Sharks’ Eklund has surgery; could he soon be in line for a major payday?
SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier said Monday that forward William Eklund is doing well after undergoing surgery on his left wrist that was cut by an opponent’s skate blade in an exhibition game over the weekend.
Eklund is now recovering from the inadvertent cut during a tune-up game between Sweden and the Czech Republic on Saturday in advance of the IIHF World Championships, which begin later this week with Eklund’s hometown of Stockholm being a co-host.
Grier said Eklund had exploratory surgery on Monday in Stockholm and “came out of it well,” but will not play in the Worlds. Grier could not say whether Eklund will be fully healed soon enough to allow him to go through his usual offseason training regimen.
“I think he’s doing OK,” Grier said of Eklund. “Obviously got a little bit of a scare, but I think he lucked out, and we lucked out that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”
Eklund is entering the final year of his entry-level contract, and Grier would not rule out trying to sign Eklund to a contract extension this summer.
Eklund is eligible to sign an extension on July 1. He signed his three-year entry-level contract in Aug. 2021, shortly after he was drafted seventh overall by San Jose, then spent most of the 2021-2022 season with Djurgårdens of the Swedish Hockey League.
Eklund played most of the 2022-23 season with the Barracuda before he became a full-time NHL player in 2023-24.
Grier said he met briefly with Eklund’s agent, Todd Diamond, in Dallas last week to get an early sense of what the Swedish-born forward might be looking for in his next deal.
The Sharks could sign Eklund to a long-term deal, possibly for eight years, and make him one of the team’s highest-paid forwards. Or they could feel more comfortable with a two- or three-year bridge deal, putting off a major payday until the NHL’s salary cap is well over $100 million.
The cap was $88 million this season and could increase to $113.5 million in 2027-28.
A new collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NHL Players’ Association could also set new contract parameters. The current CBA expires on Sept. 15, 2026, and talks between the two sides on a new deal have already begun.
“I think everything’s probably on the table,” Grier said Monday about a contract for Eklund. “It was a good conversation (with Eklund’s agent). It was brief, but it was nice. So, I don’t think we really know which route or which way we’re going to go, but (an extension) is probably something that’s on our radar.”
With his ELC carrying a $863,333 cap hit, Eklund is due for a significant raise either way.
Eklund finished this season as the Sharks’ second-leading scorer with 58 points, including 17 goals in 77 games. Over three years, Eklund has 110 points in 174 NHL games for a .63 points per game average.
Calgary Flames winger Matt Coronato, who had 24 goals this past season and has 56 points and 112 career NHL games, would have been a restricted free agent this summer. Instead, the 22-year-old Harvard alum and the Flames signed a seven-year, $45 million contract extension on Saturday that carries a $6.5 million cap hit and goes through the 2031-32 season.
Seattle Kraken center Matty Beniers, also 22 years old and drafted five spots ahead of Eklund in 2021, just finished the first year of a seven-year, $50 million deal.
In his first three NHL seasons, Beniers, who won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s best rookie in 2023, had 103 points in 167 games, a points per game average slightly less than Eklund’s.
Asked in April, a day after the Sharks’ season ended, if he’d like to sign an extension this summer, Eklund said, “I’m not going to go into that right now. Season just ended, but obviously, I want to be here.”