The Skinny: William Eklund

This summer, the inevitable happened in Ottawa. William Eklund represents the immediate silver lining, and the question for an ascending playoff team is how brightly he can shine in 2026-27.

Let’s get the obvious bit out of the way first: The 23-year-old winger isn’t a Brady Tkachuk substitute. Florida’s latest star acquisition ranks among the league’s few top-six power forwards, whereas the 5’10”, 185-pound Swede is a three-zone playmaking jitterbug. Nevertheless, the latter will be expected to replenish a good chunk of the former’s production. That’s…not entirely unreasonable. He’s paced for 53 points throughout his career, and his resume, film and usage in San Jose suggest there’s still offensive potential to mine.

While these forwards appear to share little in common on the surface, there are similarities in their approaches to transition play:

Until Eklund improves his acceleration, his strongest NZ contributions will assume the form of savvy link-up passing. He does well to identify long runways and speed differentials for his teammates, often accepting strong-side outs before cutting against the flow of back pressure to draw the heat away from his target and slingshot them into space.

His patient one-step-back, two-steps-forward tack will also help his club exploit the full width of the rink. This should suit a team featuring rangy weak-side blitzers (e.g. Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot) and pivots Tim Stützle and Dylan Cozens, whose influence SKYROCKETS when they hit top gear.

So how does Travis Green proceed?

• Eklund-Stützle has the makings of a potent partnership in transition. The high-usage German could wreak havoc if his winger nudges his bursts further up ice.

• Cozens, on the other hand, may need Eklund more than Ottawa’s 1C does because spotty IQ restricts the impact of his remarkable tools (6’3”, 205 lbs + top speed in the 98th percentile). Having a crafty winger guide him through the NZ maze would extract all of his juice on the rush.

Whichever choice the bench boss lands on, he’ll appreciate the newcomer’s navigation skills. His shrewd passing and competent puck-carrying, in concert with his all-around habits, manufactured the lone shot attempt share above 50% among Sharks regulars up front (i.e. excluding Kiefer Sherwood and Igor Chernyshov). Last year’s fifth-ranked ice-tilters are hoping for similar results after the departure of their top possession forward (Tkachuk posted a 58.0 CF%).

Once the Sens breach the OZ, the 2021 first-rounder will bring some 1-on-1 sizzle to the party:

Eklund isn’t a burner (53rd percentile). He is, however, a deceptive skater. With his nimble feet, low center of gravity and wide base, he’s shown a talent for wriggling out of the opposition’s grasp in the corners. Defenders will prevail over time—again, not much explosiveness or heft in his bag—but his skating grants him a number of brief playmaking windows out of stop-and-go turns down low. This facet of his offense could jibe with Cozens’ marksmanship.

If you follow this sport closely, you’re aware of his signature move too: the off-wing 10-and-2 stutter. Pull the puck back as you open your hips to invite forward momentum (i.e. stick check attempt/toes pointed north) —> rip to your backhand in order to round the corner on a taller defender.

Great timing on his trickery. Just ask Andrew Peeke:

Beyond the solo stuff, Eklund has been sharpening his dual threat by the season:

No, he’s not strictly a pass-first player. The tape reveals a balanced and instinctive winger who can generate danger in a number of ways despite lacking elite hands. His vision enables him to work cross-ice seams on the PP. His processor yields improvisational feeds around the goal line.

Meanwhile, he’s a much more frequent net-front presence than his archetype would indicate. With that said, he flashes in and out of goalmouth instead of standing his ground among the trees:

In addition to being a tenacious winger by nature, he attacks the deep slot intelligently. He’ll slide between a puck-watching defender and the goaltender to stack bodies in their sight line. He’ll sink below the cage to drop off the radar and then synchronize his climb back up with an incoming long-distance bid. He can feel soft spots in zone coverage, doubling up on committed defenders to provide a numerical edge in the dirty areas.

