OTTAWA.
Ottawa's strong start just got its first real test. William Eklund, one of the Senators' big summer additions and a player the franchise clearly views as part of its core, is out for 10 to 12 weeks after surgery to repair a torn tendon in his ankle.
Reuters reported Thursday that head coach Travis Green announced the timeline, and Sportsnet reported the same news as part of a mixed day of injury updates in Ottawa. Daily Faceoff, citing Ottawa Citizen reporter Bruce Garrioch, added the surgical detail and the 10-to-12-week recovery window. Put the three together and the picture is consistent and sobering: this is not a sprain to manage or a pain-tolerance question. This was a tendon, it required surgery, and the Senators will be without a top-nine — really, top-six caliber — winger until deep into the winter.
The injury happened on Oct. 8, in the first period of Ottawa's 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. According to Reuters, Eklund was hit into the boards by Philadelphia defenseman Simon Benoit and was unable to place weight on his left leg as he left the ice. Anyone who saw that sequence knew the initial fear was justified. Green said the next day that Eklund would be out for an extended period, per Daily Faceoff, although theScore noted Green initially indicated surgery might not be required. Medicine, as it often does, had the final word on that.
The timing hurts in a specific way for Ottawa. Eklund had just arrived. He was selected seventh overall by San Jose in the 2021 draft, built himself into a consistent producer with the Sharks — at least 15 goals and 45 points in each of his first three full seasons, with a career-high 58 points in 2024-25, according to Daily Faceoff — and was traded to Ottawa on June 23. Daily Faceoff and Sportsnet both detailed the structure: the Senators acquired Eklund and two prospects in a draft-day deal that sent the 2026 ninth overall pick, originally obtained from Florida in the Brady Tkachuk trade, to San Jose. That is a franchise putting real capital behind a player, not a rental or a flyer.
And in the tiny sample before the injury, he looked the part. Eklund, 24, had two points — one goal, one assist — and nine shots in four games this season, according to Reuters and Daily Faceoff. His career totals stand at 165 points, on 51 goals and 114 assists, in 256 games with San Jose and Ottawa. Those are not superstar numbers, and nobody in Ottawa was pretending otherwise. They are the numbers of a smart, skilled, still-improving winger who makes a second line dangerous and a power play more creative. Teams chasing a playoff spot do not have spare players like that lying around.
Ottawa, to be fair, has handled its early injury pile-up better than most. Sportsnet noted the Senators are off to a 5-2-0 start despite a crowded training room, and Thursday actually brought reinforcements on defense: Artem Zub was set to make his season debut after a knee injury suffered in last spring's playoff series against Carolina, and Cameron Crotty was activated as well, with two young defensemen loaned to AHL Belleville to make room. Jake Sanderson is close but was not ready Thursday, per Sportsnet's account of Green's comments. So the blue line is healing while the forward group takes the hit. Hockey seasons are cruel that way — the problems rotate, they rarely all solve at once.
What do the Senators do for the next three months? The honest answer is committee work. Minutes get redistributed, a prospect gets a longer look than planned, and Tim Stutzle — who Sportsnet noted is leading Ottawa's early scoring surge — carries even more of the offensive burden. The Senators' start buys them patience; a team that had opened 1-6 would be shopping for a replacement winger this morning. At 5-2-0, Ottawa can afford to let its depth audition before deciding whether the trade market needs a phone call in December.
For Eklund himself, this is a rotten break in every sense, arriving just as a new chapter was actually starting to read well. A fresh team, real expectations, a long-term contract already in place — Daily Faceoff noted his three-year, $16.8 million deal runs through 2028-29 at a $5.6 million cap hit — and four games in, he is watching from the stands with a surgically repaired ankle. Athletes talk about controlling what they can control, and for the next 10 to 12 weeks that means rehab milestones nobody outside the building will see. Ottawa will count the weeks anyway.
If the timeline holds, Eklund's return lands somewhere around the turn of the year, with a season still there to be rescued and a playoff race still there to join. That is the optimistic frame, and for once it is also the realistic one. The Senators built enough cushion in October to wait for him. Now they have to prove the cushion was not a mirage. More Senators and NHL coverage is on the Previously sports hub and in the newsroom feed.
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