TheImpatientPanther
Florida Flukin Panthers > LTIR Maple Leafs
Ekblad is better than most PK options, so it would be questionable to give his PK time to someone slightly worse in order to give him more PP time from someone slightly better. It's fine if he can handle the extra minutes, but not if it means making the already iffy PK worse.
Is Hoffman that much better than Yandle? Is it really easier to hide a one-trick pony on a non-scoring non-checking line than in the third D-pair? I think both of them offer the same problem with establishing a winning 5v5 playing style. If the team is supposed to be better on defense, it's probably most important that the forwards get better at playing team defense. Would Hoffman contribute consistently there?
PK leaders in TOI this past year were: (20th ranked PK)
We were 7th least penalized team (7.25 PIMS/game)
Acciari - 2:32 per game
Sceviour - 2:30 per game
Stralman - 2:29 per game
Stillman - 2:22 per game
Ekblad - 2:01 per game
Weegar - 1:47 per game
Surprisingly, Stillman and Stralman had more time than Ekblad and Weegar wasn't that far behind.
PK leaders in TOI last year: (10th ranked PK)
We were 17th most penalized team (8.39 PIMS/game)
Matheson - 2:23 per game
Ekblad - 2:18 per game
Barkov - 2:04 per game
Sceviour - 2:01 per game
Sheahan - 1:47 per game
Pysyk - 1:44 per game
Take from this what you will.
Matheson's PK minutes were chopped in half from 18-19 to 19-20, Barkov was on the PK last year a lot more but Ekblad's PK mins only slightly decreased. Not sure what the reason for the big drop-off but felt we were more aggressive on the PK/puck carrier last year and didn't play such a collapse style.
I'm sure Bob didn't help but also a new coach/scheme doesn't help to keep continuity.
As for your 2nd question, Hoffman is better at providing this team with a legit 30 goal scorer/PP threat and still plays mostly 2nd line minutes, he is still one of our fastest skaters and will age better than Yandle.
Yandle has already been reduced to 3rd pairing duties 5 on 5, his ice time has dropped a lot since his peak in 2017-18, a full 4 mins per game from 24 to 20 mins/game. He's not suddenly going to get better defensively and that's a bigger problem as we play 5 on 5 more than the PP.
Hoffman has been the 3rd best point producer (65 goals, 129 pts in 151 games) behind only Huberdeau and Barkov since coming over 2 years ago. Is he that easily replaceable?
He's also tied with Huberdeau for 37 even strength goals, so he's not just a one trick pony. (leads with 28 PPG's the past two years)
I'd much rather keep a high producing winger (30 goal/65-70pts) who is a big reason the PP took off along with Huberdeau and Barkov improving, (Yandle did have impact and is due his credit) over Yandle who is basically just an over-paid specialist at this point.
Defense is the big issue here but it'd be nice to not lose both Dadonov AND Hoffman if possible.
I'd take the risk in Huberdeau adapting to a new spot/role on the PP, he led the team in PP points this year with 29, he had 34 last year, a lot of the PP already runs through his hands.
Ekblad was playing 3 PP mins a game in 2015-16 and 2016-17 but took on more PK role after that, it's not like it's a whole new thing for him to learn or get overwhelmed with.