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Winnipeg Jets Top 25 Under 25: #20 Nelson Nogier

Winnipeg Jets Top 25 Under 25 –
#20 – Nelson Nogier
6’2” 191 lbs – Defence – Shoots Right – Age: 23
AHL 2018-2019 Season: 74 GP – 1G – 8A – 9PTS – 48PIM – 117 SOG

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Nelson Nogier had 117 shots on goal last season with the Manitoba Moose, and only scored once. That’s just bad puck luck after a while. I digress.

Nogier was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets in the 4th round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, and the 23-year-old played his first pro season in 2016-17 with the Moose, playing 60 games with two goals and 11 assists. He also got into 10 games with the Jets at the end of the year, and played decently during that time, while not scoring any points and getting himself in one knuckle-chess contest against Jared Boll that predictably went like this:

For context, Jared Boll had 171 fights in his NHL career. While Nogier is standing up for his teammate Mark Stuart ( <3 ) there…that’s a huge mountain to climb for your first NHL fight.

Things were looking good for Nogier, but disaster struck very early the next season. In his first shift of his first pre-season game with the Moose, was checked into the boards and suffered a shoulder injury that kept him out until March of 2018, resulting in him playing just 13 regular season games (plus two playoff games) for the club.

Back to full health, Nogier tied for the team lead in games played with 74 of a possible 76 last year, was 8th on the team in shots (but 27th in goals), while mostly playing stay at home defence, hitting hard and killing penalties. He’s not an offensive dynamo (three goals on 214 career regular season shots), but he’s a more than capable defender who continues to grow.

With his entry-level contract expired, Nogier signed a one-year, two-way contract of $700k on July 16th. I believe he’s arbitration eligible at the end of this season, if I’m reading CapFriendly correctly.

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