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Nikolaj Ehlers

Central Notes: Manson, Gustafsson, Ehlers, Utah

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Colorado Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson could return to the lineup during the team’s current three-game road trip (as per Avalanche play-by-play man Conor McGahey). Manson has been dealing with an upper-body issue and won’t suit up tonight when Colorado takes on the Vancouver Canucks. However, he could dress on Thursday or Friday when Colorado plays back-to-back against Anaheim and San Jose. Manson is currently on the injured reserve, meaning that the Avalanche will need to make a roster move before activating the 33-year-old.

Manson hasn’t played since leaving a game on November 29th against Dallas and has played 24 games on the season, posting one goal and five assists. He had one of his better offensive seasons last year, tallying 25 points in 76 games, but he has struggled this year with turnovers, giving the puck away 42 times already, which is one off from his total for all of last season.

In other Central Division notes:

  • Winnipeg Jets colour analyst Mitchell Clinton tweeted that Jets head coach Scott Arniel told the media that injured forwards David Gustafsson and Nikolaj Ehlers both skated today in what is the next step towards a return to action. The 24-year-old Gustafsson skated in a non-contact jersey, his first time back on the ice since he suffered a concussion in a fight on December 10th. Ehlers was in a regular jersey as he tried to get back in the lineup after missing eight games. The 28-year-old hasn’t played since November 29th and is likely day by day at this point.
  • Utah Hockey Club goaltender Connor Ingram and defenseman Robert Bortuzzo are not close to returning to action (according to Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune). Ingram did not practice today after he spent some time skating over the weekend and will be off the ice for the next little bit. The 35-year-old Bortuzzo didn’t have much better news as he remains sidelined with a lower-body injury that he suffered on December 10th against the Minnesota Wild.  Utah remains without several key defensemen, including Bortuzzo, John Marino and Sean Durzi.

Snapshots: Mukhamadullin, Ehlers, Nyquist, Drury

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The Sharks have recalled defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin from AHL San Jose, reports Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News (Twitter link).  The 22-year-old was the 20th overall pick by New Jersey back in 2020 and was a key piece of the Timo Meier trade three years later.  Mukhamadullin missed all of training camp with a lower-body injury, eliminating any chance he had of making the team.  He was cleared to return at the end of October and has been with the Barracuda since then, collecting six assists in 14 games.  To make room for him on the roster, Jack Thompson has been returned to the AHL; the 22-year-old has done well in limited action so far, picking up five points in 14 games with the Sharks while averaging a little over 16 minutes a night.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers skated today for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury late last month, relays Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press (Twitter link). The 28-year-old was off to a strong start before the injury, recording nine goals and 16 assists in 24 games to land him in the top four in team scoring.  Although Ehlers was back on the ice today, there remains no firm timetable for his return.
  • Predators winger Gustav Nyquist was a late scratch for tonight’s game against Calgary with the team announcing (Twitter link) that he’s listed as day-to-day with an illness. After a career year last season in his first year with Nashville that saw him record 23 goals and 52 assists in 81 games, the 35-year-old has struggled offensively this season.  Through his first 28 games, he has just six goals and four helpers despite logging nearly 18 minutes a night of playing time.
  • The Hurricanes announced (Twitter link) that center Jack Drury left tonight’s game against San Jose due to an upper-body injury and did not return. The 24-year-old is in his second full NHL season and after putting up 27 points in 74 games in 2023-24, he’s producing at a similar clip this year, picking up three goals and six assists in his first 27 outings.  Drury also has the highest faceoff rate of Carolina’s full-time middlemen, winning over 56% of his draws in the early going.

Central Notes: Hryckowian, Buchnevich, McCarron, Ehlers

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Justin Hryckowian’s brief recall with the Dallas Stars has ended for now. According to a team announcement, the Stars organization has loaned Hryckowian back to their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars.

Dallas has an extremely narrow salary cap cushion so it’s likely that Hryckowian will be re-called tomorrow before the Stars’ matchup against the Los Angeles Kings. He was originally recalled to fill the injured Tyler Seguin’s roster spot but Dallas still has 12 healthy forwards to work with.

