic-Dickinson-Kapanen
Formenton-Dach-Joseph
Jones-Samanski-Hutson
Tralmaks-Nicholl-Berzkalns
Shea-Bouchard
Walman-Murphy
Ekholm-Mukhamadullin
Stastney-Emberson
Jarry
Levi
Tompkins
Ungar
Hi, Man
Zach Hyman has an 'A' on his uniform, and a new mandate in his sixth season as an Edmonton Oiler.
As training camp opens, he finds himself on a second line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ike Howard. That comes with the responsibility of producing without being McDavid's go-to winger, making Edmonton more than a one-line team offensively while allowing Draisaitl and McDavid to stay together on the top line.
On top of that, Hyman was at the ground floor of the Babcock hiring, a dynamic that will make or break the Oilers this year. He is seen as the primary veteran who played for Babcock in Toronto and recognized that this coach is the right guy for this group.
"It feels like we're rookies again," Hyman said after Friday’s scrimmage. "You're learning, and you have a coach that's coming in that has a real strong presence, who has won at every level he's been at. Any time there's a new coach, there's an excitement. And when it's a new coach that has a pedigree like Bab has, it gets you ready to play."
Hyman has averaged 35 goals and 62 points per season as an Oiler, a bargain at $5.5 million for two more seasons. But many of his even-strength goals (25 per season) have come as McDavid’s right winger.
Part of making Edmonton better will be finding a productive line that does not include either No. 29 or 97, and if that’s what it takes, Hyman’s up for the challenge.
"We've done everything but win, so that's the goal. Anything short of that is, you know, not good enough for us,” said Hyman, whose season was affected last year by a wrist injury suffered in the 2025 Conference Final. "I couldn't pass the puck this time last year. I just started skating, (he was) taking it day by day, kind of living in the unknown. This summer was amazing.
“It sucks that we lost early, but it was the first full summer of healthy training I've had in years.”
