Nikolaj Ehlers posting a 30-goal season is something you’d swear has happened already, but in reality has yet to occur.
In his third season with the Winnipeg Jets, Ehlers popped 29 goals and seemed to be serving notice that he’d be a perennial 30-goal guy from that point on.
By his mid-20s, Ehlers was scoring at nearly a 40-goal pace — he tracked toward 37 in both 2020-21 and 2021-22 — but injuries and the pandemic conspired to limit the amount of games the Danish winger played in each of those seasons and he wound up with stat lines that read 21 tallies in 47 games and 28 goals in 62 outings.
Most recently, Ehlers scored at a 29-goal pace while missing 13 games during what may have been his final season with the Jets.
Injuries have certainly been a subplot during Ehlers’ tenure in Manitoba — and represent a point of consideration for any club contemplating his value as an unrestricted free agent.
Watch the Stanley Cup Final on Sportsnet
With the Stanley Cup within reach, the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers are set to battle once again for hockey’s ultimate prize. Watch every game of the Final on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
Another theme, however, has been Ehlers not exactly being burdened by too much ice time when he is in the Jets lineup.
In the past three seasons, the 29-year-old Ehlers has averaged under 16 minutes per game. In that same span, five Winnipeg forwards — Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Gabe Vilardi, Mason Appleton and Nino Niederreiter — have averaged more five-on-five time per game than Ehlers’ 13:18.
Even while not getting the run you might expect, Ehlers showed his worth by finishing second on the team in points per 60 minutes this season (2.10), first last year (2.62) and first in 2021-22 (2.56).
Could a new squad open the door to increased ice time and an opportunity to blow past that 30-goal barrier? It’s certainly possible, depending on where Ehlers lands.
Of course, if the Jets get their way, he might just stay put. Kevin Cheveldayoff, Winnipeg’s GM, expressed a desire to make Ehlers a “Jet for life” after the team was bounced in Round 2 of the playoffs. And the team did lock up another important piece, defenceman Neal Pionk, at the conclusion of the regular season.
It seems apparent, though, that negations with Ehlers will be a little more layered than they were with Pionk. And, with the start of free agency now less than three weeks away, it’s very much worth considering which teams could hotly pursue Ehlers on July 1.
With lots of cap room and a blatant need for more scoring — at least come playoff time — the Canes are going to be linked to most any player who can offer goals.
Raleigh, N.C., is a city players have been known to embrace, the team is good — surely a consideration for Ehlers, who is used to winning in Winnipeg — and if you’re bringing a big-fish UFA in to help with offence, it stands to reason you’d give him prime ice time to try and do just that.
The drawback here for Ehlers may be that if he’s not on the top line centred by Sebastian Aho, he could be back in a situation like Winnipeg where the club has one high-end centre and it’s not the guy Ehlers slots beside.
32 Thoughts: The Podcast
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.
While the playoff ceiling the Kings keep smacking their head on is lower than Carolina’s — for L.A. it’s the first round as opposed to the conference final — this is a good team with win-now aspirations, a new GM in Ken Holland and a solid pitch when it comes to the California lifestyle.
The Kings have made the playoffs four straight years — losing a first-round series to Edmonton each time — and rank 20th in goals per game (3.09) in the regular season during that span.
The offence can use more life and Ehlers, at his best, brings game-breaking ability with his high-end speed.
The Bruins have a whack of cap space and, as we touched on while wondering where Jonathan Toews could land, there’s a reasonable path to competing for the playoffs for this club after a down year.
After David Pastrnak, there’s just not much in the way of high-end talent among Boston’s forward crew. Like Pastrnak and stud defenceman Charlie McAvoy, Ehlers is still under 30 and figures to be a very good player for most of the seven-year deal you’d expect him to land on the open market.
Utah Mammoth
The Mammoth are expected to have their big snouts in just about everything this summer. Utah’s fourth-overall pick is reportedly in play at the draft if it can return a needle-moving NHLer, but that still feels like a tough swap to make.
Regardless of whether Utah can swing a draft deal, the Mammoth figure to be big players on the open market.
While they’re not a playoff team yet, maybe the Mammoth could convince Ehlers that he — along with another potential acquisition — can put them squarely inside the West’s top eight teams.
While they’re not in the top tier of teams that figure to be on the hunt this summer, it’s still easy to envision the Isles trying to make a big splash.
New GM Mathieu Darche is here to push this club back into the playoffs, not embark on a plan that sees the team take a step back. And, of course, New York’s bugaboo always seems to be squeezing out enough offence to win games.
Two prospects — Cole Eiserman and Calum Ritchie — should be able to help the Isles up front in coming seasons, but adding Ehlers would sure provide an immediate boost, and it’s easy to see him being a top-six fixture long-term on Long Island.
The Habs’ most pressing need is at second-line centre, but you could argue any boost to the secondary scoring would be welcomed. The Canadiens already have Ivan Demidov poised to bump the offence and adding someone on Ehlers’ level could be the kind of acquisition that helps Montreal stay ahead of the hard-charging field in the race for another playoff spot in 2026.
Ehlers is a pal of former Jet and current Hab Patrik Laine, though the latter’s time in Quebec could be limited with just a single year left on his contract.
The trade that sent Chris Kreider to Anaheim sheds enough salary that it feels worth mentioning the Rangers, even though the club still must figure out a path forward with RFAs Will Cuylle and K’Andre Miller.
The Blueshirts will be pedal-to-the-medal this summer as they try to erase the memory of a positively miserable 11th-place finish in the Eastern Conference.
.jpg.webp?itok=1zl_MpKg)
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·