Latest news with #Forsling
Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
‘I bleed for the Florida Panthers,' Aaron Ekblad says, but free agency looms after Cup Final
The Florida Panthers are all Aaron Ekblad has known since he began his NHL career. It's the team that selected him No. 1 overall in the 2014 NHL Entry Level Draft, the team that has invested 11 years in him, the team he saw go from playing through plenty of lean years to finally breaking through as perennial playoff contenders to finally becoming Stanley Cup champions. And now comes a thought Ekblad has been hoping wouldn't come — the thought that his time with the Panthers might be coming to an end. Ekblad is slated to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, meaning his tenure with the Panthers very well could be over after the Stanley Cup Final — a rematch with the Edmonton Oilers that begins Wednesday at 8 p.m. from Edmonton's Rogers Place. The 29-year-old defenseman said he's trying not to look at what might happen just yet; that would be a disservice to himself and his teammates as they try to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. But when that time comes, when this series concludes, he already knows what he would want in a perfect world. 'Listen, this team, I live and breathe for the Florida Panthers,' Ekblad said Tuesday at the Panthers' pre-Stanley Cup Final media day session. 'I bleed for the Florida Panthers. I've given my body and everything to this team, and I want to keep doing it forever, for as long as they'll let me come to the rink.' This is the first time Ekblad has played a season without a guaranteed contract already in place for the following year. He started his career on a standard three-year entry-level contract and signed an eight-year, $60 million extension two years into his Panthers tenure that went through this season. In that time, Ekblad established the franchise's defenseman records for games played (732), goals (118), assists (262) and points (380). He has battled through multiple injuries the past few years to remain in form as a top-pair defenseman, forming one of the top blue line duos in the league with Gustav Forsling, and taking more responsibility on the defensive side of the game after entering the league known more for his offensive production. 'We've played so many games together,' Forsling said. 'We know each other so well. He's an amazing player. He's been great for us, and we're hopefully gonna keep it going here.' Ekblad came into the season knowing full well he was probably 'just going to ride it out and see what happens' in regard to his contract, as he told the Miami Herald during training camp. He had watched how several of his teammates had done the same during the past couple years and gotten rewarded — Sam Reinhart and Forsling being two prime examples. 'You never know what's going to happen,' Ekblad said then. What happened for Ekblad was, in his words, a 'roller coaster.' He played well when he was on the ice, producing 33 points (three goals, 30 assists) in 56 games. But it was the reason he missed time that raised some flags. In addition to missing eight games in a nine-game stretch in January with a lower-body injury, Ekblad was suspended 20 games without pay for violating the terms of the NHL and NHL Players Association's performance-enhancing substances program. That included the final 18 regular-season games and the first two games of this playoff run. Ekblad called the suspension 'the toughest' thing he has been through in his career. 'There's so many ways you look at it,' Ekblad said. 'Respect and integrity and character, family, name, my teammates, fans. It's every single which way you look at it. The money that I lose on top of all that — not that I care about in that sense; I'd give it all back to play. A lot of regret, but is what it is, and I have to find a way to move forward.' Ekblad has moved forward and returned to form in the playoffs. He has 11 points in 13 postseason games, most among Florida's defensemen, and has played stellar on the defensive end as well. He has been a key factor in the Panthers getting back to the Stanley Cup Final for a third consecutive year and having a chance to win it all once again. But will he and the Panthers be moving on after that? Time will tell. Money will certainly play a factor in things. Florida is slated to enter the offseason with $19 million in cap space and only 16 players under contract (not counting restricted free agent Mackie Samoskevich). In addition to Ekblad, center Sam Bennett is also a pending free agent and will be due a hefty pay raise from his current deal that is paying him an average of $4.425 million per season. It could be a tight squeeze unless Ekblad takes a pay cut for Florida to keep both and still fill out the rest of the roster. Regardless, Ekblad has embraced the learning experience of playing through this season. 'You're playing for your life,' Ekblad said, 'and I'm happy to be in this situation now. It's been a fun experience playing in a contract year. I'm happy with the way things are going.'
