SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Jose Sharks traded Penn-Trafford graduate and Level Green native Brandon Svoboda, forward William Eklund and another prospect to the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday for the ninth pick in this weekend’s NHL Draft.
Forward Kasper Halttunen also went to the Senators. The Sharks now have the Nos. 2, 9 and 27 picks in the first round of the draft Friday night.
Svoboda, a third-round pick of the Sharks in the 2023 draft, recently completed his sophomore season at Boston University.
A 6-foot-3, 206-pound right-handed center, he had six goals and 15 points in 35 games, including two goals and two assists in a 5-4 overtime loss to Maine on Nov. 1 and two goals in a 4-3 win over Northeastern on Dec. 13.
The year before, he had seven goals and two assists in 33 games for the Terriers and scored a goal in a 4-3 overtime win for the United States over Finland in the gold medal game of the 2025 World Junior Championships.
Svoboda, 21, played junior hockey in the USHL, winning championships with the Youngstown Phantoms in 2023 and Fargo Force in 2024.
Eklund, a Swede who turns 24 in October, was second on the team with 38 assists, fourth with 53 points and seventh with 15 goals. He has 163 points in his first 252 NHL games and is signed for three more seasons at a salary cap hit of $5.6 million, with additional team control in restricted free agency beyond that in 2029.
“William is a dynamic and skilled forward who plays with a competitive edge,” Senators general manager Steve Staios said. “We are excited to welcome him to the Senators organization, and he will fit in well with our core group of players.”
The ninth pick was part of the return Ottawa got from Florida for Brady Tkachuk in that trade over the weekend.