This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
William Eklund
San Jose Sharks Left Wing
41 assists at 22 on a club that scored 204 goals, and 45 per cent of his shot attempts from inside 20 feet.
| 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 | SJS | 77 | 17 | 41 | 58 | -7 | 29 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 151 | 11.3 | 19:33 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 174 | 35 | 75 | 110 | -60 | 67 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 305 | 11.5 | 18:53 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 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
17 goals and 41 assists in 77 games — 58 points at 19:33 a night, with 6 power-play goals and a shorthanded goal on 151 shots. Minus-7, which on this club is remarkable.
49.6 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 47th percentile. His ice went 30-48 against an expectation of 41.14-41.87 — eleven goals of scoring missing and six extra conceded, on the club’s best line.
The Finesse Game
151 attempts at a median of 23 feet with 45 per cent from inside 20, converting at 11.3 per cent. He gets to the middle and he is not big enough for that to be comfortable.
41 assists on a club that scored 204 goals is the number to keep. He holds the puck on the half wall until a lane opens, he plays at a slower tempo than the men around him, and he is the best passer on the roster.
The Physical Game
5-10 and 185 and light. He does not win a puck against a defenceman on the wall and he does not forecheck with force.
29 penalty minutes in 77 games. He takes contact to make a play and does not answer it, and at this size on this roster that is the only choice available.
The Intangibles
Seventh overall in 2021 out of Djurgården, where he was playing men’s professional hockey at 17.
174 NHL games and 110 points. He is 22, and on a club whose two best forwards are 19 and 20, he is the one who has already had a season worth building on.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,074 minutes
- Expected goals
- 49.6%
- 48th pct
- Shot attempts
- 50.1%
- 54th 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: 30 for, 48 against. Expected: 41.1 and 41.9.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 32 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 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 78 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
2024-25 · 1074 minutes at five-on-five
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, 2024-25
- The club
- SJS took 44.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.6% — 5.4 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First line, 1,074 minutes at five-on-five — 71st percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Macklin Celebrini | 53.8% | 46.2% | 46.3% |
| Tyler Toffoli | 55.3% | 45.6% | 44.2% |
| Mario Ferraro | 47.1% | 51.2% | 46.1% |
53.8% together, 46.2% for him apart and 46.3% for Celebrini 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
246 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 18 of them goals. His median goal came from 19 feet. 45% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 20% from beyond forty.