Why Bruins should pursue Nikolaj Ehlers on Day 1 of NHL free agency originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins have taken care of most of their own free agents, including a flurry of new contracts over the last couple days.
The most notable deal was a six-year, $33 million contract for restricted free agent forward Morgan Geekie. Finding common ground with Geekie was important for the Bruins considering their lack of scoring depth. Geekie scored 33 goals last season — the second-most on the B’s behind David Pastrnak.
But the Bruins aren’t going to significantly improve offensively on internal development alone. Outside reinforcements are needed. The trade market is the best place for the Bruins to acquire a top-six forward. And the Bruins have several good prospects and future draft picks to dangle in potential trades.
The 2025 free agent class isn’t very strong — especially with Mitch Marner and Brad Marchand already off the board — but there are some impact forwards worth targeting, and one that fits what the Bruins need is Nikolaj Ehlers.
He was the Winnipeg Jets’ first-round pick in 2014 (No. 9 overall) and has played for them ever since.
The 29-year-old left wing has been one of the most consistent goal scorers in the league during his Jets career. He has tallied 20-plus goals in seven of the last nine seasons, and the two years he didn’t were 2020-21 (COVID-shortened year) and 2022-23 (missed a bunch of games due to injury).
Ehlers tallied 63 points (24 goals, 39 assists) in 69 games last season.
He was fantastic on the power play, too, posting six goals and 16 assists with the man advantage. He would be a nice addition to the Bruins’ power-play, which ranked 29th out of 32 teams with a 15.2 percent success rate in 2024-25.
Ehlers is more than a goal scorer. He’s a pretty good playmaker, too. He has tallied 30-plus assists five times, including each of the last two seasons. The Bruins don’t have any elite playmaking centers, so it would help to have wingers capable of consistently creating scoring chances for teammates. Ehlers fits that description.
One concern with Ehlers is durability. He missed 20 games in 2021-22, 37 games in 2022-23, none in 2023-24 and 13 games last season.
Signing him could use up most of the Bruins’ remaining salary cap space. The Bruins have about $12.7 million in cap space right now, per PuckPedia, and The Athletic projects Ehlers could get a contract in the range of six years and $8.1 million per season.
Ehlers is a legitimate top-six forward in the prime of his career. If the Bruins want to get back in the playoff mix as soon as next season, it would make sense to pursue Ehlers when the free agent market opens Tuesday at noon ET.