Anyone who thought the Ottawa Senators were going to hold onto the 9th-overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft will be happy to know that wasn’t the case. The Sens sent one of the selections they received from the Florida Panthers in the Brady Tkachuk trade to the San Jose Sharks in another major trade on Tuesday.
In short, the trade was a homerun. But when looking under the hood, the deal looks even better.
The Senators sent the 9th-overall pick in Friday’s draft to the Sharks in exchange for one of the hottest young forwards in William Eklund. If that had been the deal alone, GM Steve Staios would have gotten a bunch of handshakes.
Eklund was the 7th-overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft. As such, the Sens essentially turned one 9th-overall pick into a 7th-overall pick.
That’s not a bad haul. With Ottawa looking to replace Tkachuk’s production, Eklund figured to be just that. The 23-year-old is on the cusp of hitting the 20-goal plateau and is just now starting a three-year deal carrying a $5.6 million cap hit.
That’s fantastic for Ottawa. If Eklund can deliver on his potential, the Sens will not only have a replacement for Tkachuk but also a player with a much higher upside. Senators fans should already have visions of Eklund lining up with Tim Stutzle in a powerful 1-2 punch.
But that’s not at all. The Senators actually managed to extract two additional pieces in the trade.
Senators land two other depth forwards
The Senators also landed two other depth forwards in this trade. From the Sharks’ perspective, it’s easy to see why they made this deal. They have a clear surplus of forwards, and, well, Brandon Svoboda and Kasper Halttunen were clearly not going to make the lineup anytime soon.
But it’s a different story in Ottawa. Halttunen looks like the most intriguing prospect. He’s in the second year of his entry-level contract, with a very nice $869K cap hit. He scored 16 goals and 35 points in 69 games with the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL.
That’s pretty good, especially when considering that the Sens will need some bottom-six depth throughout the season. Halttunen was a second-round pick, making him another pretty good piece.
Meanwhile, Svoboda is a major question mark. He was a third-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft and looks to be ending his tenure in college. Last season, he scored six goals and 15 points in 35 games with Boston University.
At this point, Svoboda figures to be a long shot for the NHL. But he could be a very good depth piece at the AHL level. It’s worth pointing out that plenty of clubs add these sorts of players to bolster organizational depth below the NHL level.
This deal has the potential to become a major fleecing. Unless the Sharks land a true generational player at #9, no one will be complaining that they got William Eklund for this pick. In fact, this trade could make the Tkachuk deal fade very quickly in the rearview.
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