Still, Hryckowian continues to build a name for himself in the American Hockey League and could be another long-term middle-six fixture for the Stars. He’s in his first full season with AHL Texas after signing with Dallas as a collegiate free agent from Northwestern University last year. That first full season has turned into a red-hot start with Hryckowian scoring five goals and 16 points in 17 games with a +9 rating.

Other Central notes:

  • Pavel Buchnevich will have to wait another game before returning to the lineup for the St. Louis Blues. The Cherepovets, Russia native has been dealing with a lower-body injury suffered during the Blues win against the New Jersey Devils on November 27th. Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic shared a comment from Blues’ head coach Jim Montgomery saying, He’s not a player tonight, but he’s going to be a player — we hope — in Calgary.”
  • Beat reporter for the Nashville Predators, Brooks Bratten reported forward Michael McCarron is still considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury. It’s been a relatively long-term injury for McCarron after leaving the team’s game on November 23rd against the Winnipeg Jets due to the injury. The big-bodied fourth-liner has already missed four games for the Predators with injury but should return during one of the team’s three games this week.
  • There was bad news on the injury front this morning in Winnipeg as the Jets placed forward Nikolaj Ehlers on the injured reserve due to a lower-body injury. Ehlers has already missed one game due to the injury but is projected to miss several more. Murat Ates of The Athletic reported Ehlers is expected to miss the next seven to 10 days meaning Ehlers could miss as many as seven games before returning.

Jets Place Nikolaj Ehlers On IR, Recall Brad Lambert

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The Jets announced Tuesday that they’ve placed winger Nikolaj Ehlers on injured reserve retroactive to Nov. 29 with his lower-body injury. His roster spot is going to forward prospect Brad Lambert, who was recalled from AHL Manitoba in a corresponding move.

Ehlers has already missed one game with the issue. The IR placement rules him out for the next two games, but he’s eligible to return Saturday against the Blackhawks. He remains day-to-day and hasn’t been ruled out past the minimum requirements for injured reserve.

It puts a damper on what’s been an electric start to the season for the pending unrestricted free agent. Ehlers is third on the jets in scoring with 25 points (9 G, 16 A) in 24 games and is on pace to crack the point-per-game mark for the first time in his career after narrowly failing to do so in 2020-21.

The 28-year-old Dane is doing so despite averaging only 15:33 per game, a story similar to those of years past. He’s tied with the Stars’ Mason Marchment for most points per game (1.04) among skaters averaging fewer than 16 minutes per night.

Nonetheless, the 2014 first-rounder remains without an extension in the final year of his seven-year, $42MM deal signed back in 2017. Ehlers is seventh in Jets/Thrashers franchise history with 629 games played, sixth with 210 goals, sixth with 482 points, and first with a +97 rating.

He’s been skating on Winnipeg’s second line with Vladislav Namestnikov and Cole Perfetti, and Lambert may fill his top-six role tonight against the Blues. The 20-year-old, who the Jets selected 30th overall in 2022, is second on Manitoba in scoring with three goals and eight assists for 11 points in 16 games.

Lambert, the nephew of former Islanders head coach and current Leafs assistant Lane Lambert, recorded an assist in his NHL debut last season against the Canucks. Otherwise, he has 69 points in 94 games for Manitoba since Winnipeg brought him to North America in 2022.

West Notes: Avalanche, Wild, Ehlers

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The Colorado Avalanche have assigned forwards Ivan Ivan, Nikita Prishchepov, and Chris Wagner to the minor leagues in what appears to be a paper transaction. The move will help Colorado accrue morsels of salary cap before their next game on Tuesday. Injuries have continued to pile up in Colorado, pushing all three players into Saturday’s loss to Edmonton.

Ivan stamped his spot on the third line with a two-goal game last week, but he hasn’t managed any more scoring in the three games since. Still, he’s received far more attention than Wagner and Prishchepov, who respectively recorded a measly five and six minutes of ice time in Colorado’s last game. The trio make up the bulk of Colorado’s bottom-six ice time, and the Avalanche will now take advantage of their waiver exemption status to bank some daily cap space.

