Ekblad has missed the last six games with a neck injury. He most recently played March 21 against the Carolina Hurricanes after missing the four prior contests with a concussion.
Rowe said March 25 that he regretted playing Ekblad so soon after the head injury.
"I wish we didn't," he told Richards. "That's on me. The doctors cleared him, our medical staff cleared him, but I had some reservations and I wish I stayed with my gut. That's no one's fault but my own."
It's been a disappointing third season for Ekblad, who recorded just 21 points in 68 games this season.
On the injury front, Rowe added that he'd be surprised if starter Roberto Luongo returns this season. The veteran netminder has missed the past 15 games with a lower-body injury.
Florida has four games remaining and is back in action Monday against the Montreal Canadiens.
The Hart Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the "player judged most valuable to his team" in the National Hockey League.
With so many deserving players this season, who is most worthy of the Hart Trophy? Here are my top eight candidates:
Eastern Conference
C Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Ho hum, another fantastic season by the Penguins' captain. Crosby has 43 goals coming into the week, leads the team in scoring, and is dangerous every night. This is the first year in his career he may finish with more goals than assists, as he has his highest goal tally since he scored 51 in 2009-10.
G Sergei Bobrovsky, Columbus Blue Jackets
A good goalie can get a team 5-7 more wins in a season - and a bad one can lose you 5-7 more. With Bobrovsky, the Blue Jackets have at minimum 10-12 more wins than they should. They don’t even have a scorer in the top 30. Think back to last year when he was injured - this team was gasping for air and didn’t make the playoffs. The same team this season, with a healthy Bobrovsky, has 106 points and counting.
C Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs
The 19-year-old rookie broke Wendel Clark’s team rookie scoring record in the world’s toughest hockey market in Toronto, and he has the Leafs pushing for the playoffs. Players like Matthews and Connor McDavid eventually win Cups. That’s right, Toronto, your Cup is coming. I just can’t predict when.
LW Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins
Are the Bruins in the playoff picture if this guy isn’t having a career year?Probably not even close. Marchand has 39 goals and is sitting in third place in the NHL scoring race with 85 points.
Western Conference
C Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
All I can say is wow. I could watch this guy play every night of the year. Something always happens when he is on the ice. The Oilers are headed to the playoffs, and it’s because of this guy. Superstars like him win Cups eventually. Dust off the parade route - it might not be this year, but the Cup is coming back to Edmonton soon.
D Brent Burns, San Jose Sharks
Really? Burns, a defenseman, sits in ninth place in league scoring, rubbing shoulders with the league's best. With today’s defensive systems and shot blockers, this is truly a remarkable feat.
RW Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
The human highlight reel. One could argue his team is nowhere near as good without him. And by winning the Hart Trophy last season, Kane showed that he doesn't have to worry about being in teammate Jonathan Toews' shadow.
C Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks
I don’t care that he’s not among the top 10 scorers in the NHL. Year after year, game after game, this guy brings it. He has this Chicago team on a path to win another Stanley Cup. When it comes to leadership, he’s in Mark Messier territory as far as I’m concerned.
And the winner is ...
The easy pick: McDavid. He probably will win his first of many Harts, and deservedly so. But my vote is for Toews. Last I checked, the Hart Trophy isn't restricted to on-ice success - what a guy does off the ice matters.
No player is more valuable to his team than Toews, whether on the ice or in the locker room. He battles - and his teammates have no choice but to follow.
The absolute winner, though, is the NHL and its fans, who have been treated to some truly memorable hockey this season.
Monday's tilt in Buffalo has significant playoff implications for the Maple Leafs, while the Sabres will be taking more of a long-term view of their performance during the season's final stretch. Even so, this matchup has no shortage of story lines.
Nylander Bowl
Alexander Nylander, the eighth overall pick in last year's draft, is expected to make his NHL debut for the Sabres on Monday. He is the brother of Maple Leafs rookie William Nylander and the son of longtime NHL veteran Michael Nylander.
