Cheveldayoff plans to put 'best foot forward' to make Ehlers a Jet for life
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Winnipeg Jets vice president and general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff says he and the team will put their 'best foot forward' in presenting their case to make pending unrestricted free agent forward Nikolaj Ehlers a Jet for life.
Speaking at his end-of-season availability, Cheveldayoff said the process is on hold while Ehlers plays for Denmark at the World Hockey Championships but conversations will resume once he is finished at the tournament.
Ehlers, 29, has spent his entire 10-year career with the Jets, recording 225 goals and adding 295 assists for 520 points in 674 games. This season, the Aalborg, Denmark native scored 24 goals and 63 points in 69 regular-season games. He was the team's third-leading scorer this postseason, adding five goals and two assists in eight playoff games.
Ehlers has scored at least 20 goals in eight of his 10 NHL seasons, falling short once in his rookie year when he scored in 15 in 72 games, and again in the 2022-23 season when he scored 12 goals in 45 games.
The winger was originally drafted ninth overall by the Jets in the 2014 NHL Draft.
Ehlers is coming off a seven-year, $42 million deal he signed with the team in 2017 that came with an AAV of $6M.