What is so cool about Joel Eriksson Ek is that he doesn’t change.
Bill Guerin knew that. This is why he was willing to sign the center to an eight-year, $42 million contract in early July, a contract, by the way, that literally took three days to negotiate.
But even though Eriksson Ek is armed with the first max deal in Wild history, he’s not walking around like some big man on campus.
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Well, we think.
“You can’t get sh*t out of his mouth, so how do you know,” coach Dean Evason cracked after Friday’s practice. “He just smiles. I joked about his haircut and he just smiled and looked at me like I had two heads and then walked away. If you can talk to him, that’s great because I can’t.”
Coincidentally, there just might have been a certain reporter that did the same thing Evason did just the day before. As Eriksson Ek sat shooting the breeze with the equipment trainers hours before his preseason game Thursday night against the Chicago Blackhawks, that reporter just may have yelled, “Hey, Vanilla Ice, nice haircut.”
Eriksson Ek just smiled, then giggled and proudly motioned to the sides of his taper fade, which as teammates have joked was in fashion like 20 years ago.
Maybe.
“I don’t know if Forrest Gump gave him that haircut or Matt Dumba’s barber gave him the wrong one,” said veteran Marcus Foligno, “but I told him, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates,’ and he just looked at me and smiled. I don’t think he knew what I meant.”
The maturation of Eriksson Ek over the past few years has been one of the neatest things to witness if you’re a Wild fan.
This young forward has gone from a checking center playing the fourth line getting minuscule minutes and looking like he couldn’t shoot a puck into the Mississippi River from Shepard Road to one of the best shutdown centers in the NHL to now suddenly the Wild’s first-line center given the scrumptious assignment of getting to pivot Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello.
And there’s no doubt he’s much more comfortable in his skin.
“We caught him singing some like Swedish techno music in the locker room today,” Foligno said.
Best yet?
Eriksson Ek is only 24 years old, which means the best is likely yet to come for the player who finished fourth in Selke Trophy voting last season.
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Between mostly Jordan Greenway and Foligno last season, Eriksson Ek broke out with a career-high 19 goals and 30 points in 56 games. He did that with only 66 minutes, 43 seconds, of power-play time, which ranked 10th on the team. In fact, all 19 of his goals came at even strength, which was tied for seventh in the NHL. He was also ultra-clutch, scoring 11 of those 19 goals in the third period, which was tied for sixth in the NHL.
That fine offensive output and the Wild’s lack of scoring depth up the middle has resulted in Eriksson Ek deserting his former linemates to start the season for a new lease on life between Kaprizov and Zuccarello. Gritty, hard-nosed Ryan Hartman was the natural replacement for Eriksson Ek between Greenway and Foligno, and that indeed is where he’ll start the season next Friday in Anaheim.
Granted it’s preseason, but Eriksson Ek has looked outstanding in the exhibition games he has played in first-line duty with Kaprizov and Zuccarello. He’s even now on the No. 1 power play and has one goal and two assists in the two games he has played with them. He also seems to be improving in the faceoff circle. A lifetime .456 on draws, Eriksson Ek has won 30 of 61 in three preseason games, winning 49.1 percent.
Joel Eriksson Ek is loving life on the top line and top power play unit, cleans up out front for the PP goal 1-0 #mnwild, zuccarello and Fiala with the assists pic.twitter.com/VmZpde7ASY
— Alex Micheletti (@AlexMicheletti) October 8, 2021
Not great, but not horrible either.
The trio of talented linemates will get a final tuneup together Saturday night in Chicago. Interestingly, last season’s No. 1 center, Victor Rask, skated as the 13th forward in Friday’s practice and isn’t expected to play in Chicago as newly-acquired Rem Pitlick debuts on the left side of Freddy Gaudreau and Kevin Fiala.
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What’s uplifting for the Wild is Eriksson Ek hasn’t changed his game one iota. He’s not deferring to Kaprizov and Zuccarello, not overpassing to them, not trying to duplicate their high-skill game. He just does what he does. Fly in on the forecheck and go to the net, which worked perfectly on his power-play goal and the screen he established en route to a goal from bosom buddy Jonas Brodin.
Hey-o Brods! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/S5cCIIXqZA
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 5, 2021
Evason admits this was his biggest worry and curiosity when the organization decided to promote Eriksson Ek to the top line.
“We thought at the start of camp he’d be like, ‘Oh I’m playing with Kirill, I’m playing with Zuccy, what’s my role?’” Evason said. “He don’t care. Like, Ek don’t care, he’s just going to go play. You put him anywhere with anybody, he’s just going to play the same way. He never had a ‘Well, I’m playing on the No. 1 line, I’m playing with the Rookie of the Year’ (attitude). It’s just, ‘I’m playing hockey. I’m playing hard. I’m playing the way that I know how to play the game.’
“That’s getting to the net. Let those other two guys do their thing, right?”