Alex Nylander said the whole family will be in attendance tonight. A true family affair. Said he hasn't had any trash talk with Willy.
This marks the first meeting of many for Alexander and William in the NHL. The latter just had a 12-game point streak come to an end, but still has 15 points in his last 14 games. The former has endured some struggles in the AHL this season (27 points in 62 games), but comes with an impressive skill set that is very similar to his brother's.
Matthews-Eichel rivalry
Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel are the future faces of American hockey. Given the production from both players this season, the future may indeed be now.
Matthews has 38 goals in what has been an outstanding rookie campaign. One more point and he will surpass Peter Ihnacak for most points by a Leafs rookie.
Eichel missed the beginning of the season due to injury, but he has 55 points in 57 games on the year. The matchup against Matthews has elevated his game, as he has six points in three contests against Toronto this season.
Babcock vs. Bylsma
Bench bosses Mike Babcock and Dan Bylsma are familiar foes, as Babcock coached Bylsma in Anaheim during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.
Once Bylsma's playing career wrapped up, he began coaching. His first season behind an NHL bench was in 2008-09, when he won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The team they defeated in final? Mike Babcock's Detroit Red Wings.
The two have also met on the international stage, where a Babcock-led Team Canada defeated a Bylsma-led Team USA 1-0 in the semi-finals of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
It will be an emotional one in St. Paul on Tuesday.
After being recalled by the Carolina Hurricanes from the AHL's Charlotte Checkers on Monday, forward Bryan Bickell will make his long-awaited return to the lineup Tuesday in Minnesota against the Wild.
The veteran forward, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis earlier this season, hasn't appeared in the lineup since Oct. 30, but has since played in 10 games with the Checkers, recording four points.
Bickell, 31, won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013 and 2015.
On Monday, the club announced forward Evgeny Svechnikov will join the team on an emergency recall. The Red Wings drafted Svechnikov with the 19th pick in the 2015 draft.
The Russian forward is in his first season with the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins and sits fourth in team scoring with 44 points in 68 games.
The Jets selected Connor and Roslovic with the 17th and 25th picks, respectively, in the 2015 entry draft. Connor made his NHL debut earlier this season, recording a goal and three assists over 19 games.
Roslovic could make his NHL debut as earlier as Tuesday, when the Jets head to Missouri to take on the St. Louis Blues. The Ohio native has scored 45 points in 61 games with the Moose this season.
For the second time in three years, the Los Angeles Kings will hit the links in early April. This comes after a three-year stretch in which they won two Stanley Cups. So what went so wrong so quickly?
The fingers will first be pointed at a lackluster offense, which ranks fifth-worst in goals per game. While goal-scoring was certainly an issue, head coach Darryl Sutter doesn't believe it's the sole reason.
He certainly isn't wrong. The Kings have put together a record of just 11-13-2 against fellow Pacific Division opponents. Though Anaheim, Edmonton, San Jose, and Calgary are all playoff bound, they're a combined 4-4-1 against the bottom-feeding Canucks and Coyotes.
Failing to beat up on two potential lottery teams will destroy your playoff hopes every time. In those nine games versus Arizona and Vancouver, the Kings averaged just 2.55 goals per game, bringing us back to their inability to put the puck in the net.
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
Jeff Carter has been the lone catalyst on offense, with 32 goals and 30 assists. Nobody else on the team has 50 points - even Anze Kopitar, who had 74 last season.
A last-ditch effort to trade for 39-year-old Jarome Iginla at the deadline couldn't spark the offense. Iginla has his limitations at this point of his career, so not much could have been expected, but why didn't the Kings do a better job addressing their goal-scoring issue at the deadline?
General manager Dean Lombardi didn't exactly have a lot of trade bait on his hands. According to Hockey's Future, the Kings only have two "B" rated prospects: Adrian Kempe and Michael Mersch.
In today's salary-cap era, a poor farm system is a recipe for failure.
