Look at that name, and you might say “That is the same way that Jamie Lannister spells Nikolaj, maybe he is Danish?” That would be a super weird way to look at it, but you would be 100% correct. While Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is from Tybjerg, a tiny village on the island of Zealand, Ehlers is from Aalborg, one of the largest cities on the Jutland Peninsula. Also, Coster-Waldau is an actor that everyone knows, and because I haven’t introduced him, you don’t know who Ehlers is.
Well, maybe you do. You are ostensibly at a hockey related blog. If that’s the case, you know that Ehlers is the leading scorer thus far for the Winnipeg Jets. You might look at his age, 21, and believe that Ehlers is having a breakout season, but then you would be embarrassed to learn that Ehlers scored 25 goals last season, and that in fact, this is his third year in the league. Winnipeg is the Tybjerg of NHL markets, so you would be forgiven for your lack of knowledge.
While Ehlers is indeed Danish, he also didn’t spend much time there. He played his junior hockey in Switzerland before moving to Canada to play in the QMJHL. Before that, he tooled around Germany, following his father and suspected ketchup enthusiast Heinz. Neither Heinz nor his older brother Sebastian took their professional career to the NHL, making Nikolaj the groundbreaker for the family.
Nikolaj was the 9th pick in the draft, and probably didn’t get as much attention for being a promising youngster with the Jets as Mark Schiefele or Patrick Laine did, and Dustin Byfuglien is perhaps the most well known Jet for people not in Winnipeg, but the Jets’s front office know all about Ehlers. He’s not going to be anything like his family. Not only did he come to the NHL, but he is also going to stay for a while. This past offseason, he signed a 7 year extension.
I hope this little piece has introduced you to a couple of facts. He is NOT the Kingslayer. Hid father was named after condiments. ALso, Nikolaj Ehler is a heck of a hockey player, and he is vastly underappreciated.
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