The Sharks seldom took advantage of this on account of a wretched blue line. That could change on a higher-volume squad that ices Sanderson, Chabot and Jordan Spence on the back end.

Consequently, the close-range shooter (93rd percentile in HD shots) may enjoy a goal-scoring boost:

Eklund’s selectivity and efficiency—at least where chances are concerned (career high of 17 goals)—become all the more important when you consider his playmaking flaws. As odd as it sounds, his distribution sometimes suffers as his line’s scoring potential swells. He’s over-eager to serve as the setup man in outnumbered scenarios, dishing by default rather than hanging on to force the defender’s hand.

Here are a couple of examples vs. the Jets where his haste squanders golden opportunities. Notice how he doesn’t wait for the nearest opponent to lock onto him first:

In fairness, plus touches of this caliber were rare. He spent the majority of the season on a non-playoff team’s matchup line next to Alexander Wennberg. Maybe favorable circumstances in Ottawa iron out the kinks. Or…maybe he’s just more comfortable conjuring something out of nothing than converting higher-danger pucks into Grade A chances.

That could grow frustrating at times. Even so, the Senators’ offense should welcome his extra dash of spontaneity.

More specifically, his interplay high in the OZ could drag the team’s D-men deeper into the fight. If he and Vincent Desharnais (SJ 5) can work some magic at the point, imagine the winger alongside Ottawa’s puck-movers (11th in goals by D-men):

In December, I wrote the following when assessing Sanderson’s game:

Although high give-and-gos have become common across the league, Ottawa seldom makes use of them. It should rectify that, as Sanderson, Chabot and Spence are all spry players who would benefit from downhill touches. Beckoning defenders forward, dashing into the vacated space and creating net scrambles would toss the opposition a curveball and position the Sens’ forward corps for success.

Eklund won’t match Tkachuk’s below-the-dots efforts, but his quick hitters out of three-high could inject the attack with enough movement and positional variety to befuddle defenses when its blunt-force M.O isn’t breaking through. In effect, embracing his tendencies could enable the Sens’ offense to evolve somewhat like Carolina’s did—by introducing texture to Green’s tried-and-true formula.

The forward’s versatility tenders his head coach several lineup options as well. His innate playmaking could enhance Cozens’ trigger-happiness. His sneaky net-front game could mix nicely with an attention-grabbing center like Stützle. He’s logged top-line minutes in the past. He can handle matchup usage. Hell, the Sens could experiment with an Eklund-Stützle power-on-power configuration that relieves Shane Pinto of his shutdown burden and coaxes out the 3C’s latent offense.

Speaking of defense, this is the phase in which Ottawa upgraded over Tkachuk:

Second-rate team structure may have tanked Eklund’s underlying numbers in San Jose (48.6 xGF%), but they should perk up on a disciplined outfit. He tracks back hard through the middle of the ice, clogs point shooting lanes well and senses when to sag and lend a hand within a zone scheme. Thanks to his motor, he could also see a bump in PK TOI (0:25 per game last season) and raise Ottawa’s power-kill menace (T-6th in SHG).

What about the ugly? Well, for all his spirit, his forechecking prowess is hamstrung by his physical deficiencies. There are moments when he can’t seem to play through or slip ahead of opponents. Here are two examples from that Jets game I referenced earlier:

Without the frame or wheels to win the inside track, he must refine his stick work to uncover viable lines of attack on the puck. Green’s system demands it. Fortunately, Michael Amadio can serve as a role model in this regard. The veteran is far from a thumper or speed demon yet paced the Sens in takeaways via slick angling and uncanny stick-check timing.

Soaking up that knowledge would gain the coaching staff’s trust and cement a headlining role on a winger-starved club.

On the whole, this has been the summer of scorn for the Senators. Their once-beloved captain leapt at the first opportunity to ditch the market, while Eklund was dealt less than a year after extending with the Sharks. Both team and player should enter 2026-27 with a chip on their shoulder.

They’ll aim to ride it to a third consecutive playoff appearance.