Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s ups and downs on way to 1,000 games

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In the famed NHL draft of 2009 that brought John Tavares and Victor Hedman to the big leagues, the Phoenix Coyotes used their first pick on a pencil-thin, long-armed defenceman from Sweden.

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“He looked like a little boy,” said Shane Doan, who was about to become captain of the Coyotes. “He had those skinny arms, that’s what I remember. You don’t see a lot of (professional athletes) with skinny arms.”

On Wednesday night in Washington, that pencil-thin kid from Sweden — his arms no longer pencil-thin — will hit the remarkable milestone of playing in his 1,000th National Hockey League game — the sixth player from that draft class to hit that prestigious mark.

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“I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about it,” said Oliver Ekman-Larsson, in his first season with the Maple Leafs, playing now for his fourth NHL team. “Maybe I will later on.

“I know it means a lot. I know it’s a number people look at. It’s just right now, I’m caught up in the season and all that’s going on. That’s what I’m focused on. Not anything individual. That’s not how I approach things.

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“You dream about playing one game in the league, but you kind of stop counting after that.”

And then you look around and somehow 15 years have gone by and you’re knocking on the door of 1,000 games, and you have to take stock of it all because that’s part of the process and because you keep being asked about it.

“You try and get better every day in this league, that’s what you do,” Ekman-Larsson said.

Then you take out the calculator and do the math, and Wednesday night it adds up to 1,000.

At 998 games, he didn’t much want to talk about it.

“What if I don’t get there?” he asked.’

At 999, he had no choice, because it was here.

“It’s a special number in this league,” he said.

Some of the greatest defencemen to ever play have been Swedish.

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Nicklas Lidstrom is in a place all his own. Borje Salming wrote his own history and played at a level few have or will ever experience,

In this generation, Hedman has been the singular figure on defence since he found his way in Tampa.

The three most-decorated defencemen from the Class of 2009 have been Swedes — Hedman, Ekman-Larsson and Mattias Ekholm.

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That’s a piece of national pride that doesn’t necessarily relate to current circumstances with the Maple Leafs.

Ekman-Larsson played 11 seasons with the Coyotes, many of them without a lot of notice, with the team finding its way to the post-season only once.

Then he was traded to Vancouver, to one of the three or four loudest hockey markets in the game, and what was supposed to happen for him didn’t.

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“It didn’t work out the way I wanted,” Ekman-Larsson said. “There were some good things and some bad things there. I’ve said this before — nobody wants to get bought out (by a team). I didn’t expect that and I’m still sorry about how everything went there.

“I was there for two seasons. I had three coaches and two general managers.”

Transation: Confusion reigned and, in a most roundabout way, it ended with him winning a Stanley Cup in Florida.

When the Canucks bought out the final $20 million owing on EOL’s contract, it opened the doors for the defenceman to settle in as inexpensive help for the Panthers. It was a one-and-done deal in Florida — rather, won and done for Ekman-Larsson.

The Panthers won the Cup. Ekman-Larsson won back his reputation. His play throughout the season and playoffs earned him a four year, $14-million US deal with the Leafs at the age of 33.

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It also reconnected him with general manager Brad Treliving, who had been part of the group that drafted him in Phoenix, and also with Doan, whom he played more than 500 games with in Arizona and is now the GM’s assistant.

“There was a certain comfort in that, coming here,” Ekman-Larsson said. “Knowing they’re here. Knowing that they know me. That meant a lot.”

Doan was telling the story on Tuesday about the first time he went to training camp with Ekman-Larsson.

“Right away, you could see what he had. His skill level was off the charts,” Doan said. “He had a great stick, a long stick, and terrific hands. And he could really shoot the puck. That kind of skill jumps out at your right from the beginning. We knew we had something special in him. We knew it right away.”

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What Doan also remembered: “Him going to our Halloween party that first year dressed as Harry Potter and we laughed about that for years. He looked exactly like the Harry Potter character from the movie and I think he’s done the Harry Potter thing a few times. We got a great kick out of that and it brought him into our group very quickly and he had an identify of sorts right away.

“And even now, all these years later, you see his body has thickened out a little, you can see how he’s developed through the core, like hockey players have to be. We’re happy to have him here with us.

“He played a huge role for the Panthers in winning the Cup and I thought in those last two games, he might have been their best defenceman.”

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Ask the players in the Maple Leafs dressing room, or ask the coach, about what playing 1,000 NHL games mean and all it means and you get almost the same answer from everyone: It’s an incredible accomplishment.

It was when Tavares got there. It was when Craig Berube got there as a player. It will be when the next Leafs, Morgan Rielly and Chris Tanev, get there, assuming the injured Max Pacioretty doesn’t get there first.

“You dream about playing one game in this league, that’s the dream,” Ekman-Larsson said. “And you work every day after that to make yourself better.”

Lidstrom and Salming played more than 1,000 games. So have six other Swedish defencemen.

The list is short and impressive and now it’s just a touch skinnier than it has it ever been before.

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