EDMONTON — The Mattias Ekholm trade was gold. If his buddy Viktor Arvidsson turns out to be anything close, it’s another excellent add of a veteran Swedish player to the Edmonton Oilers roster.
“I’ll take the fault for that (signing). I think he’s a great player,” Ekholm said over the phone from Sweden, with a laugh. “I think he’s going to be a great add for us.”
Arvidsson, 31, is an industrious, middle-six right winger who plays the game on the inside and scores big goals. He has a recent injury history, but promised to deliver as the Oilers’ top signing on July 1.
“I know people are concerned about that, but I’m the only guy who knows my body and I feel great. I feel confident … I’m going to play a lot of games,” said Arvidsson, who played only 18 games last season, but all at the end of the year.
He played all five of the Kings’ playoff games as they lost to Edmonton for the third consecutive spring.
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, as Arvidsson slots in on a two-year deal with an AAV of $4 million.
“The group is great,” he said of the Oilers. “They have something really going for them there. I’ve known Ekky for a long time, our families know each other well. He convinced me pretty early and our family is very happy to join the team.”
The two played together in Nashville and battled hard in Round 1 this spring. Much like the Ekholms, who have embraced raising their kids in the Northern Alberta climate, the Arvidssons will arrive in Edmonton with the same motive.
“He texted me saying that they were thinking about Edmonton. They wanted to shift lifestyles a little bit from the L.A. lifestyle to maybe a little bit more calm in Edmonton,” Ekholm said. “Viktor’s from where my wife is from (Skellefteå), up in northern Sweden. And his wife, Moa, as well. So it was pretty easy to get them to understand what kind of climate and lifestyle it is, because I feel like it’s very similar to Sweden.”
At first blush Arvidsson slots in on Leon Draisaitl’s right side, furnishing the Swede with a chance to take a run at his career high of 34 goals, set six years ago in Nashville.
“That’s a big opportunity for me, to play with such a great player. The team itself is built really well,” Arvidsson said. “I like to have the puck and play offence. That’s going to fit me.”
Ekholm has always liked Arvidsson’s game, as have we. He plays inside the dots — the opposite of a perimeter player — with a presence much bigger than his five-foot-10, 185-pound frame.
“He’s a smaller guy, but he plays a big game and he has a presence out there. I think he’s very tenacious,” Ekholm said. “He probably could have gotten more money somewhere else, but maybe not on a team that he felt is as close as we are.”
Arvidsson is third-liner on a serious contender, but one who can step up to either wing on the second line periodically. That deployment really works on a team that has been searching for wingers to help Draisaitl, and one whose goal is to return a third line that commands more ice time over the course of a season.
He’s had back and mid-body issues in recent years, so the heart of a lion resides in a body that may or may not be able to deliver.
Arvidsson steps right into the spot vacated by Warren Foegele, who signed with the Kings on Monday. Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson was busy Monday, tidying up his roster:
• Later in the day Jackson signed fourth-line right-winger Corey Perry to a one-year deal worth $1.4 million — $1.15 base with $250,000 in performance bonuses. He’ll return in a fourth-line role.
• Big, right-shot defenceman Vincent Desharnais moves on as an unrestricted free agent, and who can blame him? At age 28, this is his first chance to make some real NHL money. To see him choose security elsewhere over staying in Edmonton is understandable for sure.
• Here’s how we see the lines today:
Kane-McDavid-Hyman
RNH-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
Holloway-McLeod-Brown
*Janmark-Ryan-Perry
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Broberg
Kulak-Ceci
Skinner
Pickard
*Still un-signed
• At six-foot-five, 220 pounds, the Oilers acquire the right-shot Josh Brown as a direct replacement for Desharnais. He’s a third pairing D-man who will come to camp as the No. 7, unless Jackson’s efforts to move Cody Ceci come to fruition. He was only the fifth-most active penalty killer among defencemen in Arizona last year, but expect assistant coach Mark Stuart to mould the 30-year-old into more of a PK guy. In the end, he is injury insurance.
• The glaring hole on this roster, with the imminent departure of Adam Henrique, is at 3C. Ryan McLeod can work as a place holder there, but the Oilers were far better with Henrique centering that line with Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown, a third line that made a big difference in the latter rounds of the playoffs.
That’s something the Oilers’ new GM will address at the trade deadline in March. This team is better with a genuine third-line centre, and McLeod coming off the left wing with speed.
• Goalie Jack Campbell being bought of the final three years of his deal marks a gruesome ending to a horrible signing. Undoubtedly the worst of the Ken/Brad Holland era in Edmonton.
Campbell will always be the genuinely great guy everyone said he was, and hopes are now he can find traction as No. 2 in Detroit, and rebuild his career.
• As organizational insurance, the Oilers signed goalie Collin Delia to a one-year, two-way deal worth $775,000. The 30-year-old has parts of five seasons in the NHL, and will pair with Olivier Rodrigue on the farm in Bakersfield.
