Nils Ekman
Nils Ekman ( born March 11, 1976 in Stockholm ) is a retired Swedish professional ice hockey forward who during his career, among other things for the Tampa Bay Lightning, San Jose Sharks and Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League, the SKA St. Petersburg in the Kontinental Hockey League and Djurgårdens IF has played in the Elitserien.
Career
Ekman began his career in 1993 at the Junior Hammarby IF. After he was able to convince fast, he was appointed a few months later in the first team in the Allsvenskan and scored nine points in 18 games. The Calgary Flames were thus aware of him and chose him in the NHL Entry Draft in 1994 in the fifth round at position 107. The following two years played Ekman for the U20 team of professionals and for Hammarby, before joining in the Finnish SM- liiga in 1996 to the Espoo Blues.
In his first season in Finland, he managed 24 goals and 19 assists in 50 games, but in his second year he left for something, but received after leaving his team in the playoffs a contract with the Calgary Flames, and even played a game for the farm team Saint John Flames in the AHL playoffs. But after he returned to Finland and still played a good season with Espoo.
He then went back to North America, but was transferred to the Tampa Bay Lightning of the Calgary Flames in November 1999. He came in the 1999/2000 season to 28 missions in the National Hockey League, but spent most of the season in the unterklassigen International Hockey League at the farm teams Detroit Vipers and Long Beach Ice Dogs, where he was to gain more experience. At the end of the season he was voted rookie of the year in the IHL. The 2000/01 season with the Detroit Vipers and showed very good performance there, so he was appointed to the NHL squad of the Tampa Bay Lightning and even there he was able to show what he can do and scored 20 points in 43 games.
In summer 2001, it transferred the Lightning to the New York Rangers, but after he had received no place in the NHL squad, he returned in the fall back to Sweden and played in the Elitserien for Djurgårdens IF. In the fall of 2002, he moved back to North America and played the 2002/03 season at AHL farm team the Rangers, the Hartford Wolf Pack. Ekman showed his skill and scored 30 goals and 36 assists in 57 games. In August 2003 he was transferred to the San Jose Sharks, the Ekman gave a chance in the NHL, he also took advantage of the same. He played all the games for the Sharks scored 55 points and reached a plus / minus rating of 35, which set a new record in the history of the Sharks meant and Ekman's very good defensive performance, underscored.
The NHL season 2004/ 05 dropped out because of the lockout and Ekman spent the season at Djurgårdens IF. With 45 points in 44 games, he was the fifth- best scorer in the league.
The 2005/06 season began for the San Jose Sharks and also for Ekman weak, but after Joe Thornton with a superstar, the team increased, it went up again. Along with Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo, he was the best forward line of the Sharks. Thornton was at the end of the season the best scorer in the NHL, Cheechoo 's top scorer and Ekman reached at least 57 points with a personal record.
In July 2006 he was transferred together with the German Patrick Lechner marriage, for a second-round draft pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he scored a hat-trick in a game early in the season in four minutes and ten seconds. But from the end of December 2006 he could no longer be used because of an elbow injury.
His contract expired in the summer of 2007 and Ekman moved to Moskovskaya Oblast Chimik in the Russian Super League. He left the club after just one year and moved in summer 2008 to league rivals SKA Saint Petersburg. In the following two years he played for the SKA in the new Kontinental Hockey League, before he returned in late May 2010 Djurgårdens IF and a three-year contract signed. In December 2010, he suffered a stroke with which he finally finished his career in August 2011.