Minnesota Wild: Joel Eriksson Ek Offers Value For Money

The Minnesota Wild will look for value from Joel Eriksson Ek this campaign after a strong showing in the pre-season.

The Swedish-born winger was a first round pick (20th overall) for the Minnesota Wild in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and since then Joel Eriksson Ek hasn’t quite lived up to his first-round pedigree.

In his first full campaign with the Minnesota Wild, he only managed 16 points across 75 games; meagre returns for a player graduating from the Swedish men’s league.

This year, however, the trio of Charlie Coyle, Jordan Greenway and Eriksson Ek look to have a lot of spark, if pre-season is anything to go by. They figure to be the opening night third line for the Minnesota Wild.

The group are all coming off years that could be classed as relative disappointments, with the exception of Greenway maybe. They have a fire under them and are looking to break-out.

Joel Eriksson Ek is well-placed to do so if he can maintain a pre-season record of 0.5 points per game and a shot count of 22 shots across 6 pre-season outings.

Add in the fact that he has a low cap hit of $900,000 and he could well prove to be a bargain on the third line for the Minnesota Wild.

Throughout the pre-season, the line Joel Eriksson Ek finds himself on has evolved and grown as the players found clear chemistry.

With both himself and Greenway able to skate to the net and Coyle not exactly being a small-bodied slouch, it’s quite possible that they can beat up on teams that lack a physical defense.

Perhaps the biggest part of his game that he needs to improve to make himself truly valuable to the team is his possession; in pre-season he posted a meagre 42.64% Corsi rating. His regular season rating last year was a more respectable 47.8%.

If he can continue to work on that, which obviously will come with time and building further chemistry with his new line mates, then Joel Eriksson Ek definitely is a bargain contract, at least for now.

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.