Senators Lose William Eklund for 10-12 Weeks After Ankle Surgery

The Ottawa Senators will be without William Eklund until deep into the winter. Head coach Travis Green said on Thursday, October 15, that the 24 year old forward has had surgery to repair a torn tendon in his ankle and will miss the next 10 to 12 weeks.

Eklund was hurt on October 8, in the first period of Ottawa's 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. Philadelphia defenseman Simon Benoit hit him into the boards, and Eklund could not put weight on his left leg as he left the ice. Green first said the forward would not need surgery, theScore reported. The injury did not settle, the operation went ahead, and the timeline is now measured in months, not weeks.

What Ottawa loses

Eklund had one goal and one assist in four games this season, with nine shots on goal. He has 165 points in 256 career games, with 51 goals and 114 assists, split between the San Jose Sharks and Ottawa.

San Jose drafted him seventh overall in the 2021 NHL Draft. Ottawa traded for him on June 23, giving up a high draft pick to land a forward the club counted on to play a regular role right away. Yardbarker's account of the trade says Ottawa also received two prospects in the deal, which sent the 2026 ninth overall pick the other way. Eklund plays on a three year contract worth 16.8 million dollars, with a cap hit of 5.6 million dollars a season through 2028-29.

A young forward with that draft position, that contract and that trade price is not a spare part. Ottawa built part of its season around him, and the Senators now have to cover his minutes and his scoring from inside a roster that has just started the year.

The road back

Ten to 12 weeks from mid-October runs into late December and early January. That is the optimistic reading, and it assumes the recovery stays on schedule. Ankle tendon repairs punish skaters in a specific way: the first strides and the tight turns are the last things to come back, and a winger lives on both.

Green also had better news on Thursday, with defenseman Artem Zub and Callum Crotty both cleared to go, according to Ottawa Citizen reporter Bruce Garrioch. But the headline out of Ottawa is the long absence. The Senators paid a first round price for Eklund in June. They will now wait until the new year, in all likelihood, to get a full return on it.