Chicago Blackhawks: Analyzing every No. 1 pick since Patrick Kane

It is rare for a defenseman to be taken with the first overall pick in today’s world. Everyone wants the forwards that are going to put up the most points and that makes sense sometimes. Well, the Florida Panthers took Aaron Ekblad with the first overall pick in the 2014 NHL Draft. It is a debate of whether they would make this pick again but he is no doubt a good NHL player.

They already are loaded with a bunch of really good forwards on Joel Quenneville‘s team so having Ekblad there isn’t a bad thing. He is very good defensively and his team generates more shots for than against when he is on the ice. He has 71 goals and 141 assists for 212 points in 458 games on Florida’s blue line. Those are impressive totals for a 24-year-old defenseman.

It sometimes takes a while for defensemen to develop but Ekblad was awesome right away. The plus/minus stat is argued over a lot as far as it’s importance but Ekblad is a career plus-29. As a young defenseman on a mostly bad team, that is a very nice plus-minus. He has for whatever reason, however, not been that great against the Chicago Blackhawks. He only has two goals and two assists for four points in 11 games against them and is a minus-three. Sometimes hockey is like that but Chicago hasn’t had too big of a problem with Ekblad since he came into the league.