Eriksson Ek said changing the way he played was never in the cards or even entered his brain.
“I think both Kirill and Zuccy are extremely good with the puck. I think they can make plays by themselves. They don’t need me,” Eriksson Ek said, laughing, during a sitdown Friday with The Athletic while wearing a green No. 17 “Moose” Foligno t-shirt. “I’m just trying to create space and time and just get the puck to them and try to play my game and see if it fits with them.
“I think so far we’ve had some games and I’m sure we can keep getting better. I’m just getting a feel for each of them. We’ve scored some goals, and we’ve had a lot of offensive-zone time. Like (Thursday against Chicago), I think we had the puck a lot. Those two guys are great at carrying the puck and making plays themselves, so I just try to bring my grit and net-front presence and in the D-zone, my only (objective) is to get the puck as quick as possible to them so they can go play offense.”
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Eriksson Ek set career highs last season in goals, points, plus-minus (plus-16) and average ice time (17:03 per game).
Asked if he’s even curious if he can duplicate last season or even erupt further getting to play with two such talented forwards and finally get power-play time, Eriksson Ek said, “I want to keep getting better. We played seven teams last year. We play 31 this year. It’s going to be tougher. But I’m still young, so I still have a lot to learn from the older guys and I just try to talk a lot with Kirill and Zuccy and get a feel for maybe how they are thinking and just be in the right spot at the right times.”
Foligno has no doubt this experiment will be permanent.
“I think he’s really excited for Game 1 of the regular season,” Foligno said. “I know preseason’s preseason, but he’s looked great and I think he’s gonna fit in really well with Zuccy and Kirill. I mean, they’re magicians and Ekker’s really does a good job on the defensive breakouts, getting them the puck and forechecking. He’s ready to go. He’s got a heck of an opportunity, and Ekker’s a guy that doesn’t waste those.”
Eriksson Ek’s attitude, his demeanor, his leadership qualities, his incredible fitness level (Mr. September, as his teammates have dubbed him, is always tops the charts) is why Guerin was willing to invest so heavily in him. But make no mistake, if Eriksson Ek keeps biting off more responsibility and keeps producing and keeps improving, that $5.25 million a year salary will be a bargain in a few years.
Eriksson Ek didn’t care one bit. He didn’t want to leave Minnesota despite the fact he just committed to being in Minnesota for a long, long time.
“Of course, (eight years), it’s a long time, but I felt last year we started something really good,” he said. “I just love how we approach every game as a team, and then Kirill coming in and the change he’s made for this team, I think we got a little bit more swag. Him and Kevin (Fiala) are game changers for our team. I wanted to be a part of that. I’m happy we could figure it out so quick.”
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Eriksson Ek also admitted he didn’t want to play anywhere that captain Jared Spurgeon and his friend and Swedish countryman, Brodin, was not. He’s comforted by the fact that while he’s signed through 2028-29, Spurgeon is signed through 2026-27 and Brodin, who’s started a brand new seven-year, $42 million contract this season, 2027-28.
“Those two guys are great payers and great leaders,” Eriksson Ek said. “Nobody’s nicer than Spurge, and the way Brodes took care of me from the beginning, I mean, it’s unbelievable. It’s hard coming here as a kid when you’re living at home and then you come over here. Brand new country, new surroundings. A lot to learn, a lot to take in, especially outside the ice, figuring out where to live and how to live. Brodes made it a lot easier. He took care of me. It still takes time to learn, but I didn’t want to leave him.”
As you can tell, few are nicer than the always-smiling Eriksson Ek.
Yet, opponents may disagree because the reality is there is not a single Wild player that can make any opponent snap and use his head as a punching bag than Eriksson Ek.
Yet, he plays the game completely honest.
But opponents can’t stand the fact that he’s always draped all over them like a glove and that he’s always in the goalie’s face, driving the net, punishing defensem*n and making sure he makes the walls and the goalmouth his office.
Eriksson Ek doesn’t apologize for that.
“I go where the hard areas are,” he said, proudly. “I try to battle hard and fair and not take any penalties to put my team in a bad position. I’m around the net all the time, so maybe they don’t like that. Maybe I’m just a pain in the ass.”
(Top photo: Bruce Kluckhohn / NHLI via Getty Images)
Michael Russo is a senior writer covering the Minnesota Wild and the National Hockey League for The Athletic. He has covered the NHL since 1995 (Florida Panthers) and the Wild since 2005, previously for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Minneapolis Star Tribune. Michael is a four-time Minnesota Sportswriter of the Year and in 2017 was named the inaugural Red Fisher Award winner as best beat writer in the NHL. Michael can be seen on Bally Sports North and the NHL Network; and heard on KFAN (100.3 FM) and podcasts "Worst Seats in the House" (talknorth.com), "The Athletic Hockey Show" on Wednesdays and "Straight From the Source" (The Athletic). Follow Michael on Twitter @RussoHockey
