Winnipeg Jets Forward Would fit Great With The Blue Jackets And Be A Nice Upgrade
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It's summertime, so the trade rumors are picking up in certain markets surrounding certain players. One of those players is Nikolaj Ehlers of the Winnipeg Jets. He's skilled and speedy and coming to the end of his contract. Teams will be lining up to take a shot at Ehlers, and one of those teams should be the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Murat Ates of The Athletic thinks that Ehlers could be on the trade block soon if the Jets can't reach an extension with the 28-year-old winger. Currently, Ehlers makes $6 million AAV and has a modified no-trade clause, meaning he will need to submit a 10-team no-trade list.
The Winnipeg Sun's Scott Billeck says that the Jets could use Ehlers to acquire a top-4 defenseman, a position of need.
May I present to you, Damon Severson?
When it comes to top-4 defenseman for the CBJ, the Jackets aren't trading Zach Werenski, as he is most likely untouchable. As for the others that play on his blue line, not so much.
Damon Severson has term on his contract, he's not quite 30 but would make the same as Josh Morrisey. Morrisey had 69 points last year on a very good Jets team, while Severson, who suffered through some injuries only had 28. When healthy though, he can be very good. So it would most likely take something or someone else to sweeten the deal. So adding Jake Bean, a young promising defenseman to the deal would be perfect for both sides. The Jets get an older, experienced blueliner who can be very good and a young defenseman with tremendous upside. Also, both are Canadians, with Severson's hometown just 5 hours from Winnipeg.
Since Ehlers only has one year left, the CBJ would need to sign him with any trade. He will most likely want a raise, so by trading Severson and Bean (who is RFA), the Jackets could actually save some money as long as Ehlers doesn't get over $9 million. By off-loading Severson and Bean, it also makes room for David Jiricek, Denton Mateychuk, and possibly Stanislav Svozil.
So why would Ehlers want to come to Columbus? Well for starters, Patrik Laine is one of his best friends. Ehlers and Laine centered by a young stud like Adam Fantilli or Cole Sillinger could be really fun to watch. He would also get to play with Johnny Gaudreau, Zach Werenski, and Kirill Marchenko, what's not to like about that? Ehlers had a career-high 61 points last season and will be counted on to have an even better season during a contract year.
Of course, the Jets would most likely want to have this done over the summer, and well, since the Jackets have no GM at this time, that makes this hard to do. There is much to do with this team and the lack of a GM seems to be holding them back. The NHL Draft and signing their RFAs will probably take priority over making an upgrade like this. But if they can get a new General Manager in the next few weeks, they may be able to make something like this happen.
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