How does loss of Nikolaj Ehlers impact the Jets?

How does loss of Nikolaj Ehlers impact the Jets?

Nick Eers has signed a six-year $51 million contract with the Carolina Hurricanes carrying an average annual value of 8.5 million. Eers 24 goals, 63 points in 69 games last season with Winnipeg. He had spent his entire career with the Jets since being taken ninth overall in 2014. We got to talk about this. And there’s one man for the job and he’s casually sitting over in the Jonight Lounge. Wish I could serve him a beverage, but we’re not licensed. It’s Frankie Curado, our NHL analyst. Hey buddy, there’s nothing in here.
There’s nothing in there.
Yeah, I know. Uh Jack Armstrong was talking about that the other day. At some point, we’ll we’ll get a liquor license in here.
Maybe we’ll have a beverage this summer.
Oh, that’d be great. I’d love that. Um
I think uh Eric Tolski is having several beverages today. He’s done some nice work over the last week or so. And Eers, as I think a lot of us expected, ends up with Carolina. First of all, uh, do you like do you like that fit? Do you like him with Carolina? I I like the fit because it’s something that they need. They’re addressing a need. Like they’re they’re a dump the puck in team, a go-get, a forche kind of team. They’re not really a great rush team. And Nikolai Elers, he’s he’s he’s a guy that can do that. like with with the speed that he has, skating ability, ability to back defenders off, play one-on-one. So, there’s going to be another layer to their offense based on the strengths of Nikolai Eers, but now it’s up to the Carolina Hurricanes to implement that into their system because if they’re just going to ask him to play the way that they play or how, you know, most of the players on that team play, it might not be a good fit. But I would bet that Carolina has evaluated things now and said we need to find different ways to generate because once teams sniff us out as far as what we’re trying to do, well that that’s it. We don’t have that extra gear. And Nikolai Aers, I mean, you’ve watched him play a lot. We watch him play for the Jets, he’s he literally is that extra gear with the skating ability and uh the offensive punch that he’s going to be able to provide for a team that needs it when it dries up for them. When we talk about teams that could potentially beat the Florida Panthers, the Hurricanes come up even though they got swept again. Uh I guess they didn’t get swept. They won one game. Didn’t they win one game? I can’t remember. Anyway, the point is they did not win. And it doesn’t look like they’re going to win again. However, however, you sign Stanovven to the extension. You get Kandre Miller. You get Nick Eers. Are they getting closer to being able to beat the Florida Panthers in your mind? Well, I I guess that’s that’s moving in the right direction for sure. You’ll have to do it. You’ll have to stay healthy. Florida’s going to have to stay healthy, but Carolina’s building something here that’s going to be pretty sustainable. Like Seth Jar Jarvis is on a long-term deal. You still have Sebast with some decent term left. So like they’re they’ve got the pieces in place for a long time at a very manageable cap number. Not to mention, like we’ve talked about it for so long now, with the cap going up, all those numbers are going to look more and more favorable. So yeah, it looks good for Carolina. The only thing is they run into the Florida Panthers. Like every team you run into the Florida Panthers and um it’s not an easy task to beat them and like Florida just they have Carolina’s number as it is.
Seems like they’ve got everybody’s number right now. As far as the Winnipeg Jets are concerned,
you know, Kevin Cheveloff said, you know, at the end of the season he wanted Eers to be a Jet for life. It seemed like at the end of the day, this was kind of inevitable that that Eers wanted to to play somewhere else. So, how do you think the Jets are going to be without him? The Jets will be fine. Of course, it goes without saying it’s it’s a big loss. Nikolai Eers was the player that really drives. He drove that second line and there was always consistent offense from him even though he spent time injured. Now, this is going to provide a different opportunity for some other players on the Winnipeg Jets. someone like Cole Perfetti to take on more of an expanded role. Maybe Vlad Nome Mesnikov, maybe it’s one of their young guys in Chipov or Brad Lambert. Like there’s just there’s more opportunity that comes from this. Of course, you would like to have uh retained the services of Nikolai Eers, but it’s up to everyone now within that team to find a way to push through and keep things going in the right direction. I’ll say this about the Winnipeg Jets. Kevin Chevoff has done a great job at finding good value players on trades as time has gone on. So, you know, as long as which is going to be the case, they’re going to win enough games to keep themselves right in the mix and at some point they’re going to have the financial flexibility to strike on a trade. They’re going to get their RFA signed. They don’t have to worry about that. They got plenty of cap space to do it. So, they’re not really in a jam. The only jam is you lost Nikolai Eers. You lost a lot of offense, but as time goes on, they will find a way to replace that offense. I guess one of the advantages of losing a player who is often injured is you got a good window to see what your team would be like without that player for an extended period of time. Now Kyle Connor and Adam Lowry, they’re eligible for contract extensions. Lowry will be out the start of the season. It’s hip surgery. Um but how important in your mind, Frankie, is it that Chevel Day off gets these guys signed to extensions and quiets down all the the chatter around that market?
It’s huge. you know, Adam Lowry just feels like feels like such a shoein, doesn’t it? For for him because he’s the captain and uh really like the the emotional leader of the team, but for Kyle Connor, like there’s a guy who’s going to be coming up who could basically set his price and say, “I want to go to this team or these pocket of teams.” And um I think the thing that the Jets will have going for them is that it wasn’t that long ago we were having these conversations with Mark Schiffley and Connor Hobok and you got the deals done. Yep.