Miami Herald
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Watching Gustav Forsling play ‘a real treat' for fellow Florida Panthers teammates
Gustav Forsling's wizardry can sometimes go unnoticed. The Florida Panthers' top defenseman is so sound with his movements, so accurate with his positioning, that his production comes quietly. But then there comes that standout play that serves as a reminder of just how good he is. Forsling's latest such play came late in the second period of Florida's 2-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday in Game 4 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoffs series. William Nylander had split Forsling and Aaron Ekblad and was heading down the ice on a breakaway. Forsling, about a step behind Nylander and to the forward's right, hustled to catch up. He got to Nylander just in time to disrupt his shot attempt with a stick check, slowing the puck for goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to make an easy save to keep Florida's one-goal lead at the time intact. 'I sprinted all I could and just tried to force him on his back,' Forsling said. 'Me and Bob played that well.' Forsling's comments may have downplayed the moment, but his teammates looked back on it in awe. 'There's words I can't really use to describe that,' defenseman Nate Schmidt said, 'but it was awfully exciting. I really enjoy when a defenseman like Forsy — he does so many things for our team that don't get recognized with his sticks and body positions — for him to be able to negate a guy that has a Grade A chance, that's a huge part of the game, a turning point in the game. If he doesn't do that, they get a better chance or get a rebound and you never know what's gonna happen. I love watching him play. It's a real treat.' And that treat came after years of development and hard work to get to that point. The Panthers picked up Forsling as a waiver claim a week before the start of the 2020-21 season. Since then, he has evolved from a third-pair player who sometimes saw his partner change nightly to arguably one of the best defensive defensemen in the NHL. He was rewarded by the Panthers last season with an eight-year contract extension and has rewarded the Panthers in return by consistently playing at a high level every time he's on the ice. 'He's such a powerful skater,' Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. 'He's earned a big tank on him. He can handle big minutes, and also has pretty impressive bursts when he means to. He's earned that. He works so hard. Each year, he comes back more and more fit.' During the past four years, Forsling has averaged about 22 and a half minutes of ice time per game during the regular season. In that span, his plus-minus rating of 149 is tied for the NHL lead. In the playoffs during those four years, which included runs to the Stanley Cup Final each of the past two seasons, Forsling is a plus-25 through 44 playoff games. This is in addition to anchoring Florida's penalty kill. 'Gus is fine all by himself,' said Ebklad, Forsling's primary defense partner the past few years. 'He could be in a three-on-one, two-on-one, it doesn't matter. He's an impressive player.' Added forward Carter Verhaeghe: 'He blocks so many shots. He's such a good defenseman. He has such a good stick. It seems like he knocks everything down. He gets in front of box. He's the most complete defenseman I've ever seen.' And defenseman Niko Mikkola: 'He has a big tank. He doesn't get tired. The first thing when I got here a year ago was he has a great stick. He's closing the plays with his great stick. That's one thing I've been trying to take from him.' Beyond the gritty work defensively — 469 blocked shots, 403 hits and 213 takeaways between the regular season and playoffs the past four years — Forsling has shown a knack to produce offensively as well. He has at least 30 points each of the past four seasons despite barely seeing time on the power play. For context, of the 38 defensemen in the NHL with at least 148 points (the amount Forsling has) during the past four years, Forsling is one of three to do so with fewer than five power-play goals — Devon Toews and Alex Petrangelo are the others. 'He's got a legitimate complaint about not being on the power play,' Maurice said. 'He must be the only defenseman with that many points who doesn't get a sniff on the power play. He can shoot it a ton, so we kind of discovered that about him. ... But no complaints from Gustav ever. He loves what he does.' Forsling had to adapt late in the season to a rotating cast of defense partners when Ekblad was out for 22 games over a 24-game stretch due to a pair of suspensions — first 20 games for violating the terms of the NHL and NHLPA performance enhancing substances program, then two more for elbowing Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel in Game 4 of the Panthers' first-round playoff series. Forsling primarily played during that stretch with Seth Jones, acquired in March from the Chicago Blackhawks in a deal that sent goaltender Spencer Knight to Chicago, but also got reps with Nate Schmidt, Uvis Balinskis and Dmitry Kulikov. Maurice said that type of experience is good for Forsling in the long run. 'I don't think his game has changed a whole lot,' Maurice said. 'He and Aaron have this instinctual chemistry. They have just played together for so long that there is some instinct there. I think sometimes it's good that you get a change with partner. So, he's played with Jones and he's played with just about everybody over the last couple of months and it makes you rethink the game, right? You see the game differently because the situations you are presented with are different. Seth moves the puck differently, gets up the ice differently, so it's good for his growth.'
