NHL Draft: Will the Penguins believe in Victor Eklund?

It’s a big question in the NHL draft

A theme of the 2025 NHL draft for the Pittsburgh Penguins might be that of being in the passenger seat. They pick 11th, which means they largely have to wait and see who will fall to them when it’s their turn to pick. The Pens also have to sit and wait until up until tomorrow to find out the decision from the New York Rangers about the 12th overall pick. NYR can keep the pick, which would transfer their 2026 first rounder to Pittsburgh.

There are some elements of control, the Pens could always seek a trade up – but that would be dependent on another team willing to trade with them and move out of the top-10. Overall, Pittsburgh has to sit tight and see how the chips fall.

One area that probably will happen though is that the Pens will have to decide what they think about Victor Eklund.

Eklund is the latest in the long line of prospects that draft observers tend to favor as a smaller player that NHL teams can be a little hesitant about on draft night. Cole Caufield was a great example of this, Zach Benson, Gabriel Perreault, Joakim Kemell, Filip Mesar — all smallish wingers who get ranked extremely high by the various popular internet, non-team affiliated rankers and then drafted in the first round somewhere below their lofty internet rankings in recent years. It’s pretty similar to even Victor’s brother, William, who while he was picked seventh overall by San Jose in 2021, was ranked even higher in some places as a dynamic but smallish offensive winger.

V. Eklund doesn’t have the laser of a shot of Caufield but he figures to be in the next line for this draft process phenomenon where his tape wins over draft experts a little more freely than an NHL general manager would want to stake a high draft pick in a smallish winger. Eklund has controlled everything he can control; he’s an exciting prospect that makes a lot of good things happen on the ice, he works hard, he has demonstrated skill to make him one of the top players in his age group. He’s also under 6’ feet, 160-some pounds and plays wing.

The big question is will Eklund’s development send him on a path to reach Benson/Caufield heights or be more of a Kemell/Mesar path. (Which isn’t to suggest either of the latter are busts, but so far they’re hardly proven worthy of some of their internet pre-draft hype at this point in their young careers).

If you knew the answer to that, you would know if the Penguins should take Eklund 11th.

He says all the right answers in the video above. There’s a lot of reason to buy in and invest a high pick in him, despite some of the question marks and beige flags. It would probably be more valuable to get a center or defense prospect out of a top pick for the Pens — especially considering the sorry overall state of their 19-21 year old players at those spots. All a team can do is try to find who the best player will be when they’re up to pick. That’s much easier said than done. Victor Eklund has the profile to potentially be an impact player in the NHL, but which team picking towards the top of the draft will believe it?

That’s one of the more interesting questions that will find an answer on Friday night. Given how the top-10 could very well unfold ahead of the Penguins sitting at pick 11 in something of a nightmare fashion, Eklund could fall into their laps as the last remaining high-ceiling type of elite prospect still around. Soon enough we’ll see if Kyle Dubas and his scouts agree.