After battling through injuries during the regular season, the hard-nosed defenseman fought through even more pain to help the Florida Panthers make a ton of noise during the playoffs.
En route to the Stanley Cup Final, Ekblad suffered a broken foot and a dislocated shoulder.
But if you ask him, he'll tell you that the price he paid was worth the reward.
"It wasn't easy, but it was worth it and it was fun," Ekblad said following Florida's exit day at FLA Live Arena in June. "You kind of adjust to the pain and stuff like that. It gets easier as you go."
Appearing in 71 games during the regular season, Ekblad racked up 38 points and ranked second among Panthers defensemen in goals with 14. Since his debut in 2014-15, he also ranks sixth among NHL defensemen in goals (111), including eight seasons with at least 10 goals.
Additionally, he blocked 88 shots and dished out 77 hits.
Tasked with handling the toughest defensive matchups alongside Gustav Forsling on the team's top pairing, Ekblad still managed to help the Panthers post advantages in shot attempts (1,260-1,047), shots on goal (690-598) and expected goals (60.86-56.54) at 5-on-5 play.
Having played in a zone system for a while, Ekblad said that switching to man-on-man under new head coach Paul Maurice was a big adjustment in the defensive zone, but one that paid off.
"Once we learned to play it as a team, you saw what we could do," he said.
In the postseason, Ekblad finished tied for second on the Panthers in both goals (2) and points (8) by a defenseman. Particularly effective in the Eastern Conference Second Round against the Maple Leafs, his five points in the five-game series tied him with Matthew Tkachuk for most on the team.
"We got there and we competed and everything kind of fell into place," Ekblad said of the playoff run. "We bought into a system where we know that we can win. We didn't get the job done, but we know we can do it. That kind of belief is going to be really important for us moving forward."
Reflecting on the season, Ekblad said his biggest takeaway was just that.
Belief.
"Every year you learn things and you can learn how far you can push your body," he said. "Just what we can do as a team, that's what I learned. I didn't really do anything differently in terms of leadership and who I am as a person. It's the same. We just learned that we can do it."
Despite potentially missing some time early in the season while recovering from his injuries, Ekblad is eager to get back on the ice at full health and push for the playoffs again in 2023-24.
COOL STAT
No defenseman has manned the blue line in South Florida longer than Ekblad.
By taking the ice on Dec. 15 against the Penguins, the former first-overall picked surpassed Robert Svehla (573) for the most games ever played by a defenseman with the Panthers.
Of course, setting records is nothing new for Ekblad.
Still only 27 years old, he also already stands as Florida's all-time leader among defensemen in points (329), goals (111), power-play goals (40), game-winning goals (23) and shots (1,590).
Looking ahead, Ekblad will enter the 2023-24 campaign needing just 12 assists to surpass Svehla's assists record and complete his Infinity Gauntlet of franchise records for a D-man.
Maybe we should start calling it the "rEKord book" from now on?
BEST GAME
Ekblad showed off his shot and sacrificed his body in this matchup.
In addition to potting a pair of crucial goals on the power play, he blocked a season-high four shots while skating 22:24 in a 3-2 win against the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Jan. 6.
Helping the Panthers go a perfect 2-for-2 with the man advantage, Ekblad put the Panthers up 2-1 with a shot from the slot in the second period before burying what would go on to hold up as the game-winning goal when he pounced on a juicy rebound in the third period to make it 3-1.
"Barky (Aleksander Barkov) gave a pass to almost set up a breakaway in front of the net [on the first goal], and the second one was just a pass off the pads -- a wide-open net," Ekblad said of his two timely goals. "I really can't take much credit for either of them. The guys got it done."
In the win, Ekblad also made his impact felt around the net.
Over the 17:10 that he was deployed at 5-on-5 in Detroit, he helped limit the opposition's attack just a pair of high-danger shots attempts against Sergei Bobrovsky, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
"We all believe in each other, and we feel like we can get on a roll," Ekblad said afterward.
GOAL OF THE YEAR
Is there anything better than scoring a big goal on the biggest stage?
Touching every inch of the ice in the offensive zone before setting up shop in the left circle, Ekblad silenced the crowd at Scotiabank Arena when he blasted a one-timer past Joseph Woll to put the Panthers on top 1-0 early in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on May 12.
With No. 5 setting the tone, the Panthers went on to win the game and the series.
"I feel good," Ekblad said the day following the big win. "It's always a grind and it's always a challenge in the playoffs. As we look ahead to the next series, what I've learned from all of this is that nothing's the same. Nothing was remotely the same going from the Boston to the Toronto series, and I expect everything to be different again against Carolina."
