#3 Right Wing Nils Ekman
3/11/76 6-0 193 shoots left
6th round pick by Calgary in 1994 - signed
57 GP 30G-36A-66P +6 9 PP 3 SH 4 GW 181 S 16.6% 73 PIM

If he were a little better at everything, Nils Ekman would be Pavel Bure; as it is now, he’s Rico Fata with a better attitude.

Nils played in Sweden until he was 23, and then ventured over to the U.S., where he divided his time between the IHL (the West Coast version of the AHL) and the NHL with Tampa. He joined the Ranger organization on June 30, 2001 in a trade that sent Tim Taylor to Tampa Bay in return for Ekman and Kyle Freadrich. Nils responded to the trade by returning to Sweden for the 2001-2002 season, where he played 38 games in the Swedish Elite league and went 16-15-31 with 57 PIM. The Rangers were, however, able to convince him to return to America for 2002-2003, and then sent him to Hartford at the beginning of the season.

Nils is a small winger who likes to take off up the boards and appear out of nowhere for the shot, similar to Bure. He’s got good speed and has quick feet, able to sidestep oncoming defensemen if he sees them, an improvement over Fata who thinks he can do this, but in reality gets stood up at the blue line more often than not. Nils has a quick release and will often catch the goalie off guard, and does a good job of putting the puck toward the outside of the goal, ringing the posts at least once a game as a warning to the goalie between putting it into the twine. The only person on the team with more PP goals was John Tripp, and Nils also shared with John a tendency to show up with the multigoal game on a regular basis.

Nils always seems to be having a great time. When he rang up a hat trick in an improbable blowout against Bridgeport, he giddily mimed taking off his hat and throwing it to the crowd as he skated back to the bench. In warm-ups he jostles and teases teammates (one night he and Johan Holmqvist came out for a game, umm…well, I’m sure they weren’t, but they certainly seemed…ummm…a bit funny. After giggling hysterically for the skate around, they ran into each other and collapsed, still laughing.) I have a picture from the team skate this year in which Nils is blatantly looking down my friend’s shirt as she stands next to him for the photo. So he’s high-spirited, I guess you could say.

Good at everything and entertaining to have around… unfortunately Nils does not seem to be NHL material. He spent six years in the Swedish leagues before coming over, then played with the Long Beach Ice Dogs and the Detroit Vipers (both of the IHL) between call ups to Tampa Bay. There isn’t anything really wrong with his game; it’s just a matter of it not being quite good enough. At 27, it’s unlikely that he is going to get much faster (his speed is already good), any bigger (193 is considerably heavier than I would have guessed) or develop a better shot. He would be an acceptable stop gap with the Rangers in case of injury (interestingly the Rangers have him listed as a LW instead of a RW) but its doubtful he would be able to surprise an NHL goalie or out-dance a blueliner of that level. If he returns for this coming season, he would in all likelihood be sent back to Hartford. Given that, it looks like he will be returning to Sweden, his Rangers experiment over.

As a side note: Kyle Freadrich. When he was acquired it was a move by Sather in which we usually see him play the opposing role: the GM doing the dumping rather than accepting another team’s garbage. Kyle arrived damaged goods, suffering from post-concussion syndrome that had prevented him from playing for some time. Huge, hulking, and absolutely terrifying when you ran into him unexpectedly on the concourse, he never did play for the Pack. One night I asked Al Coates how Kyle was doing and when he might be ready to play. Al laughed and said he was considering asking Kyle to start working in the front office to earn his keep.

What Kyle did do was stir things up – he was seen escorting Boyd Kane’s girlfriend around the concourse, and when Kyle arrived from the locker room at the beginning of the second period, she would get up from her seat on the other side of the arena and they would both disappear. On more than one occasion Boyd could be seen searching the crowd between whistles and frowning, clearly less than totally focused on the game.

Then one night, I saw the three of them leaving a game together in Boyd’s truck. Wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, but in any case, it was the end of the season; shortly after that Boyd was traded to Springfield and Kyle was released. I still see Boyd’s girlfriend at games against Springfield, but Kyle hasn’t been seen since.

#11 Right Wing John Tripp
5/4/77 6-3 225 shoots right
3rd round pick by Colorado in 1995/ 2nd round pick by Calgary in 1997 – UFA
57 GP 29G-21A-50P +12 10 PP 4 GW 206 S 14.1% 68 PIM

You’d be hard-pressed to find a player who has bounced around as much as John Tripp without any apparent reason. Players who are regularly on the move usually have some obvious dent or scratch (temper…conditioning…felony record) that GMs think they can either overlook or refinish themselves. The only hint of cause for his suitcase lifestyle came from an interview with John in which he owned up to having ‘attitude’ problems.

First drafted by Colorado, he was never signed and reentered the draft in 1997 and was selected by Calgary. He spent the next three years bouncing between the ECHL Johnstown Chiefs and AHL St. Johns Flames before Coates decided he’d had enough of the winger. 2000-2001 found John playing for four different teams: ECHL Pensacola, IHL Houston and IHL Milwaukee and AHL Hershey. The 2001 season began with him back in Pensacola, and that’s where his former GM reached him with an offer to return to the AHL with the Hartford Wolf*Pack. Exhausted by the previous year, John turned him down, preferring to stay in the slums of hockey rather than move again. Coates warned him that he wasn’t going to call again. After reconsidering, John accepted the offer and moved to Hartford in time to ring up 4 goals and 9 assists in 23 regular season games and 4 goals and 2 assists in 10 playoff games that year. He signed a full AHL contract in time to join the Pack for the 2002-2003 season.

John is a big man, and looks most at home standing in front of the goalie on the power play, where he stuffed in 10 goals this past year in just 57 games. Watching a dman try to move him from the top of the paint is much like watching someone try to do the same to Lindros – he brushes it off and remains there, planted right in the goalie’s face. John racks up a huge number of shots, and brings in multiple goal games as often as not –he had three hat tricks by the new year, and went on to round up a couple more before the end of the season. He thrives on the garbage goals, beating his way to the net (often with a dman or two hanging off of him), picking up loose pucks and powering them past the goalie. If he gets the puck and he’s inside the face off circles, the goalie is going to have to work hard to make sure it doesn’t see twine.

Negatives? John skates like a ‘before’ video of Dale Purinton. His stance tends to be wide as he seems less stable – and less confident – than you’d expect. Corners are iffy. He doesn’t fall, but he’s slow and tends to reach the play after everyone else. Obviously, carrying the puck is not an option for John. His lack of confidence on his blades may also explain why a guy with his size and toughness is only rarely involved in the rough stuff – I can only think of one time I remember seeing him fight, and that was in a brawl involving everyone but the goalies.

Contrary to what John said was the cause of his departure from the Calgary organization, I’ve seen no evidence of attitude problems. While aloof for the most part – not speaking to anyone during games and really only seen with Richard Scott after games – this is not necessarily an indictment of his ability to get along with the team. Words of problems with a player usually make it to the press or at least to the gossip, and unlike previous seasons, there was no real indication of this either. At PR events, he’s always polite but reserved with fans, although apparently is eager to show off his piercings at more private gatherings.

Where will John be this fall? Well, at the moment he could be literally anywhere. He was allowed to walk as a UFA, to test the market. If he were to rejoin the Rangers organization, he would be what I said he was last fall – a dark horse to make the team. John clearly has talent but something is holding him back. I find it hard to believe that it is just his skating.

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