Miami Herald
28-01-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
How steady has Panthers' defense pairing of Ekblad and Forsling been? A look at the numbers
For going on three seasons now, the Florida Panthers' Gustav Forsling and Aaron Ekblad have consistently been one of the NHL's top defense pairings. But getting to that consistently high level was a result of evolution by both players. For Forsling, it was emerging from a player who was a waiver-wire pickup and just trying to crack the lineup as a third-pair defenseman to one of the most reliable blueliners in the league. For Ekblad, it was morphing his game from one that prioritized his offensive skill set to honing in as a shutdown defender first and letting the offense come at the right time. The results have been noticeable. During the past three seasons, Forsling and Ekblad are one of 13 defense pairings who have played more than 2,000 minutes together at 5-on-5. Among those 13 defense pairings, Forsling and Ekblad are among the league's best in multiple key categories, according to the advanced hockey statistics website Natural Stat Trick. Among those... ▪ A 56.1% Corsi-for rate, meaning the Panthers are controlling 56.1 percent of shot attempts (shots on goal, missed shots and blocked shots) with Forsling and Ekblad are on the ice when the game is at full strength. That's the fourth best mark. ▪ A 7.97 on-ice shot percentage rate against, meaning opponents are scoring on just 7.97% of shots on goal with Forsling and Ekblad are on the ice when the game is at full strength. That's the second best mark. The Panthers have also given up 11 fewer goals than projected with Forsling and Ekblad on the ice at 5-on-5 (84 goals allowed, 95.52 expected goals allowed). Ekblad's 'important minutes' To gauge just how important Ekblad is to the Panthers, look at how often he's on the ice in key moments. Ekblad, the Panthers' all-time leader among defensemen in games played (719), goals (118), assists (251) and points (369), leads the team in average ice time this season (23:25) and has averaged at least 23 minutes of ice time per game in six of the past eight seasons. He's running Florida's top power play, is integral on the penalty kill and, along with Forsling, is consistently facing the opponent's top forwards on a nightly basis. 'He touches all three phases of our games,' Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. 'He plays important minutes in all of those.' And that value is perhaps noticed most during his absences. Ekblad on Saturday returned from missing seven consecutive games and eight of nine overall due to an upper-body injury — believed to be a hand/wrist injury sustained early in Florida's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 3. Florida went 3-4-1 in those eight games. Ekblad has missed 63 games over the past three seasons due to an assortment of injuries. The impact is evident, with the Panthers having to shuffle defense pairings and rely on players who usually handle lesser roles to contribute bigger minutes when Ekblad is out. And that comes from his evolution to harness the defensive aspect of the game, which is a focal point Maurice preaches of his players. Ekblad has only scored seven goals during the past two seasons after scoring at least 10 goals in eight of his first nine seasons, but his defensive metrics have seen an uptick as that becomes his primary responsibility. 'You've seen him play at a pretty high level,' Maurice said. 'He came into the league as an offensive guy, and then when you change and grow your game — and I'll use that word specifically because he's more impactful now to the defensive side — in the style of hockey that we play and what we've been able to accomplish over the past two years, he's grown into an incredibly important player on a lot of the defensive things that don't get noticed as much. We do value him greatly for what he's done.' Forsling's 'very intense game' The same can be said about Forsling, because the significance of his performance has perhaps been enhanced during the times Ekblad has been out. When Ekblad has missed time during the past three seasons, Forsling has spent time with various partners on Florida's top pairing, including Dmitry Kulikov, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Brandon Montour. He has an NHL-leading plus-minus rating of plus-137. Among 139 defensemen who have logged at least 2,500 minutes at 5-on-5 during the past three seasons, he's ranked 10th in on-ice Corsi percentage (56.62, 10th). Florida has given up 26 fewer goals than projected when Forsling is on the ice at full strength (133 goals allowed compared to 159.22 expected goals allowed). This season, he's averaging just shy of 23 minutes per night and has 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) to go along with his stout defensive effort. It's the continuation of Forsling's steady rise that has taken place since Florida picked him up off waivers ahead of the 2020-21 season. 'He's been good when everybody's healthy,' Maurice said, 'and then when you have some critical guys go down, you're gonna add two and three more minutes. That's a lot when you get him into the 25-minute range per night, because he plays very hard, very intense game of hockey. There's a weight to that.'
