William Eklund Teases Victor, Talks How Last Year’s Wrist Surgery Affected His Season

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Last offseason didn’t go the way William Eklund wanted it to.

Instead of working on and improving specific parts of his game, he was rehabbing a wrist injury picked up just ahead of the World Championship for Team Sweden.

While he hasn’t yet thought about whether he’ll play for Team Sweden this year, an injury-free summer grants him more time to rest, reset, and get better. Specifically, Eklund wants to use that time to work on his shot.

“I had a lot of chances this year that I think that I should have put in. Creating a lot of chances still, and I feel like I should be able to score more,” Eklund said. “I’m going to work on it and see what different types of areas I can shoot, where I can shoot, and stuff like that, when to shoot.”

In 78 games played this season, the young San Jose Sharks winger scored 15 goals and recorded 38 assists, similar output to his previous campaign.

Eklund spoke about Alex Wennberg’s impact, how Michael Misa reminds him of younger brother Victor, and coming so close to the playoffs.

On the forward group potentially being similar next year…

If it’s a similar forward group, or group in general, I think that’s a good thing too. You create chemistry in that way too. I feel like the past couple years, I played with a lot of different players, and you always want to create some chemistry too. Everybody here is dialed into to have a great summer and to work really hard to be back and great to make the playoffs.

On how Alex Wennberg makes the San Jose Sharks better…

This year he showed why he’s one of the most underrated players in the league. He can do it all – can kill penalties, power play, can be different types of areas, and you’ll always get a good night from him. For myself he plays the game pretty similar, and that’s why we’ve been playing really good together as well. Outside of hockey he’s also a good mentor for me and been helpful last couple of years. So I really appreciate him and his family has meant a lot to me as well.