And then Pierre Luke Dubis wanted it out and you made the trade and you got Gabe Valardi. And so I guess like there’s there’s a good track record here even though Eers has just left of retaining the top talent on the team. And um the the thing that really comes to mind now with this free agent frenzy that we just saw, teams are able to keep players because they’re not seeing the cap casualty the way we’ve seen it before. It’s not the flat cap world. and teams or or players are looking at it saying, “Well, I have a chance to win and I’m happy. So, why do I want to mess with that?” Because they’re going to meet my number. They’re going to pay me fair market value and I have a chance to win and I like it there and I’m familiar with with it. So, it checks a lot of boxes. So, you would have to think that that is going in the Jets favor when it comes to the negotiation with Kyle Connor as long as they’re still a very competitive team, which I would imagine they still are.
Okay. A couple other things from Wednesday and this the most intriguing one to me. The Morgan Frost signing was made official by the Calgary Flames. It’s two years, just over four million on the AAV. 12 points in 32 games after his trade from Philly. He’s only 26 years old. What do you think the Flames have in this son of the former Toronto radio legend as of as of right now? They have a a good middle six centerman who has more to offer offensively. Like the skill set when you watch him play, you’re like, these are some good hands. pretty popped offensively, but I would say that he’s built a pretty good well-rounded game. And that obviously would have started with the Philadelphia Flyers and has now carried over to his time with the Calgary Flames. But I I look at Morgan Frost and I’m like, there’s more there. And I think as time goes on, like you know, you get a little bit older, you figure out the league, now you figure out where you’re playing in Calgary, Western Conference, all that that entails, I think I think he’s built the foundation. He’s built a good base. And now that he has that, he can incorporate a little bit more offense into his game. Doesn’t feel like he has to cheat the game, but like that’s basically what he is right now, a middle six guy who’s got good bones defensively, who has a little bit more offensive upside than maybe we’ve seen. And at the end of the day, if you have a 26 year old center with experience in the league, you probably want to hold on to him and see where it goes.
Yeah. Even if the even if the production is modest at best, like he’s still he’s still giving you something to like he offers something to the team.
I wanted to ask you about Connor Bard. Chicago GM Kyle Davidson has said that they are working on a contract extension for Connor Bard. He’s got another year on his entry level deal. I am so fascinated by the Chicago Blackhawks. So on one hand, it’s been a rough and last season was obviously really rough for Connor Bard. Not just for him statistically, but you could just tell this is starting to wear on him a bit. On the other hand, it’s just been two years since he was draft. This is early in the process of rebuilding for the Chicago Blackhawks. They just drafted in the top three again. Where where are you on this one? If you’re his agent, are you saying just sign an extension and and let’s get on with it? And next time maybe if this is still a disaster then we try to force our way out. Like it seems early to do something like that.
Yeah. Because I I feel like when you go to a player with the extension talk you have a framework of what it’s supposed to look like.
Yeah. It’s hard to imagine what the Conor Bedard extension would look like because you could go a million different ways with it. Is it a short-term thing because you want to wait and see what the team looks like or is it a long-term thing because you say, “Well, we can get the eight years now because the CBA is changing. We’re not going to be able to get you eight years um in in the future.” The other thing, if you’re Chicago, the reason why I would go to him early and try and get this done if I’m Chicago, like you’re probably getting Connor Bard for 9 million like on on an 8-year deal, like maybe a little bit less, but you’re probably not just because you’re you’re trying to buy some upside there. It’s a very reasonable cap hit for a guy who has the potential to really explode offensively once you get the pieces around him. Yeah. But that’s the issue for Baddard. It’s like Chicago doesn’t really
it doesn’t look and feel like they’re turning the corner anytime soon. But you talked about it. There was a lot made of what Chicago didn’t do, right? And I would say that with where they’re at now, maybe you sign a bunch of veteran guys to one-year deals and say we’re going to flip them. We’re going to flip this guy, that guy, get picks, get prospects, and then eventually we’ll we’ll have our our crew and and we’ll move forward with it. But you look at their their roster who they have right now, there’s like five veteran guys that are going into expiring contracts next year. So, they didn’t have to sign them. They already had them. So, if they move those guys, then you get more picks, you get more prospects, and eventually, ask the Edmonton Oilers, who drafted first overall a million times in like eight years, you get your nucleus. But it doesn’t happen overnight. And with this free agent crop, there wasn’t the the right guys to say that these are the guys riding wing with Conor Bedard for a long period of time. So, it’s a long wayed way of saying you can get Baddard for a discount now and at some point they’re going to have to be aggressive, but this probably wasn’t the right time for them to be super aggressive.
Even the Montreal Canadians, that was a long process to get to where they are right now, which appears to be a contending team in the Eastern Conference. And how many teams have we seen try to expedite things?
Exactly.
Just to be right back where they were. Yes.
So, I get it. It’s It’s frustrating because we see such a talented player in Conor Bedard and we just want to see him be the guy we saw at the World Juniors. We can’t do that by himself. But let let’s see what happens here as far as players leaving the organization, guys coming into the organization because maybe it’s one of those things like Montreal where you just have to be patient and then strike at the right time. Great chat with you, buddy. Thanks for this.

It took more than 48 hours after Free Agent Frenzy began, but Nikolaj Ehlers finally made his decision to sign with the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. TSN Hockey analyst Frankie Corrado joins SC with Jay Onrait to break down the fit for Ehlers with the Hurricanes, how losing him will impact the Jets, and much more.