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The season for Nikolaj Ehlers and the Winnipeg Jets ended in heartbreaking fashion in more ways than one.
The Jets were defeated by the Dallas Stars in six games in the Western Conference semifinal while at the same time dealing with a tragic situation with teammate Mark Scheifele, who had lost his father the night before the deciding game against Dallas.
Now, the attention turns towards the offseason. General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, who will be tasked with attempting to get Ehlers signed to a new contract, has stated that his goal is to make Ehlers a lifetime member of the team, via NHL.com.
“Nikolaj has been a player that has grown up in our organization,” Cheveldayoff said Wednesday. “Drafted, developed him, someone that we think the world of. We obviously went into this year eyes wide open that he was a potential unrestricted free agent — players earn that opportunity.
“When we get a chance to talk to him, we'll put our best foot forward with him to try to make our case to be a unique Jet-for-life-type player and we'll see where it all goes there.”
Ehlers scored 24 goals with 39 assists in 69 games played, falling a single point short of his career-high of 64 points in 2016-17.
Nikolaj Ehlers is the top pending free-agent on the Jets
A native of Aalborg, Denmark, Ehlers would play youth hockey in Switzerland before eventually being selected by the Halifax Mooseheads with the sixth selection in the 2013 Canadian Hockey League Import Draft.
Regarded highly among most NHL scouts, Ehlers would ultimately be selected by the Jets with the ninth overall pick in the 2014 NHL draft. He's played his entire NHL career with the franchise, and ranks fifth overall in goals and sixth in assists and points for the Jets (and their original incarnation as the Atlanta Thrashers) in franchise history.
His teammates have no shortage of great things to say about him, led by goaltender Connor Hellebuyck.
He's an awesome guy to be around and it's been such a pleasure watching him grow his game, not only on the ice but off the ice as well, and watching him become the guy he is,” Hellebuyck said. “He's such a big part of this family and the heart and soul of a lot of things we do here.”
Ehlers has skated in 674 career NHL games, scoring 225 goals with 295 assists. He's also added nine goals and 12 assists in 45 career playoff games.
