Criminally underrated, Jets’ Ehlers has quietly grown into NHL powerhouse
Ehlers #Ehlers
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Author of the article:
Scott Billeck 
Jan 19, 2021; Ottawa, Ontario, CAN; Winnipeg Jets left wing Nokilaj Ehlers (27) celebrates his goal in overtime against the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre. Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports Photo by Marc DesRosiers /X02835 Article content
There’s a story that Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff likes to tell when it comes to Nikolaj Ehlers. For it, we head back to the spring of 2014.
Cheveldayoff was in St. John’s, watching the IceCaps compete in the Calder Cup playoffs. During one of the series, an off day for Winnipeg’s American Hockey League affiliate at the time afforded a chance to hop across the Cabot Strait and into Halifax, the home of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Halifax Mooseheads — and more importantly, the home for then-18-year-old Nikolaj Ehlers.
Arriving at the arena, Cheveldayoff would have an interesting run-in with an attendant manning the arena’s press box that night.
“I walk into the building and the attendant upstairs in the press box recognized me and said, ‘What are you doing here?’” Cheveldayoff said during a press conference on Monday morning. “And I was like, ‘Well, I’m here scouting. I’m here to watch Ehlers.’
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Cheveldayoff said the attendant proceeded to ask him where the Jets were in the order for the 2014 NHL Draft, held that year in Philadelphia.
“Ninth,” the tenured GM said.
“Oh, you’re not going to get him at ninth,” the attendant fired back. “He’s going to be long gone before then.”
“I said, ‘Oh well, then I’m just here to enjoy the game,’” Cheveldayoff said.
And enjoy the game, he did.
“He was spectacular in that game,” Cheveldayoff said of Ehlers. “He would carry the puck through the neutral zone with speed. He would enter the zone with danger. He would create plays. He would shoot the puck, he would make a play.”
A few weeks later in Philly, Ehlers would go ninth overall to Cheveldayoff’s Jets.
Since then, Ehlers has morphed into one of the league’s premier wingers. An analytical darling, Ehlers has also become one of the league’s most criminally underrated players — at times, even by those in the market he plays in.
You would be hard-pressed to find a better player when it comes to zone entries. Not just in the North Division, either — across the entirety of the National Hockey League.
Possession metrics? Check.
Expected goals? A lot of them.
And the stats that show up on the scoreboard each night? Yeah. Ehlers has that covered, too, pacing his team with 14 goals (sixth-most in the NHL) and is second to Mark Scheifele with 29 points so far this season.
“He’s a really fast player. He’s got [a] good three first steps, but once he gets that top speed there’s not many guys in this league that can catch up to him,” said current linemate and former QMJHL foe Pierre-Luc Dubois. “He moves the puck well, he shoots it well. He’s got good hands. Like I said, I played against him in junior and played against him in the NHL, but only a few times in the NHL, but he’s an electrifying player.
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“One of the most talented, definitely, that I’ve ever played with.”
High praise for a premier centre that has played alongside the likes of Artemi Panarin.
While Dubois has been in Winnipeg for only a couple of months, Mathieu Perreault has watched Ehlers from the onset of his career, beginning during the 2015-16 season.
“When he first got here, you could tell right away the skill and the speed that he had was there,” Perreault said Monday. “But he had to go through it, learning how to play in the NHL and play into our system and respecting what he’s asked to do by the coaching staff to be successful for the team.
Now in his sixth NHL season, Perreault feels Ehlers is as good as ever.
“He does all the little things that we are asked to do to be good for the team,” the 33-year-old veteran said. “He’s doing all that stuff. The skill and speed is always there. So he is able enough to use that to his advantage to get goals and to get points, but the rest of his game has just grown so much. I am very impressed with the way that he has grown as a player. He is a really good player for us.”
The biggest criticism when it comes to Ehlers (aside from the silliness that once surrounded his playoff goal drought) isn’t about the player himself. Instead, it’s about his usage. Ehlers is averaging 16:47 in time-on-ice this season. He has played only one season where that number was over the 17-minute mark.
For a player as gifted, and as game-changing, as Ehlers is, it begs the question, why isn’t he playing more?
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“The simple answer is he’s having a lot of success and the people I want Nikolaj to play against aren’t playing 20 minutes,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said.
Maurice favours the matchup when it comes to deploying the 25-year-old.
“We have a history knowing that when we play him against certain styles of players, or certain lines, that those analytics are going to look fantastic,” Maurice said. “Maybe in other situations where I play him against a different set of D, those numbers aren’t quite as good and he gets worn down, and he’s not nearly as good a player.”
Maurice understands why fans question the playing time.
“When Nikolaj gets on the ice I’m excited to see him too,” he said. “I enjoy when he gets out there. We try to do our best to pick the right spots. He’s at the right level right now.”
Cheveldayoff, too.
“He’s grown and matured,” Cheveldayoff said, pointing to the playoffs last summer when Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine succumbed to injury. “Nikolaj’s game really rose. That has helped. He’s matured. He’s earned everything he’s gotten. He’s learned a lot along the way and he’s still a young player in that regard.”
Ehlers was named as this past week’s third star by the NHL, scoring three goals and adding three helpers across three games.
sbilleck@postmedia.com
Twitter: @scottbilleck
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