Mattias Ekholm has taken a bit of a beating in the web-media after his assignment back to his Swedish team. I’m guilty of some of that, as I’ve piled on in previous posts.
And on tonight’s Admirals Center Ice radio show, Preds Assistant GM Paul Fenton explained to Aaron Sims and Wojo that there indeed was more to the story.
Turns out it wasn’t Ekholm’s decision at all.
The short version: The Swedish team, whose contract he put on hold to come play in North America, has the first right of refusal before Ekholm could be assigned to the AHL.
And Brynas wanted him.
So he goes to Sweden.
End of story.
So it’s not Ekholm who is stunting his own development by playing away from the North American game — it’s the Swedish team that’s responsible.
The podcast of the Admirals Center Ice Radio Show should be on the Admirals website Tuesday afternoon at some point (UPDATE: it’s there right now), and you can hear it explained in Fenton’s own words.
But wow, that perspective really changes everything.
Admirals Roundtable 
Thanks Ryan for clearing it up.
It shows that you have excellent journalistic values.
Love the blog
I hope Trotz has apologized to him for trashing him. I could say several others on the team deserve the same, if that is how you’re going to do things. Using one guy as the scapegoat for horrendous play by most of the team is just not right. Good luck to you, Mattias, and maybe we will see you again in the near future!
This reminds me of that one time when everyone thought that James Sixsmith was a good hockey player. And then he did nothing, was removed from the team, and had his locker name plate given away as part of a sports blog competition.
Those were good times, weren’t they BSB? Good times indeed.
Looks like Sixsmith is coaching for Wolfe Hockey Development.
Never too late to bring him back…
Humbly I don’t think it changes much after Trotz’ tongue-lashing. I see Ekholm going to Ufa to play with Radulov before he comes back to Nashville. I like Trotz but he was a complete idiot the way he handled the situation, that’s my 2 cents.
For the sake of discussion….. if Trotz is asked what he thought of the peformance of Ekholm in a particular game, what should he say about it? Should he not say what he really thinks?
Now Sixsmith is killing it in europe and many AHL teams are offering contacts as we speak. Along those lines he never had a full season to prove himself in Milwaukee . He has been offered to play in Sweden in the eliteserien and the KHL