William Eklund Traded to Ottawa: A Fresh Start for the Winger and a Draft Haul for San Jose

The San Jose Sharks made a statement about their rebuild on Tuesday, trading 23-year-old winger William Eklund to the Ottawa Senators in a deal centered on draft capital. The Senators acquired Eklund along with forward Kasper Halttunen and the rights to prospect Brandon Svoboda in exchange for the No. 9 overall pick in this week's draft, a selection Ottawa had landed in the package that sent Brady Tkachuk to Florida. The move reshapes both rosters and carries clear fantasy implications for a young scorer changing addresses.

The deal and the context

For San Jose, this is about accumulating picks. The Sharks now hold three first-round selections in this draft, at No. 2, No. 9, and No. 27, an enormous haul of premium capital for a franchise stockpiling young talent. Moving a productive 23-year-old to add to that pile signals a front office fully committed to building through the draft rather than holding its existing core together.

For Ottawa, the trade is a swap of future capital for a proven NHL scorer. Having just shipped Tkachuk to the Panthers, the Senators needed to replace top-six scoring, and Eklund slots in as a young, controllable forward who can help right away. Trading a top-10 pick for an established 23-year-old is the kind of move a team makes when it believes its competitive window is now.

Eklund's profile and fantasy outlook

Eklund just completed his third full NHL season, posting 53 points on 15 goals and 38 assists in 78 games, and he has accumulated 163 points across 252 career games since San Jose selected him with the seventh pick in the 2021 draft. He is a playmaking winger whose assist-heavy production is the engine of his fantasy value, and at 23 he still has another developmental gear ahead of him.

The fantasy question is what the new environment does to his usage. Eklund spent his early career on a rebuilding Sharks club, often without elite finishers to convert his setups. In Ottawa, with a need for top-six scoring created by the Tkachuk departure, Eklund should walk into a prominent role and likely power-play time. A young playmaker getting top-six minutes and man-advantage reps on a team trying to win is a fantasy profile worth buying, particularly in dynasty and keeper formats where his age and trajectory matter most.

The Sharks' side

San Jose's fantasy story is about the future, not the present. Trading Eklund removes a established producer from the current roster, which dims the near-term fantasy appeal of the Sharks' forward group, but it sets up a draft in which San Jose will add multiple high-end prospects. Dynasty managers should be paying close attention to which players the Sharks select at No. 2, No. 9, and No. 27, because those picks represent the next wave of fantasy-relevant talent in San Jose.

The departing prospects, Halttunen and Svoboda, head to Ottawa as part of the price, and their long-term fantasy value now ties to the Senators' developmental pipeline. For deep dynasty leagues, tracking where those young players land in Ottawa's plans is a worthwhile exercise.

The Verdexed model take

Verdexed's skater-value model weights ice time and power-play usage as the primary drivers of fantasy scoring, and the trade points Eklund's projection upward. Moving from a rebuilding roster to a Senators club that just lost a top-six scorer should increase both his minutes and his man-advantage opportunity, the two inputs that most directly raise a playmaking winger's point total. The model treats this as a buy-low-turned-buy window: a 23-year-old with a rising role on a team trying to win.

The model is more neutral on the Sharks in the immediate term and more bullish on their future. Stripping a producer off the current roster lowers San Jose's near-term offensive projection, but the three first-round picks represent a meaningful injection of future value that the model captures as long-term upside rather than present production. For dynasty purposes, the Sharks just got more interesting, even as their current lineup got thinner.

The dynasty read on the Sharks' picks

For dynasty managers, the more lasting value of this trade may be the draft capital San Jose now controls. Three first-round picks in a single draft is a rare concentration of young talent, and the players the Sharks select at No. 2, No. 9, and No. 27 will form the next layer of fantasy-relevant prospects in the organization. The No. 2 pick in particular gives San Jose access to one of the best players available in this class, the kind of selection that can headline a rebuild.

The practical move for keeper-league managers is to treat the Sharks' draft as a target-rich event. A franchise this committed to building through the draft will give its young players runway, and runway is what turns prospects into fantasy contributors. Identifying which of San Jose's incoming picks earns an early NHL role is the kind of forward-looking bet that wins dynasty leagues, and this trade just gave the Sharks three more chances to find that player.

What's next

The draft is the immediate catalyst, with San Jose set to make three first-round selections that will define the next phase of its rebuild. For Eklund, the move is to monitor his deployment in Ottawa once the season approaches, because confirmation of a top-six role and power-play time would cement the fantasy bump this trade implies. Buy the young playmaker landing in a better opportunity, track the Sharks' incoming picks for future value, and treat this deal as the kind of win-now-versus-build-later swap that creates fantasy opportunity on both sides.