Greenway, Foligno already provide little offense outside of what Ek generates. Foligno had that nice stretch and it's been a nice season overall, but let's not kid ourselves about what he is. That line may be less offensive without Eriksson Ek, but the second line might get quite a bit more offensive with him on it. And I don't really care about that [shutdown] lines offense, the point is that it would be the defensive line.
If you're going to put Ek there next season, just do it now while we have Galchenyuk on a tryout. I also fail to see what Ek's offense being "nowhere near Staal's" matters. I also question whether that's truly the case anymore. Staal's at 28 ESP, Ek's at 22, with much tougher, more defensive minutes, and with lower quality linemates. 5v5 P/60 is equal.
If it doesn't work, switch it back, but at this point, Ek is far and away the second best offensive center we have, and the gap between he and the third is much greater than the gap between he and Staal. And we've tried Rask, Donato and Kunin all in that second line center spot, but for some reason (I know the reason, you don't need to waste breath telling me) we haven't even given Ek a look there.
As of right now, you have one line that's a scoring threat + Eriksson Ek (him, not his line), one line is a shutdown line, and two lines are essentially just there to give the other guys a rest. With this lineup below you might have two lines that are scoring threats, one shutdown line, and one line that's just there to give other guys a rest.
Parise-Staal-Fiala
Galchenyuk-Ek-Kunin
Donato/Greenway-Rask-Zuccarello
Foligno-Koivu-Hartman
Ek being "too good defensively" is about the worst reason I've heard to keep him in that role when he's demonstrated the ability and earned the right to do more.
