Player Discussion: Ehlers

[Royale With Cheese]

I really don't know where Ehlers and his agent, as well as Chevy are sitting in terms of numbers, desire to re-sign at certain numbers, etc. I do think though that good upcoming UFA's were not going to sign until everyone had an idea as to what the possible upcoming Salary Cap situation was. I think it was pretty well established that it would go up, and now everyone on both sides know the projections.

Now the two sides can come to the table with their comps and their ask of % of the cap. Whether one or both sides are interested remains to the seen as well as the desire to negotiate during the season. All of the above applies to Pionk as well.

Personally I do hope the two sides can come to an extension that works for both sides and allows the Jets to also sign their other players as well (Samberg, Vilardi, Pionk (I'm still on the fence depending on the number), and Connor a year later).

Same - Ehlers really is the straw that stirs the 2nd line. I'd hate to see him walk. He's having a PPG year under Arniel and a key contributor to the league's best PP. Hopefully that helps motivate him to stay.

 

[10Ducky10]

I think Chevy said he talked to all the agents of upcoming RFAs and UFAs but no conversations as to salary or term. I think everyone was waiting to see what the cap is going to be next year. He is also probably touching base to see if they were interested in signing or checking on free agency.
I fully expect him to resign all of Pionk, Ehlers, Volare, Sammy, etc...
Re-signing KFC is a no-brainer and I think it will be done before TC starts.
Not sure what he will do about AI, Fleury, Names, and Apples.

 

[BoneDocUK]

I think Chevy said he talked to all the agents of upcoming RFAs and UFAs but no conversations as to salary or term. I think everyone was waiting to see what the cap is going to be next year. He is also probably touching base to see if they were interested in signing or checking on free agency.
I fully expect him to resign all of Pionk, Ehlers, Volare, Sammy, etc...
Re-signing KFC is a no-brainer and I think it will be done before TC starts.
Not sure what he will do about AI, Fleury, Names, and Apples.

Mu wholly uneducated guesses:

KFC is Core. They will break the break for him, whatever it takes.

Ehlers has options, and I'd expect him to maybe shop around. OTOH, he seems like a guy who's happier here under Arniel and Payne and also seems to have a life outside hockey, so who knows.

Pionk has Favoured Vet status and has been very good this year -- resigned, hopefully not for high $ and term, but might happen.

GV seems happy here, but also loved being in Cali and is finally settling in as a maybe 30/30 player with some size and consistency. He has options, and may look for a shorter deal, or -- hopefully not -- year-to-year via arbitration.

Samberg is one of those guys who might have been signed long earlier -- he is going to be quite a bit more expensive now.

They love Names and Apples, and will work to resign both.

Al is going to be unaffordable, and not sure they like Fleury enough to sign him longer, but maybe the Colin Miller Two Years and Play Sometimes deal.

 

[Board Bard]

Winnipeg GM Goal To Keep Nikolaj Ehlers on the Jets

Despite all the talk and rumors Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has no plans of trading Nikolaj Ehlers in facts he wants to sign him.

nhltradetalk.com

This is the highlighted quote from the interview:

My plan is to hopefully lift the Cup with him at some point in time down the road here. So again, we’ve got lots of guys that obviously, from a free agent standpoint, both UFA and RFA that we’ll have to sort out over a period of time. But first and foremost, it’s all about winning right now. And we had the situation last year too, where we had several guys that that are were up for potential UFA. We were able to keep some of them. Some of them went in different directions for various different reasons. So when it comes to that for us, I want the focus to be totally on winning. And that’s kind of how we’ve approached things.

To me that doesn't sound like Chevy's goal is to keep Ehlers on the Jets, as the headline concludes. I think if that were the goal he would have said something to that effect, however weak and iffy, like "We hope to see him next season" or something like that. But no, the plan is lifting the Cup. Well, lifting the Cup has nothing to do with Ehlers, it's simply a preferred result when you're a team in the NHL, whether or not Ehlers is on your team. "At some point in time" I think refers to this spring and not a time later than that. It's Chevy dissembling (i.e., bulllshitting), like the way he tried to make it sound like Stempniak was some greedy player who chose to leave Winnipeg because he couldn't have top-line usuage. The rest of the quote is mostly about players leaving, and I think that's where Chevy sees Ehlers' future. Meanwhile, they'll keep Pionk and Stanley.