Does this mean the Kings could slowly rebuild? Or even retool, for that matter?
Given that they're one of the slowest teams in the NHL, this might not be the worst idea. Their tough, rugged style of play was successful from 2011-2014, but more and more teams are putting a higher precedent on speed and skill. Take the Toronto Maple Leafs, for example.
Lombardi will have to take a long look in the mirror and decide if he can once again win with this roster, which is one of the oldest in the league. It will be an interesting offseason for the Kings, to say the least.
theScore's new series, "The Noise," is published every Monday. It kicks off each week with a quick look at five teams or players making headlines, good or bad.
Battling in the Pacific
A busy weekend saw 26 games spread over three days, with two of those contests coming as the Anaheim Ducks toured through Alberta.
Picking up a point in an overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers before capturing a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames a night later, the Ducks have secured points in 11 straight contests (8-0-3), leaving just three points on the table in the process.
That performance has pushed the Ducks to the top of the Pacific, where their 99 points stands two ahead of the Oilers. A division win would mark five in a row for Anaheim.
Better yet? Saturday saw the return of starter John Gibson, who has been limited to one game since mid-February due to a complicated lower-body injury. Gibson turned aside 34 of 37 shots against Edmonton.
The Bruins missed the playoffs the past two campaigns, and have only missed three straight once in franchise history - an eight-year drought from 1960-68. But it does't appear the Bruins will be on the outside this spring.
In a tight divisional race, the Bruins sit second in the Atlantic with 92 points, with three games left on the season. Credit center Patrice Bergeron, who was the team's most valuable player on Saturday and Sunday, leading the way with two goals.
Matthews scored twice, pushing his total to 38 on the year to tie Peter Ihnacak for the franchise record for goals by a freshman. How does Matthews stack up all-time? Just 19 players in league history have scored more in their first season. Matthews will have the chance for goal No. 39 Monday against the Buffalo Sabres.
As for the Maple Leafs, the squad has five games remaining and sits third in the Atlantic with 91 points. Toronto last made the postseason in 2013, while an appearance this spring would mark just their second in the past 12 seasons.
Phenomenal point streak
A three-point outing for Connor McDavid against the Ducks on Saturday pushed the Oilers captain to 94 points on the season, as he now carries a seven-point lead on Patrick Kane for the top spot in the scoring race.
Saturday's performance extended McDavid's point streak to 10 games, a stretch that has seen the phenom put up six goals and 13 assists. Even more impressive? Teammate Leon Draisaitl has been nearly as dominant over the same stretch, with 18 points to his credit.
The Art Ross may not be the only hardware McDavid takes home this season. Already clinching a postseason berth, the Oilers will make their first playoff appearance since 2006, snapping a 10-year drought. Returning the Oilers to relevancy should put McDavid in the conversation for Hart Trophy honors as well.
Stamkos has been sidelined for the past four months following a devastating knee injury, and his return could be the perfect boost to push the Lightning into the playoff picture. Tampa Bay sits three points back of the Ottawa Senators for the East's second wild-card seed.
The Lightning helped themselves by capturing three of four points over the weekend, grabbing a point Saturday in an overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens, followed up by a 6-3 smashing of the Dallas Stars on Sunday. The team is back in action Tuesday against the Bruins, and may have Stamkos in the mix. Still, the Lightning will have their work cut out for them, with just four games remaining and a three-point gap to make up.
Even Pittsburgh goaltenders such as Johan Hedberg, Patrick Lalime, and Marc-Andre Fleury failed to accomplish this feat in their rookie seasons.
It's easy to forget Murray is still considered a rookie after backstopping the Penguins to a Stanley Cup last spring. However, since he played fewer than 25 regular-season games a year ago, he holds onto his rookie status.
The 22-year-old netminder has posted a .923 save percentage and a 2.40 goals-against average along with his 30-10-4 record. If this season's rookie class wasn't one of the greatest in recent memory, those numbers would make him a favorite for the Calder Trophy.
