{"id":506535,"date":"2026-10-24T12:24:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T12:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/506535\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T12:24:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T12:24:49","slug":"eklund-on-sharks-trading-him-suffering-another-serious-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/506535\/","title":{"rendered":"Eklund on Sharks Trading Him, Suffering Another Serious Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 William Eklund<\/a> was excited for October.<\/p>\n

Eklund was healthy going into Ottawa Senators training camp, unlike the previous off-season with the San Jose Sharks<\/a>, when he had suffered a scary wrist injury.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead at the schedule, he was going to face the Sharks, the organization that made him the No. 7 pick in the 2021 Draft, twice, at Canadian Tire Centre and SAP Center, in the opening month of the season. The Sharks had traded Eklund in June, along with prospects Kasper Halttunen<\/a> and Brandon Svoboda<\/a>, to the Senators for the No. 9 pick of the 2026 Draft.<\/p>\n

Sharks tools<\/p>\n

The New York Islanders and younger brother Victor were also coming through Ottawa for the first Eklund \u201cBowl\u201d.<\/p>\n

But on Oct. 8, just four games into the new season, Eklund suffered an ugly-looking ankle injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cShit happens,\u201d Eklund said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s out 10-12 weeks after ankle surgery.<\/p>\n

So wait \u2018til next year (to face the San Jose Sharks)?<\/p>\n

Eklund spoke on Thursday morning about getting traded, how the Sharks trading Fabian Zetterlund<\/a> taught him about the business side of hockey, and if there\u2019s any frustration after another serious injury.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on his injury:<\/p>\n

Obviously, didn\u2019t want to be injured, but shit happens in this game. Try to recover as fast as I can. You play the game, it\u2019s such a fast game out there. Things like this happen, you get frustrated for sure, but right now it\u2019s just about recovery.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on watching Ottawa beat the Panthers in Brady Tkachuk<\/a>\u2019s return:<\/p>\n

Great. They played really good out there, proud of them. It was pretty special, obviously, it was pretty cool to see these fans go like that. It was really cool.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on whether he was surprised by the San Jose Sharks trading him after signing an extension:<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say I\u2019m surprised, yes or no. Obviously, it\u2019s a business out there, we all know that, we\u2019re all part of this game. Of course, there\u2019s a chance it can happen and now it happened. But I\u2019m really happy that I\u2019m here, in Ottawa. We have a great team here.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on Fabian Zetterlund\u2019s reaction to the trade:<\/p>\n

He was happy. I called him pretty much right away, he was happy with that, we enjoy spending time together.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on feeling healthy before his injury:<\/p>\n

It felt great. Obviously, I haven\u2019t had that in a while, I feel like the full summer helped me a lot. I felt really good coming into training camp, good in the first couple of games here. It makes it even more frustrating, but it\u2019s part of the game. You just have to be mentally in it, so trying to do my best here.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on the whiplash of getting news of the trade, but it\u2019s to Ottawa and with best friend Zetterlund:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my first time getting traded, so you get shocked at first. When I heard it was Ottawa, I\u2019ve heard only good things about this group. Right now, as you can tell, it\u2019s very true. It\u2019s a big family in there. We care a lot about each other. I felt great coming here.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on the closeness of the Ottawa locker room:<\/p>\n

We have really good depth in our group. <\/p>\n

(SJHN Note: At this moment, Tyler Toffoli walked by and shouted, \u201cHey, bub!\u201d)<\/p>\n

Overall, we\u2019re playing really good hockey and we stand up for each other. We play good hockey.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on catching up with his former San Jose Sharks teammates:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll talk with them a little bit, catch up a little bit. Saw Wenny yesterday a little bit. Good group of guys in there too.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on watching his brother Victor succeed with the New York Islanders:<\/p>\n

For sure. I know he\u2019s been working really hard for it, this summer was the hardest work I\u2019ve ever seen him. Extremely proud of him, doing really good things out there. I\u2019m happy for him to be in the NHL.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on his injury timeline:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m recovering. Timeline wise, I\u2019m not going to go into that, it\u2019s not a question for me. I\u2019m trying to do my best everyday to get back with the guys.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on his disappointment leaving San Jose after several years with the Sharks:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a business. I had really good years there, I appreciate everybody there. They took me into that city, the fans took me in really good. I appreciate all the guys, all the staff that had me there. We\u2019re going forward here, new team here, I\u2019m happy here. I\u2019m not going to go into it more further than that, but I\u2019m happy with my time in San Jose.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on whether the Sharks moving up in the draft lottery affected his outlook, that they might draft fellow winger Ivar Stenberg:<\/p>\n

My mind wasn\u2019t there, to be honest. In the offseason, you\u2019re just so focused on getting better yourself, getting better to come back in good shape and be good when you go back. It wasn\u2019t in my thoughts really, so I can\u2019t say yes or no for that.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on finding his own role in Ottawa and being compared to Brady Tkachuk\u2019s production:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re completely different players, first of all. I\u2019m just coming in here trying to do my thing and bring the best game I can from San Jose to here. I think I\u2019ve been doing that in my first games, just kind of be my own player and be a great teammate. Go out there and do the best I can for the team.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on the disappointment of missing the chance to face the Sharks today:<\/p>\n

Yes, it is. I\u2019d like to be out there today. But, next time.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on Zetterlund\u2019s trade teaching him about the business of the game:<\/p>\n

You learn as a younger player, in this league how it works, that it\u2019s a business and everything can happen, everything is open. That was probably the first eye-opening moment for me, and now you kind of know how it is and you accept it. We\u2019re all players and we accept it.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on if there\u2019s any frustration from having another serious injury:<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t missed games at the NHL level [because of my injuries]. This is the first time I\u2019ve missed games in the NHL. That part sucks, because when you\u2019re [hurt] in the off-season, you can still get back and play with the guys. But now, not being there in the locker room and being out there on the ice with the boys is the most frustrating part. I\u2019m just happy that they won yesterday, wishing them success here.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on missing anticipated games against San Jose and his brother Victor this month:<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t really control this stuff. I would love to do that, when the schedule came out these were games you wanted to play and it sucks a little, but now we\u2019re here and I\u2019ve got to accept it. It is what it is.<\/p>\n

Eklund, on a potential Sharks-Senators 2029 Stanley Cup Final:<\/p>\n

I would love that. Yeah, I would love that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 William Eklund was excited for October. Eklund was healthy going into Ottawa Senators training camp, unlike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[4216,83959,150719,38740,349,75543,3525,26224,88,90,89,98,3236,64827,2105],"class_list":["post-506535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-alex-wennberg","tag-brady-tkachuk","tag-brandon-svoboda","tag-fabian-zetterlund","tag-injury","tag-ivar-stenberg","tag-kasper-halttunen","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-trade","tag-victor-eklund","tag-william-eklund"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}