Nikolaj Ehlers has always been good. When he was with the Halifax Mooseheads he was good, but he was slight and played with Jonathan Drouin. What if the Jets let those two things impact their decision on who they were going to draft in 2014. But they did not and the Jets benefitted from it.
Ehlers is not small. He is 6 feet tall and over 170 pounds, so he is slight. That would turn some teams off of him, but Ehlers is good and has always been good. He was the best player available and was probably better than players taken before him.
If the Jets had not drafted Ehlers, they would not have their best player at zone entries and exits. Even when he is not scoring, he is carrying the load so to speak in other ways. By remaining an effective player, he keeps himself valuable to the team even when he is slumping.
Where would the Jets be without Ehlers? I don’t really want to think about it because even though they have a good amount of wingers, no one quite fits all the boxes that Ehlers does. He can score, he can pass, and he can skate like the wind. He can also carry the puck really well. If the Jets did not have Ehlers, they would live in their own end. That is a what if scenario I would hate to explore.
