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“Nikolaj Ehlers would choose Montreal before Vancouver: he is a very good friend of Patrik Laine”
Charles-Alexis Brisebois
“Nikolaj Ehlers would choose Montreal before Vancouver: he is a very good friend of Patrik Laine”
Credit: Who will be the big player the Canadiens will add this summer? We’re obviously thinking very quickly of the center players, but it’s not completely impossible to see the Habs adding a winger. That is, unless Jeff Gorton’s end-of-season assessment was a complete crock. What if that winger was Nikolaj Ehlers? (Credit: Hockey DB) Ehlers […]
Who will be the big player the Canadiens will add this summer?

We’re obviously thinking very quickly of the center players, but it’s not completely impossible to see the Habs adding a winger. That is, unless Jeff Gorton’s end-of-season assessment was a complete crock.

What if that winger was Nikolaj Ehlers?

(Credit: Hockey DB)
Ehlers is capable of energizing the top-6, and in his good seasons, he’s capable of approaching the point-per-game mark – without reaching it. He’s been an important player in Winnipeg for years.

But at 29, he’ll be a free agent this summer, and all indications are that he won’t be returning to Manitoba.

By necessity, the Canadiens must be interested in him. And that’s even if it would cause a traffic jam on the top-six wing, which wouldn’t help the center either.

But still: the guy’s excellent… and Jake Evans would surely be happy to see him after what he did for him in the playoffs in 2021.

But as much as we’re talking about Montreal, we have to wonder if the player would agree to land in another Canadian market after a decade in Manitoba.

As reported by the Fanadiens site, the subject was discussed on Sportsnet. And Jannik Hansen had this to say, when asked about the Canucks.

Do I think he’d come to Vancouver? No. He’d choose Montreal before here [Vancouver]. – Jannik Hansen

Of course, it’s debatable whether he said this simply to prove his point, or whether the choice of Montreal was strategic. After all, those are two completely different scenarios.

But to hear him talk, you’d think the Habs really have a chance.

What he reiterates is that Ehlers is good friends with Laine. I don’t know to what extent this may weigh in the balance considering Laine’s precarious future in town… but right now, the Finn is in Montreal.

I don’t know either, if Ehlers is there, how much Laine would be on the top-6 and playing with his friend. But hey.

Hansen also recalled his two years in Halifax, in the QMJHL, and the fact that the pressure of a Canadian market didn’t seem to scare Ehlers – quite the contrary.

We’ll keep the name in mind, then. Because if the price is right, Ehlers could fit into what the Habs need: top-6 talent from a guy who’s 6’0 and scored five goals in eight playoff games in 2025.


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