This is the sort of injury update that lands with a thud because it changes the shape of a season, not just a lineup. William Eklund is set to miss 10-to-12 weeks after surgery on a torn ankle tendon, and the Ottawa Senators now have to deal with the loss of a 23-year-old winger who had looked immediately useful in his first season with the club.
Eklund was injured last week in the first period of the Senators' 2-1 victory over the Flyers after taking a hit from Simon Benoit. He left the ice with assistance from two teammates and was unable to put pressure on his left leg. That sequence alone told you this was serious; the surgery and timeline only confirm it. For a team already navigating early-season injuries, this is not a minor interruption. It is another genuine problem.
Why the Senators cannot shrug this off
TSN reported on Thursday and Jake Sanderson is close to returning, Andre Burakovsky made his season debut on Saturday, and Artem Zub is set to play on Thursday. So yes, there are bodies coming back. But that is only part of the story. The Senators are 5-2-0 despite the injury pile-up, which is impressive, but it does not make the absences disappear.
Eklund had a goal and an assist in his first four regular season games for the Senators, a tidy start that suggested he would be more than just a depth piece. That matters because this is his first season with the Senators, after they acquired him in the off-season from the Sharks along with two prospects in exchange for the ninth overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. That is not the kind of move a team makes to watch the player disappear for 10-to-12 weeks almost immediately.
And that is the frustration here. The Senators did not just lose a warm body. They lost a 23-year-old winger who was beginning to fit into the roster and offer some return on a significant summer deal. In a season where Ottawa already looks stretched by injuries, the challenge is to keep the early momentum alive rather than let the injury list dictate the narrative.
There is still enough talent around this team to keep winning. But the margin is getting thinner, and the loss of Eklund makes that impossible to ignore. The Senators have survived the opening weeks well enough. The harder question now is whether they can keep doing it without one of the young forwards they clearly expected to lean on.
