Nashville Predators: Mattias Ekholm Takes More Responsibility In 2019-20

With the departure of his usual defense partner, Mattias Ekholm takes whole new responsibility for the Nashville Predators this season.

The Nashville Predators shipped P.K. Subban out to the New Jersey Devils, which means Mattias Ekholm will have to find a new defense partner this season, as he spent 59.1% of his ice time alongside Subban last season.

That defense partner might have to be rookie standout, Dante Fabbro, who will be playing his first full season after impressing enough in his late stint last season to allow David Poile to make the decision to ship Subban out in the first place.

This will mean that Mattias Ekholm is going to have to step up and take over as the alpha dog of that pairing, taking more responsibility offensively than he’s had in the past few years.

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Last season was the best of his career, as he hit a career-high in points (44), assists (36), and shots (146) in the 80 games he played.

This season, those numbers could go even higher with the amount of added responsibility Ekholm will take this season.

P.K. Subban has taken a lot of the shots and power play time away from Ekholm, and now that he is gone, Ekholm can take some of the point share away from Subban.

Last season, Subban has 39 points in 63 games, adding 163 shots and ten power play points, all of those numbers being either close to Ekholm’s or more than Ekholm’s despite playing almost twenty fewer games.

In his only 82 game season with the Predators, Subban took 207 shots and added 16 goals, 59 points, and 25 power play points.

If he avoids injury, which he has done an excellent job of since 2014-15, he could take a large share of those points this season.

He could very well see some extended minutes on the first or second power play unit, depending on whether Dan Lambart decides to run a unit of four forwards and one defenseman or three forwards and two defensemen, which means even more points.

An honest prediction for Ekholm’s season could be 15 goals, 45 assists for 60 points next season, as the Nashville Predators as a whole will be a more offensively minded team and Ekholm will benefit from a larger role in said offense.

The addition of Matt Duchene and the subtraction of P.K. Subban showed a shift in mentality from defense to offense, and Mattias Ekholm could very well benefit from it.

This could very well be the best season of Mattias Ekholm’s career, and that would be a huge boost for the Nashville Predators.