Maple Leafs’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson appears in 1,100th NHL game

One of the veteran players in the league has reached a notable milestone.

On Saturday night, when the puck dropped between the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders, Maple Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson appeared in the 1,100th regular-season game of his NHL career.

Ekman-Larsson becomes the 240th player in league history reach the mark. He’s also the eighth player this season to reach the mark, joining the likes of Winnipeg Jets forward Jonathan Toews and San Jose Sharks forward Jeff Skinner.

OEL also appeared in his 1,000th NHL game with the Leafs, hitting that milestone in November 2024.

Saturday night marked Ekman-Larsson’s 41st appearance of the season. He’s been having a much more productive season compared to his first year in Toronto. After posting a goal and an assist in a wild 6-5 win over the Jets on New Year’s Day, the 34-year-old has scored seven goals and 18 assists for 25 points, sitting second on the team in defensive scoring behind Morgan Rielly, and sixth in points overall.

The Karlskrona, Sweden native has bounced around the league over the past couple of years. He debuted with the then-Phoenix Coyotes, the team that drafted him sixth overall in the 2009 NHL Draft, during the 2010-11 campaign. After 11 seasons with the Yotes, Ekman-Larsson was on the move, as he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks in 2021. Two years later, he was bought out by the Canucks, giving him the chance to sign with the Florida Panthers. The move paid off, as OEL and company helped the Cats win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 2024.

Ekman-Larsson signed a four-year deal with the Leafs the following summer, with the deal carrying a $3.5 million cap hit through the 2027-28 season.

So far in his career, Ekman-Larsson has scored 155 goals and 370 assists for 525 points. He’s also notched 18 points in 62 postseason games.