This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
William Eklund
San Jose Sharks Left Wing
Minus-45, the worst figure of anybody in this edition, and five game-winners on a club that won nineteen games.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | SJS | 9 | 0 | 4 | 4 | -3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0.0 | 14:20 |
| 2022-23 | SJS | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 11.1 | 19:50 |
| 2023-24 | SJS | 80 | 16 | 29 | 45 | -45 | 30 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 128 | 12.5 | 18:40 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 97 | 18 | 34 | 52 | -53 | 38 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 154 | 11.7 | 18:22 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
80 games, 16 goals and 29 assists for 45 points, 8 on the power play, 30 penalty minutes, 18:40 a night and minus-45, with 5 game-winners. He took 43.1 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,143 minutes, the 18th percentile, and his ice went 36-64 against an expectation of 40.01-52.87.
Four goals of finishing below what the chances were worth and eleven more conceded than they called for. The minus-45 is the worst figure of anybody in this edition, and the five game-winners came on a club that won nineteen games all season.
The Finesse Game
207 attempts at a median of 23 feet with 47 per cent of them from inside twenty and 11 per cent from beyond forty, 129 of those on goal, converted at 12.5 per cent against a career 11.69 across 154 shots.
Twenty-nine assists in 80 games at 21. He plays the inside of the ice at 5-10 and takes 47 per cent of his attempts from within twenty feet, which is the second-closest chart on the club and a remarkable thing for a small winger on a club that could not hold the puck.
The Physical Game
He is 5-10 and 185 and took 30 penalty minutes.
Thirty-eight career penalty minutes in 97 games. He is not big and does not try to be, but he goes to the net through the middle rather than around it and takes what comes with that; the frame will need to carry more weight before that works every night.
The Intangibles
Seventh overall in 2021 by San Jose, three seasons, and 52 points in 97 games.
Every one of his 8 career power-play goals came last season. He is 21, he is the highest-drafted forward on this roster, and a minus-45 tells you almost nothing about him and almost everything about the roster around him.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,143 minutes
- Expected goals
- 43.1%
- 11th pct
- Shot attempts
- 45%
- 17th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 36 for, 64 against. Expected: 40.0 and 52.9.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 61 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 652 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 74 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2023-24 · 1143 minutes at five-on-five
- Luke Kunin33%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2023-24
- The club
- SJS took 40.8% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 43.1% — 2.3 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second line, 1,143 minutes at five-on-five — 77th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mario Ferraro | 47.1% | 40.3% | 41.7% |
| Tomas Hertl | 50.9% | 38.8% | 42.7% |
| Luke Kunin | 39.5% | 44.8% | 34.4% |
47.1% together, 40.3% for him apart and 41.7% for Ferraro apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
207 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 16 of them goals. His median goal came from 25 feet. 47% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 11% from beyond forty.