Nikolaj Ehlers, taken ninth overall at the 2014 NHL Entry Draft by the Jets, is reportedly on his way to Winnipeg, where he'll join the big club — but won't be in the lineup for tonight's elimination Game 4 against the Ducks.
The 19-year-old Dane just finished his year with QMJHL Halifax, getting bounced in the second round of the playoffs. It ended what was an otherwise stellar second season in the Q; Ehlers scored 101 points in just 51 regular season games and continued to light it up in the postseason, scoring 31 points in 14 games.
There are some clamoring for Ehlers to go straight into the lineup, and it would make some sense as the Jets have scored just seven goals against Anaheim, four of those coming in Game 3. The club has also gotten little in the way of production from Andrew Ladd, Jiri Tlusty, Michael Frolik, Mathieu Perreault and Mark Scheifele, all of whom are without a goal this series.
Samuel George Ehlinger (born September 30, 1998) is an American football quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. He was a consensus four-star quarterback recruit coming out of Westlake High School in Austin, Texas where he broke school records held by Super Bowl -winning quarterbacks Drew Brees and Nick Foles. He committed to the University of Texas at Austin in July 2015 and joined the team. Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach - he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball.
Game 169: September 22 2017 The Initials Games
That said, throwing Ehlers into the mix would be a pretty bold move. Aside from never having played in the NHL before, Ehlers is relatively small (5-foot-11, 176 pounds) and this has been a brutally physical series.