In other Western Conference notes:

  • Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin reportedly did not want to include defenseman Daemon Hunt in the trade package the was used to pluck David Jiricek from the Columbus Blue Jackets yesterday (as per Dylan Loucks of The Hockey News). The Wild sent Hunt and four draft picks to Columbus to acquire Jiricek and a fifth-round pick, and Guerin told the media that he hated including Hunt in the deal but felt that the price he paid to acquire the former sixth-overall pick was fair. The Wild paid a heavy price to acquire the 21-year-old Jiricek, but if he develops into the defenseman the Wild expect, he and current Wild defender Brock Faber will give the team a solid core to build around for years to come.
  • Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers missed today’s game against the Dallas Stars and is day-to-day with a lower-body injury (as per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press). Jets head coach Scott Arniel didn’t have much in the way of an update after today’s game but did tell the media that Ehlers will see the team doctors in Winnipeg tomorrow. Ehlers is in the final season of a seven-year $42MM contract and will become an unrestricted free agent next July. The 28-year-old has had a fantastic start to the season with nine goals and 16 assists in 24 games.

Snapshots: Kucherov, Pageau, Red Wings, Ehlers, Hinds

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Prior to their game against Toronto tonight, the Lightning found themselves without their top scorer.  Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times relayed (Twitter link) that winger Nikita Kucherov is listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.  The 31-year-old led the league in scoring last season, notching 44 goals and 100 assists, both career highs, in 81 games.  While Kucherov isn’t producing at quite that level this year, he came into the night tied for fifth in scoring with 12 goals and 22 assists in 34 games, a 127-point pace.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • The Islanders didn’t have center Jean-Gabriel Pageau in their lineup tonight against Buffalo. Ethan Sears of the New York Post notes (Twitter link) that the veteran is listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.   The 32-year-old has five goals and five assists in 23 games so far this season while averaging 17:47 per game, his highest ATOI since the 2019-20 season.  A specialist at the faceoff dot, Pageau is winning just over 60% of his draws early on, a mark that would be his best if he can maintain it.
  • Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon won’t accompany the team on their two-game road trip, mentions Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). He’s dealing with a lower-body injury with no timeline for his return.  Lyon has a 2.74 GAA and a .911 SV% in nine appearances so far.  Meanwhile, St. James notes that winger Patrick Kane will miss his fourth straight game on Sunday due to an upper-body injury but there is a chance he’ll be available to return on Tuesday in Boston.  The veteran is off to a quiet start by his standards, collecting just three goals and seven assists in 20 games.
  • Though he left Friday’s game with a lower-body injury, Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers is listed as questionable for Sunday’s contest in Dallas, per team reporter Mitchell Clinton. The 28-year-old is off to a solid start in the final year of his contract, with nine goals and 16 assists in 24 games.  With 25 points, Ehlers sits third on Winnipeg in scoring.
  • The Ducks announced that they’ve re-assigned defenseman Tyson Hinds back to AHL San Diego. The 21-year-old was brought up twice by Anaheim over the last couple of weeks but didn’t see any game action.  Hinds, a third-round pick in 2021, has two goals in 13 games so far this season for the Gulls.

Jets Notes: Perfetti, Penalty Kill, Ehlers

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TSN’s John Lu is reporting that recently re-signed forward Cole Perfetti will start the season playing wing on the Winnipeg Jets second line. Perfetti has played center in the past but will get an opportunity to try out the wing which could open him up to more opportunities to use his playmaking. Perfetti isn’t the quickest skater, which is something that could hold him back from being a top-six center in the NHL this season, along with his inconsistency thus far in the NHL.

A top-six opportunity on the wing could be exactly what the 22-year-old Perfetti needs as his versatility can be put on full display. Perfetti’s playmaking and hockey sense are both high end and if he can mesh with his second-line teammates, he will most certainly top the career-high 38 points he had last season.

In other Jets notes:

  • Scott Billick of The Winnipeg Sun is reporting that Jets center Mark Scheifele and winger Kyle Connor will be seeing time this season on the Jets penalty kill. Scott Arniel told the media that the two players are excited about the additional work which could open them up to an opportunity to use their strong hockey sense when shorthanded. The Jets are hardly the first team to use this strategy as the Edmonton Oilers used Connor McDavid on the penalty kill during the 2022-23 season with strong results. Winnipeg has used Connor on the PK in the past during the 2021-22 season with good numbers and Scheifele was also a regular contributor up until 2019.
  • Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers is reportedly learning a new role on Winnipeg’s power play (as per Scott Billick of The Winnipeg Sun). Ehlers has been working in the high slot in practice and has been studying Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho as well as the now-retired Patrice Bergeron. This season is a big one for the 28-year-old as he is in the final year of his seven-year $42MM contract and will be an unrestricted free agent next July. His name has popped up in trade rumors for several years now, but it appears he is embracing the summer changes in Winnipeg as he gets set for his 10th season with the Jets.

