Three highly anticipated Ottawa Senators debuts coming in October

Former San Jose Sharks winger William Eklund skates during a game last season. Photo by Ezra Shaw /GETTY IMAGES

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A franchise-altering off-season has brought three new faces to town.

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Eager to patch up a gigantic, Brady-Tkachuk-sized exit wound in the forward corps, Ottawa Senators general manager Steve Staios acquired two wingers capable of playing top-six minutes over the summer.

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And, after instability in the crease nearly collapsed their 2025-26 campaign, the Senators also found their new backup goaltender.

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William Eklund

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Winger Drake Batherson went straight to YouTube when he got word of the William Eklund trade in June.

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“I’ve watched a lot of his highlights,” Batherson said Tuesday at the Senators Foundation’s charity golf tournament. “Really skilled playmaker. I’m not sure what the lines are going to look like Day 1 of camp, but I’d be excited to test that out, I think, and see if we can get that chemistry going.”

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Of course, Batherson is right that coach Travis Green has the final say in how his squad will line up. However, after finally acquiring a speedy winger with the ability to play at Tim Stutzle’s pace, it would be odd to not see Eklund begin the season on the left side of a stacked top trio.

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“He’s played great for San Jose,” Stutzle said. “He’s still really young, so firstly, when we got him, I was really excited about it. It’s unfortunate that he was playing in a different time zone. Otherwise, we would have probably saw him a little bit more. But yeah, I think he’s a great player and he’s going to be really good for us. He‘s going to keep developing like we all are, and he looks really good on the ice.”

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Eklund had 53 points (15 goals, 38 assists) playing predominantly on the Sharks’ second line last season with 31-year-old centre Alex Wennberg (612 minutes together at 5v5), while getting looks on the first line with superstar Macklin Celebrini (251 minutes).

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Eklund is a shifty skater who can hold onto pucks in the offensive zone, utilizing a low centre of gravity to make up for his smaller frame (5-foot-10 and 185 pounds) and get body position on defenders in the cycle. His most dangerous weapon is his hockey IQ, making remarkable split-second decisions and often finding teammates with no-look passes.

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