Armchair Scout
William Eklund

Photo by Jesse Kornblum, CC BY-SA 4.0

William Eklund

Ottawa Senators Left Wing #27

Minus thirty-one in San Jose, and dead level in the chances.

SeasonGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2025-2678153853-31323011768.518:32
Career25250113163-9199171848110.418:47

Last Season

Fifteen goals and 38 assists in 78 games — 53 points, minus-31, at 18:32 a night. His five-on-five work was done in San Jose.

The Finesse Game

A playmaker first: 113 assists in 252 career games is a genuine first-line rate, and it comes from patience with the puck on the half-wall rather than from speed.

The shooting has improved sharply. Two hundred and forty-six unblocked attempts with 48 per cent from inside twenty feet, median 20 — good ice, and sixteen goals out of it.

The Physical Game

Five foot ten and 185 pounds, and light. Thirty-two penalty minutes. He does not win wall battles and does not go to the net front except to shoot.

The Intangibles

The minus-31 is one of the worst figures in this edition and the chances underneath were exactly level — 45.0 for and 45.0 against, a flat 50 per cent share and 53rd percentile.

San Jose’s goaltending came in thirty-seven goals worse than the chances it faced, third-worst in the league. That is the whole of the minus.

He is 24, the seventh pick in 2021, and arrives on a club that finished first in expected goals against — the exact opposite structure. The playmaking will travel. The plus-minus was never his.