Agent Says Eklund Not Finishing Year With Barracuda

Check out my “Sharks Pregame Live” hit!

.@Sheng_Peng provides an update on William Eklund's status pic.twitter.com/8OzJjym6al

— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) April 6, 2022

Sheng Peng: It’s bad news for Kevin Labanc.

Last week, we talked to Kevin, he had been taking full contact at practice, and he set Saturday against Dallas as his return date, pending a visit to a specialist a couple days before.

Come Saturday though, Kevin Labanc was not at morning skate and Bob Boughner was talking about the San Jose Sharks shutting down Labanc for the season.

Bob insisted that Labanc’s shoulder – he had shoulder surgery in December – is doing well. The San Jose Sharks were simply weighing, with so little season left, if it was worth bringing back Labanc this year.

And granted, a shoulder injury is a tricky thing. It can get even stronger with more time.

There’s still no final word on Labanc’s 2021-22 season, but it’s not looking good right now.

Meanwhile, over in Sweden, William Eklund’s season is over, but it doesn’t mean that he’s joining the San Jose Sharks.

It’s been a rough year for the Sharks top prospect – he’s scored just one goal in 29 regular season games and his Djugardens side got relegated to second-division Swedish hockey.

And if the San Jose Sharks brought him back to the NHL this season, they’d burn a year off his entry-level contract. They don’t want that.

However, they could bring him back to the Barracuda this year. That would not burn off his ELC and could be a positive way to end his season.

William’s agent Todd Diamond tells San Jose Hockey Now though that Eklund is going to take some time off now and then focus on the 2022-23 season.

So the next time that San Jose Sharks fans will see him should be development camp probably in July, the World Juniors in August, and then we’re back to training camp in September.