OTTAWA — You might not find two players more different than William Eklund and Brady Tkachuk.
Which makes it all the more intriguing that they were essentially traded for each other over the last 48 hours.
Ottawa Senators general manager Steve Staios quickly manoeuvred after losing his captain on Sunday, using the ninth overall pick he acquired from Florida to get Eklund, alongside Kasper Halttunen and the rights to Brandon Svoboda from the San Jose Sharks.
The return for Tkachuk, as of Tuesday night, looks like this for the Senators: Eklund, Halttunen, Svoboda, two first-round picks and a second-round pick.
That looks more like a haul than the Tkachuk deal seemed at first blush.
Staios is making a bet on the diminutive, skilled and speedy Eklund — with three years left on a modest $5.6 million (in average annual value) contract and four years of team control — with the hope that the Swede can help vault the Senators back into a playoff window.
Eklund was someone the Senators were eyeing at the draft in 2021 before San Jose nabbed him with the seventh pick.
But make no bones about it, that ninth pick was the biggest asset Staios had at his disposal to improve the roster. Even before losing Tkachuk, the Senators needed to acquire a top-six forward. Staios will still need to do some heavy lifting to acquire yet another one now, with slightly less capital to work with.
Still, Staios has more options than he did during the trade-request saga. Ottawa has $19 million in cap space to work with and plenty of first-round picks to play with to augment the roster.
You might ask: Why is San Jose trading a young, talented 23-year-old forward coming off consecutive 50-point campaigns? Well, the Sharks are looking to add a defenceman and are likely to draft another forward with the second-overall pick.
Eklund was a commodity worth selling, with Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa, and that pick already supplanting their forward corps.
The catch with Eklund is that he's been a terrific playmaker but hasn’t been consistent and is not a high-level goal scorer.
So, did the Senators overpay by trading away a hot commodity in the ninth pick?
If Eklund is routinely a 50-point player in Ottawa, this deal will be a failure. But if he’s closer to a 60-70 point player — which he’s certainly capable of — then the Senators will have done well.
The last time Staios made a deal with San Jose GM Mike Grier for Fabian Zetterlund, it was a disappointment. But Eklund is a much higher-calibre player.
Not to mention, Ottawa’s core just got younger with Eklund, creating the potential for internal improvement, banking on the growth of the 23-year-old. Eklund’s timeline matches up with Tim Stutzle’s and Jake Sanderson’s and is under team control until 2030, while the other two are under control until 2031.
The window for the Senators to compete in two to three years remains intact.
The Senators have always struggled to find a winger to match Stutzle’s speed and skill. Eklund might not finish plays for Stutzle, but could he be a good partner with his speed and dynamism?
Additionally, there's an argument to be made that Eklund is a more well-rounded player than Tkachuk, with defensive acumen and play-driving ability.
In theory, it makes some sense.
Analytically, Eklund has been good. Last season, the Sharks were better at creating chances and better defensively with Eklund on the ice, according to HockeyViz.com.
Defensively, Eklund still needs to grow, but he has the speed to hound pucks. Ottawa coach Travis Green has a track record of improving players’ defensive play, such as turning Stutzle into an elite defensive forward from a once-porous defender.
While Tkachuk is significantly better, will Eklund be better than Tkachuk in two to three years? The upside is there.
And for the crowd that bemoans acquiring a five-foot-11 forward, look at what Carolina just did with five-foot-eight centre Logan Stankoven. It’s about heart and skill as much as size.
Eklund is said to be a character player and happens to be best friends with Zetterlund from their time in San Jose.
There’s a lot to like with Eklund and still much for him to prove in Ottawa.
The other additions, Haltunnen and Svoboda, are two young and intriguing forward prospects for a currently dry Senators pipeline. Haltunnen is a big forward with an NHL shot but lacks footspeed — he could be a quality depth scorer as a 2023 second-round pick.
Meanwhile, Svoboda could be a defensively responsible depth centre if things pan out.
Both provide an injection of talent into a prospect pool previously bereft of forwards who could conceivably be impactful NHLers.
The Senators have addressed their lack of speed, the need to find a top-six forward, and the lack of prospects with the deal.
But ultimately, Eklund needs to raise his level to star status if the whirlwind of trades this week is to work out for the Senators. That seems like something worth betting on.
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