When the season came to an end recently for Djurgardens SHL squad, many San Jose Sharks fans wondered if William Eklund would be on his way back to North America to play in a handful of games down the stretch. Not so fast, as instead, Eklund is set to join the junior Djurgardens team to help them try and win a U20 championship according to hockeysverige.se.
The squad will take on Rogle in the semifinals on Saturday and get a huge boost with the 19-year-old forward joining up. Eklund, who was selected seventh overall by the Sharks in 2021, showed early on that he could likely handle himself at the NHL level right away. In nine games with the Sharks he managed four assists and was arguably the team’s most dynamic offensive presence early on. After those nine games and before the first year of his entry-level contract was burned, San Jose loaned him back to Sweden where things haven’t gone quite as well.
In 29 games with the senior club, Eklund managed to score just a single goal and register 14 points. That’s after tallying 11 goals and 23 points in 40 games at the same level last season, numbers that drove him up draft boards and into the international hockey spotlight.
Notably, if Eklund returned and played even one more game for the Sharks, his contract would kick in, making him a restricted free agent in 2024. If he doesn’t play again for the Sharks this season, that deal will slide forward, buying the team another year of entry-level control. Importantly though that isn’t the case for the AHL; if Eklund joined the San Jose Barracuda for the stretch run, his contract status would not change.
Unfortunately, it’s not like there’s much to play for down on the farm. The Barracuda are in dead last in the entire AHL with a 20-36-5 record and have just seven games remaining in the regular season. Given that the Sharks are also not in a playoff race, giving Eklund the chance to lead his old junior team to a championship seems like the better move, at least in development terms.
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