Montreal Canadiens Should Target Nikolaj Ehlers Via Trade

The Montreal Canadiens head into the offseason with their heads held high despite missing the postseason. They have a few key roster spots to upgrade, and a top-six winger like Nikolaj Ehlers would certainly fill a hole.

The Montreal Canadiens head into the offseason with lots of cap space. That is a commodity that not every team has, and it gives the Habs lots of leverage to upgrade the roster. They could certainly use another left defenceman, but a top-six winger wouldn’t hurt either.

The Canadiens have become a very fast, skilled team with depth scoring. They were great at even strength last season but just missed the postseason because their powerplay was among the worst in the league. Though they are a quick team, they did use Andrew Shaw a lot in their top six. He had a great year, but a faster, more skilled player may complement Max Domi and Jonathan Drouin a little better.

Nikolaj Ehlers of the Winnipeg Jets would be a fantastic fit with Domi and Drouin. He is Uber-talented, can fly up the ice, loves to carry the puck into the opposing team’s zone and can snipe. If you are going to play with Domi and Drouin, you are going to get opportunities to score. Ehlers would be able to finish those plays with a far greater frequency than Shaw.

Ehlers had a bit of a down season with the Jets this year. It was the first year of a seven-year contract that will see him earn a cap hit of $6 million per season. He finished up with 21 goals and 37 points in 62 games. Over a full season, that prorates to 28 goals and 49 points in 82 games.

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That is a big step back from his two previous campaigns with the Jets. Ehlers scored just over 60 points in each of those two seasons but fell well short of those expectations this year.

His drop in production and the Jets impending cap crunch could entice them into moving the 23-year-old winger. The possibility was mentioned in Elliote Friedman’s 31 Thoughts column earlier this week.

If the Jets are willing to consider moving Ehlers, the Canadiens need to pounce. Reuniting Ehlers with his former Junior linemate in Drouin would reignite some impressive chemistry. The pair each scored over 100 points in 2013-14 with the Halifax Mooseheads. The team was not supposed to be great after losing more than half their roster from the year before when they won the Memorial Cup.

Ehlers scored 28 points in 16 playoff games, and Drouin had an unbelievable 41 points in 16 games as the Mooseheads went on a surprise run to the semi-finals. The pair certainly have shown chemistry in the past and would look great together in the NHL.

It’s never a great idea for an NHL player to point fingers after a disappointing season. Ehlers didn’t do that, but I can do it for him. His goal scoring was actually right on par with his two previous seasons, it was his assists that took a nosedive.

It’s not hard to lay blame on his linemates for the reason why. Patrik Laine had earned a reputation as one of the best goal scorers in the league heading into this season. However, after an unbelievable month of November, he simply couldn’t find the back of the net anymore. His powerplay goals kept coming, but his even strength production was not great.

Ehlers also does not play on the Jets top powerplay. His average time on ice on the PP was barely over a minute per game and ranked 10th on the Jets. However, his powerplay points per 60 minutes ranked 6th on the team, ahead of Laine and Mark Scheifele.

With more opportunity and linemates that don’t have month-long slumps, Ehlers could easily match or better his career highs of 29 goals and 64 points in a Montreal Canadiens uniform.