Snapshots: Ehlers, Demko, Zelenov, Buium

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Earlier in the offseason, there was a fair amount of trade speculation surrounding Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers although a move never materialized.  Now in the final season of his seven-year, $42MM contract, the 28-year-old is now extension-eligible leading some to wonder if the fact he wasn’t traded could mean there are positive signs towards a new agreement.  That doesn’t appear to be the case, however, as GM Kevin Cheveldayoff told Thomas Drance of The Athletic (subscription link) that they are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to contract talks for Ehlers.  While he allowed for the possibility of in-season discussions, he noted that they might wait to address it until after the upcoming season.  Ehlers had 25 goals and 36 assists in 81 games last season, his best offensive performance since when he was on his entry-level contract.  It appears Cheveldayoff may be wanting to wait to see if that will be repeatable under new head coach Scott Arniel before beginning extension talks.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • The Canucks don’t have a target date in mind for Thatcher Demko to return from his knee injury, head coach Rick Tocchet told Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre. However, the bench boss acknowledged that the netminder is excited about how his recovery is progressing and that he has been improving over the past two to three weeks which is certainly a positive sign.  Vancouver has been looking at free agents to see if there’s a viable option to bring in as insurance but as of yet, they haven’t been able to reach an agreement with one.  Arturs Silovs, who took over the starting job in the playoffs, is in line to open the season as Vancouver’s starter assuming Demko won’t be ready to play by then.
  • Sabres prospect Vasili Zelenov has committed to play for Wisconsin, reports Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal (Twitter link). The 18-year-old was a seventh-round pick in June, going 204th overall after a strong season in Austria that saw him record 37 points in 40 games. Zelenov is set to suit up for USHL Green Bay this season and will likely look to make the jump to Wisconsin for the 2025-26 campaign.
  • Red Wings prospect blueliner Shai Buium was injured today after taking a shot off the ankle, relays Max Bultman of The Athletic (Twitter link). The team is hopeful that he will be able to take part in Detroit’s training camp but it’s too early for that to be known just yet.  Buium is getting set for his first professional season after spending the last three years at the University of Denver.  He finished up his college career on a high note with 36 points in 43 games last season before making his debut with AHL Grand Rapids for one game.

Jets Notes: Perfetti, Ehlers, Yager

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The Jets will likely ink RFA center Cole Perfetti to a bridge deal to conclude contract negotiations this summer, writes Ken Wiebe of The Winnipeg Free Press. Perfetti is arguably the top RFA center left on the market, although he spent a good chunk of last season on the wing after being bumped from the No. 2 center spot for Vladislav Namestnikov and later Sean Monahan. The 2020 10th overall pick is coming off his entry-level contract and set career highs with 19 goals and 38 points in his platform season.

Winnipeg will be looking for more out of the 22-year-old next season after losing Monahan and a few other depth forward pieces to free agency. But while he’s been an effective depth presence, he hasn’t been able to demonstrate his ceiling as an everyday top-six forward with much consistency to date. This season could be transformative for Perfetti, who has a chance to reclaim that second-line spot down the middle and prove himself as a capable secondary option behind Mark Scheifele. That could lead to the two sides agreeing on a one-year deal to get Perfetti signed before training camp and resuming discussions on a longer-term extension to begin with the 2025-26 season, Wiebe posits.

Turning to another notable top-six piece for the Jets, it’s been relatively quiet on the Nikolaj Ehlers front. Murat Ates of The Athletic reported back in May that Winnipeg would explore trading the winger entering the final season of his contract. A month later, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta said that Ehlers wasn’t interested in beginning extension talks with the club and intended to test free agency next summer, barring a trade. The Hurricanes were believed to be in pursuit of Ehlers, potentially in a swap for then-unsigned RFA Martin Necas, but that deal never came to fruition.

