Shortly after Mike Grier left his pre-draft media availability, the San Jose Sharks' general manager got right back to work. The Sharks have traded forwards William Eklund, Kasper Halttunen, and Brandon Svoboda to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for the ninth overall selection in Friday's NHL Draft. 

Eklund is the key piece of the deal for Ottawa, as they needed to find a top-six forward to fill the hole left by their departing captain Brady Tkachuk as he heads to the Florida Panthers. The 23-year-old forward played 252 games across six seasons with the Sharks, during that time he scored 50 goals and totaled 163 points.

Eklund will run into a familiar face when he gets to Ottawa, as he has been reunited with his close friend Fabian Zetterlund who was traded to the Senators in March of 2025.

Kasper Halttunen is also a highly-rated prospect as the 36th overall pick in 2023. The Sharks needed to clear up some space on the San Jose Barracuda for incoming prospects, and moving Halttunen does just that. Svoboda, who is currently playing for Boston University in the NCAA, was the Sharks' third round selection in that same draft. 

With the acquisition of the ninth overall pick, the Sharks now hold three first round picks in this year's draft. Whether or not Grier opts to use them all or not remains to be seen, as he has a tremendous amount of draft capital and assets available to him. This could be just the first of many moves for the Sharks this summer.