‘Back better than ever’: Aaron Ekblad is having a career year, just 8 months after injury
There were no nightmarish flashbacks for Aaron Ekblad when he finally walked back inside the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Thursday. The memories of his gruesome leg injury in 2021 — the one that cut short his breakout season, forced him to miss the Florida Panthers’ run to the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs and left him with an offseason full of rehabilitation — feel far in the past now.
It has been more than eight months now since the star defenseman fractured his left leg in a game against the Dallas Stars last season. As he gets ready to play in Texas for the first time since, Ekblad has seemed unchanged by injury.
“It’s just another building,” the 25-year-old Canadian said.
He was a contender for the James Norris Memorial Trophy when he fractured his leg last year and he’s a contender for the award now. His Panthers were a Stanley Cup contender when he went down with his injury last year and they’re still contenders now. Last season, he had 22 points in 35 games and he’s actually even more productive now, with 27 in his first 32 before Thursday.
“The amount of work he put in was remarkable,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said. He went right at it right away and he got himself if not the same, I think even better ... back better than ever.”
Statistically, it has been the case. He already has more points than he had all of last season and he entered Thursday with the third best game score value added among defensemen. He has been one of the very best defensemen in the NHL since the moment he returned from his injury and scored two goals in Florida’s season-opening win against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He’s still far from the best defensive player in the league, but Ekblad is a major catalyst for the best offense in the Eastern Conference with the Panthers averaging an astonishing 3.96 goals — and a not-too-far-off 3.04 expected goals — per 60 minutes while he’s on the ice for 5-on-5 action.
On the other end of the ice, Florida is giving up just 2.25 goals — and 2.23 expected goals — per 60 minutes when Ekblad is on for 5-on-5.
The offensive marks would both be the best in his career.
“He just constantly improves,” Brunette said.
For Ekblad, recovery has been a constant stream of pleasant surprises.
He was back on the ice just 12 weeks after his injury — a pleasant surprise — and he was pleasantly surprised how little pain he had in his left leg once he was back to skating. It meant he got to have about three or four months of “hard skating” before he ever had to skate in an actual game.
“That has made it so that I have been able to get to a certain level that I was used to,” Ekblad said.
It also meant the natural progression he was making as a player wasn’t interrupted. Ekblad was the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft and should be right in the heart of his prime, and he’s playing like it. After two All-Star seasons to start his career and an early-career lull, Ekblad is setting career marks in every major possession stat and right in the thick of the Norris Trophy race.
After a little detour, it’s all right on schedule.
“When you look back on it, it was just a learning experience and something I’m grateful that I went through,” Ekblad said, “and don’t really want to do it again.”