But with a different coaching regime led by Scott Arniel, The Winnipeg Free Press’ Mike McIntyre wonders if there may be a path toward an Ehlers extension after all. As McIntyre points out, both Arniel and general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff have been public in their praise of Ehlers’ play this summer, and it’s likely he’ll see an uptick on the sub-16 minutes per game of ice time he’s seen the last couple of years. The 28-year-old Dane is coming off a 25-goal, 61-point campaign in 2023-24 – a down year by his standards. But the organization’s messaging may have made Ehlers more open to sticking around, and McIntyre believes they’re still trying to get him signed before the start of the season.

Could this all get resolved before the season begins, the way Connor Hellebuyck and Scheifele’s situations did last year? I wouldn’t rule that out.

Pivoting back to that second-line center vacancy, there are a few dark horses to land the job come opening night outside of Namestnikov and Perfetti. Wiebe believes 2023 14th overall pick Brayden Yager, acquired from the Penguins last week, will get a nine-game trial in the role before being returned to the Western Hockey League’s Moose Jaw Warriors for the remainder of the campaign.

“It wouldn’t shock me to see him get a chance in that role before a final decision is made,” Wiebe said of Yager. “He’s still going to need an excellent training camp in order to force his way into this discussion, given the aforementioned contenders. But Yager is someone who could do just that and earn himself an extended look, given the skill set he brings to the table and his ability to play a dependable two-way game to go along with his talent, vision and heavy shot.”

Yager, 19, had 95 points in 57 games for the Warriors last year. The 5’11”, 179-lb pivot could at least provide a taste of things to come, and depending on his early returns, could influence whether the Jets want to put resources into developing Perfetti as a center or winger long-term.

Poll: Who Will Be The Top Free Agent Option Next Summer?

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As things currently stand, the 2025 free agent class is set to be headlined by Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers, Mikko Rantanen of the Colorado Avalanche, and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Like most years and particularly at the top of the free agent market, all three players are expected to reach extensions with their current clubs in the coming weeks with other potential candidates taking the same approach.

However, even outside of the three-headed monster at the forward position, there will still be quality names available next summer. Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs has seen his name pop up numerous times in trade rumors this summer without anything coming to fruition. The Maple Leafs are expecting head coach Craig Berube to get the most out of Marner (particularly in the playoffs) and may look to extend him during next year’s campaign.

Toronto could also give in to the pressure and allow Marner to walk next offseason especially if the team fails to make waves in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Marner would quickly become one of the premier playmakers to have entered the open market and would certainly get a lucrative offer. Being nearly unstoppable during the regular season over the last six years, Marner has accrued 417 games for the Maple Leafs in that span while scoring 356 assists and 509 points. He is not limited to his offensive prowess either as Marner has earned Selke Trophy votes as the league’s best defensive forward every year since 2018-19.

Dissimilar to Marner, it is almost entirely out of the question that Nikolaj Ehlers will sign an extension with the Winnipeg Jets. Ehlers has been a part of the Jets organization since being drafted by the club with the ninth overall pick of the 2014 NHL Draft and has put up 201 goals and 457 points in 605 games in Winnipeg’s uniform. There have been rather public reports out of Winnipeg that Ehlers won’t be re-upping with the organization and immediately became one of the top trade options available this offseason. The native of Aalborg, Denmark excels in passing the puck but also regularly puts up some of the best possession numbers in the game.

Lastly, Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks could be the top goal scorer to enter the free-agent market next summer. His market and projected contract will be more difficult to ascertain however as he averaged between 28-29 goals through the first seven years of his career before rifling off 40 markers this past season. Boeser’s shooting percentage was also up 7.1% last year compared to his career average which may be a sign of regression next year. If he can get anywhere near 40 goals again this season with the Canucks, he may cement himself as one of the top-five options next summer.

The proposed list is not constrained to these three players as the likes of Carter Verhaeghe, Brock Nelson, John Tavares, and Jamie Benn could all be available as well as the three players initially listed. The list will thin considerably over the next calendar year but who do you think will be the top option available once the season turns over to July 1st, 2025?

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