For By The Numbers this week let’s look at a potential trade target for the Toronto Maple Leafs in Nashville Predators defender Mattias Ekholm.

Ekholm is 6’4″, 204 lbs, 24 year old defender that is part of a very deep defensive core in Nashville that may be ripe for picking.

The Nashville Predators are by no means in salary cap difficulty so they definitely don’t need to entertain trading Ekholm, but they are about to enter a potentially high turnover of offensive players that might need some boosting.

Here are the Predators current top six defenders if we go strictly by TOI/gm (NHL.com):

[table id=88 /]

It’s not out of the question that the Predators re-sign Cody Franson – although I’m sure it will be heavily weighted on the dollar amount Franson requests – but, for now, let’s just assume he doesn’t re-sign in Nashville.

That leaves the Predators with a top four of Josi/Weber/Jones/Ellis with Victor Bartley potentially replacing Ekholm as the number five defender. That’s still a pretty amazing set of defenders. Losing Ekholm to benefit other areas isn’t a very drastic move by Nashville.

Let’s look at some numbers.

Ekholm is behind only Cody Franson in CF% among Predators defenders while sitting third in quality of competition – behind only the top pair of Josi/Weber. Keep in mind that Franson has only been around for a short period with the Predators and if we remove him from consideration then Ekholm stands alone among Nashville defenders.

He’s an excellent puck possession player – but that’s the case for Nashville as a whole, so let’s take a look at what he does with or without a selection of defensive partners (min 110 TOI).

He’s not being carried by anyone. He’s a solid possession player whether he’s with, or without, any of his main defensive partners. He even makes veteran defender Anton Volchenkov a better player and never falls below 55% CF% when he’s the “away” player.

Ekholm also holds the second-lowest shots against per 60 minutes, and scoring chances per 60 minutes against, of Predators defenders.

He’s reliable in his own end, a quality possession defender, big in size and only 24 years-old. Ekholm would be a great addition to the Toronto Maple Leafs – but at what cost?

Nashville won’t be blind to his value. The Predators have been linked in rumors to Phil Kessel – maybe Ekholm could be a piece of the puzzle in a Kessel-Nashville trade, among other assets.

However you want to speculate, Ekholm is a player the Leafs should be inquiring about as they start to rebuild a horrendous roster.