TSN hockey insider Darren Dreger joined Jay Onrait on Sportscentre for some hockey talk which included a question about the status of Nikolaj Ehlers who is heading into the last year of his seven-year contract he signed back in October of 2017 which pays him six million per year.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
Onrait asked Dreger about the report he made last month that Kevin Cheveldayoff might be open to moving someone like Ehlers to help out on the blueline and about new reports of late that Ehlers ‘would welcome a trade’ and if there is any more information there.
Dreger had this to say:
“Look I believe that Nik Ehlers likes the idea of staying in Winnipeg to the conclusion of his contract. So he’s going into the final year of his deal. Do I think that Ehlers wants to extend in Winnipeg? I don’t get that sense.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s unhappy and there’s a lot of change and there will be more change in Winnipeg. That just happens organically, automatically. You’ve got a familiar face in Scott Arniel, whose now the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets. But his name has been out there. I just didn’t randomly throw that out there the last time we visited.
But I also am not going to sit here and say that I think it’s a front burner topic for Jets management either. They’ve got some things that they’re going to have to consider and look at. You look at their pending unrestricted free agents. Sean Monahan was an excellent fit in Winnipeg. Is there a chance that they can convince him if the dollar is right and the term works to stay? You can’t continue to sign contracts and extend players, it’s not an unlimited salary cap, so I think that Cheveldayoff would be willing to listen to interest and I’m sure that there is interest in Nikolaj Ehlers.”
You can watch the segment here (starts at 3:22).
