He played for the SEL team Djurgårdens IF until he suffered a stroke in December 2010, forcing him to retire from hockey on 10 August 2011.

In the 1994–95 season, after a short two-game stint in the Swedish junior league, he totalled 10 goals and 7 assists in 29 games for the parent club.

Having no room for him, on 20 November 1999, Calgary traded Ekman to the Tampa Bay Lightning along with a 4th round selection (Vladimir Gorbunov) in the 2000 Entry Draft for Andreas Johansson.

To gain more experience, he joined the IHL and split the 1999–2000 season with the Detroit Vipers and the Long Beach Ice Dogs, notching 32 points in 37 games and earning rookie of the year honors.

For the 2003–04 NHL season he posted a career high in goals (22) and had 33 assists, as well as a franchise-record plus 35 rating, negating all doubts about defensive struggles.

This was the highest total on the team, and fifth-highest in the league (eighth-highest in goals) that had players like Peter Forsberg and Henrik Zetterberg.

On 20 July 2006, Ekman was traded along with goaltending prospect Patrick Ehelechner to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a 2007 second-round draft pick.

[5] In what would be his final season, Ekman played 20 games, scoring 4 goals and 9 points before suffering a stroke in late December 2010.

[6][7] Subsequently, Ekman announced his retirement on 10 August 2011, at the age of 35 when neurologists of Karolinska University Hospital said it would not be safe to resume playing hockey.