Eriksson Ek quietly making impact, getting noticed for Wild in playoffs

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Inside the Minnesota Wild dressing room, the players know about Joel Eriksson Ek and his impact on the team. The center's current and previous coaches know, too. So do the media covering him every day.

"He's just special," Wild forward Matt Boldy said. "You don't find many guys that are willing to do the things he does every single night at the intensity he does it. … What he brings to our team and our lineup, he sets the standard."

The longer the Wild are competing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the more everyone else outside of Minnesota will get to see and know what Eriksson Ek is all about.

For the first time in his NHL career, the 29-year-old will play in the Western Conference Second Round. The Wild are there for the first time since 2015 and will face the Colorado Avalanche after eliminating the Dallas Stars in six games in the first round, with Eriksson Ek in a significant role with five points (three goals, two assists), playing 23:44 per game and a 56.4 face-off percentage.

Game 1 between Minnesota and Colorado is at Ball Arena in Denver at a time and date to be determined.

"We obviously want a long (playoff) run, but a long run would pay dividends for Eriksson Ek's game just to show the world what kind of a player he is," Wild forward Marcus Foligno said. "He's so good."

The hockey world should know this already, except for one problem.

"They don't know who you are if you don't advance in the playoffs," said former Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau, Eriksson Ek's first coach in the NHL from 2016-20.

It has been nearly 10 years since Eriksson Ek made his NHL debut on Oct. 22, 2016. He is in his ninth NHL season, all with Minnesota: He has played 614 regular season games, put up 350 points (155 goals, 195 assists) and has a plus-82 rating for his career.

He has played in 38 playoff games with 18 points (nine goals, nine assists).

He has played at the highest levels internationally for Sweden; twice in the World Juniors, twice in the World Championship, at the 4 Nations Face-Off last year and this year at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, where he had a goal and an assist in five games.

Around the NHL, though, it still feels like he's either underrated, underappreciated or just not well known enough to be in the conversation as one of the best two-way centers in the League.

But that could finally change.

"He's got local recognition, but he doesn't have League-wide recognition," Boudreau said. "But I'll tell you what, when I got him he was an 18-year-old fourth-line energy guy that wasn't good on face-offs but he did anything you asked him to.

"Then he started to progress into being able to score. He is in tremendous shape. He's not a fighter but he will (tick) you off so much because he gets right in your face and punches back."

In separate interviews, Boudreau and Foligno, without prodding, compared Eriksson Ek to Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov.

"You don't want to compare too much, but a little bit of Barkov with just the complete game he brings as a centerman," Foligno said.

For years it was Barkov who was everyone's most underrated player in the NHL until he went on some long playoff runs, getting to the Stanley Cup Final in 2023 and winning it the past two seasons.

"He's not as well-known but he's very much like a Barkov," Boudreau said of Eriksson Ek. "He's going to score 30, get 60 points, stand in front of the net on the power play and play against everybody's first line, and he's in tremendous shape.

"They made T-shirts of him calling him 'Mr. September' because he'd win all the conditioning tests in training camps. He's very quiet so you don't know him that much, but boy, I would take him on my team any day of the week."

Eriksson Ek said he learned the most about being an effective two-way center from former teammate Mikko Koivu.

"Just his attitude," Eriksson Ek said, "how he took care of himself, how he always put the team first, how competitive he was and how much he wanted to win battles."

He learned how to effectively play in front of the net on the power play from Zach Parise, another former Minnesota teammate.

"It was how hard you need to battle to create those chances in front of the net," Eriksson Ek said.

He has improved in those areas through the seasons, adding offense along the way, including 51 points (19 goals, 32 assists) in 70 games this season, giving him 205 points (86 goals, 119 assists) in 271 games since 2022-23, an average of 0.76 points per game.

That level of production through his past four seasons is in the ballpark of other two-way centers like him, including Colorado's Brock Nelson (0.82), the New York Rangers' Vincent Trocheck (0.81), the now-retired Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings (0.80) and Ryan O'Reilly of the Nashville Predators (0.77).

"I just think he's the perfect blend of skill, hardness and an attitude that he has that pulls people into the fight," forward Nick Foligno said. "He's not afraid. He's just heavy. He's got a big body (6-foot-3, 207 pounds) and skates really well and has this ability to back it all up with skill.

"I'm trying to think of a guy that I played with that's like that, and there's not many I can think of that has just got all the little intangibles to go with it."

Eriksson Ek is quiet, as Boudreau mentioned, and he said he wants no part of the added recognition, if not fame that comes with dominating in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

But it's here now, and there's more to come if the Wild keep winning, because if that happens, Eriksson Ek will be a massive part of it.

Everyone should know that by now.

"There is a reason (general manager Bill) Guerin signed him to an eight-year deal (in 2021)," Boudreau said. "If he went on the market next year he would make a lot more than the $5.25 million he's getting paid."