Latest news with #JacobTrouba
New York Times
6 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
With Nikolaj Ehlers' future uncertain, looking back at how 7 famous Jets exits worked out
If Nikolaj Ehlers signs with another team on July 1, his Winnipeg Jets exit won't be the most dramatic, most acrimonious or most needed departure in Winnipeg's history. But Ehlers' role as a Jet has been the subject of discussion for several years in a row. His ice time in the playoffs — ninth among Jets forwards at five-on-five, but fifth overall, thanks to the power play — followed a regular season that saw Ehlers play the eighth most minutes per game of his 10-season NHL career. Advertisement Did the Jets leave results on the table? More pressing: Is Ehlers about to sign in New York or Carolina or New Jersey, receive first-line minutes and deliver results that make the Jets regret his departure? There are several famous Jets comparables, from Ehlers' good buddy Patrik Laine to Jacob Trouba, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Blake Wheeler — among others — who have left Winnipeg for what seemed like greener pastures. It didn't always work out for them. Still, there are cases where players left Winnipeg, picked up a few extra minutes per night along the way and took the next step in their career. Today, we dig deeper into Winnipeg's most famous exits, what happened to them and what it could mean for Ehlers should the UFA market win him over on July 1. Patrik Laine was Winnipeg's own, delightfully chaotic, 'Fortnite' playing bundle of dryly comedic energy. He arrived in 2016 via a draft lottery win, with the Jets moving from sixth to second overall, and then scored 80 goals as a teenager. He adored Winnipeg and seemed to be meant for stardom — if not as an all-around play driver, then at least as a one-shot scorer — but ultimately asked for a trade in 2021. With Winnipeg: Laine was mostly a second-line right wing, while playing a key role on the Jets' top power-play unit. His best work came in 2017-18, back when Wheeler had Laine, Mark Scheifele and Dustin Byfuglien as three right-shooting one-timer options on Winnipeg's power play. After a rookie season spent primarily on Scheifele's wing, Laine spent a lot of time with Bryan Little and Ehlers, with Paul Stastny making a 2017-18 cameo. Laine got a bigger push in 2019-20, when he got the third-most minutes among Jets forwards — at five-on-five and overall, too. With 63 points in 68 games, it seemed as though Laine had truly arrived. Advertisement With Columbus: Laine started off as a second-line right wing, but struggled out of the gate at five-on-five. His second and third seasons with the Blue Jackets were exceptional, though — first-line minutes, Laine's first point-per-game season, and the two most productive points-per-minute seasons of his career. His power-play production was volatile, depending on his goal scoring and suffering with respect to playmaking and puck retention. His five-on-five ice time in Columbus never quite matched that of Laine's final year in Winnipeg, but he played a big role through most of his tenure. Outlook: Laine entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program in January 2024. In August 2024, Columbus traded Laine to Montreal (at his request), where he seems to be revitalizing his career. Montreal deployed him as a power-play specialist to tremendous results, limiting him to the 10th-most five-on-five minutes among regularly used Canadiens forwards, and he shot out the lights with that power-play usage. Was the grass greener outside of Winnipeg? No, then maybe, then no. Laine is not on the path of stardom once anticipated for him. There are legitimate caveats available (in addition to a slew of injuries, Laine stepped away from hockey in 2024 to focus on his mental health) and it's clear the 27-year-old can still produce points in the right contexts. The Canadiens are deploying him as a third-line forward/power-play specialist. Looking back, Laine's workload peaked at 19:25 per game in his final year with the Jets — roughly four more minutes than Ehlers got this season. Laine was young enough to bank on continued development, but Ehlers could gain ground in terms of opportunity. Pierre-Luc Dubois was meant to get the Jets out of their Laine jam. For a minute there, it even seemed to work: Dubois struggled in 2021 but scored 60, then 63 points in his next two seasons. There were times when he outplayed Scheifele and times when he seemed to disappear altogether. In the end, his disinterest in signing with Winnipeg cost him a pretty good gig, while the Jets are still looking for his replacement. With Winnipeg: Dubois' first partial season in Winnipeg was a poor one, with a two-week quarantine followed by two injuries. He spent the next two years playing the role of second-line centre — sometimes excelling, sometimes going cold to the point of being completely ineffective. It was important that he move on; remember that, along with the inconsistency, Dubois delivered two of Winnipeg's best seasons by a second-line centre ever. Little was a 64-point 1C prior to Scheifele's emergence and a 40-50 point 2C afterward; Stastny signed in Vegas; Vladislav Namestnikov has scored 37 and 38 points in his last two seasons. Advertisement With Los Angeles: Dubois was so underwhelming, producing just 40 points in 82 games, that the Kings traded him to Washington before his no-movement clause kicked in. It seemed as though getting everything he ever wanted let the air out of Dubois as a player; the consensus analysis piled on the Capitals for acquiring him as opposed to recognizing their low-cost acquisition of a still-viable player. Outlook: Getting out of Winnipeg was not the answer. Dubois was a markedly better Jet than he was a King. He's found a great fit in Washington, revitalizing his game and scoring a career-high 66 points and dramatically outscoring his opponents on a line with Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson. It's not out of line to think he could have done the same playing between Perfetti and Ehlers — let's not get carried away calling Dubois' resurgence a total shock — but it's clear Winnipeg got as much out of Dubois as was possible. Was the grass greener outside of Winnipeg? No. It was not green at all in Los Angeles, but Dubois has found himself again in Washington. Jack Roslovic was packaged with Laine in the trade for Dubois. He was an afterthought at first, given Laine and Dubois' pedigree, but Roslovic made the smoothest transition of all three players. His role has grown the most since Winnipeg — which makes sense, given his youth, the Jets' depth and his difficulty finding minutes early on in his career. With Winnipeg: In his final Jets season, Roslovic scored 12 goals, 17 assists, for 29 points in 71 games, finally getting a full season's worth of middle-six deployment. His 13:10 per game at five-on-five — more than Ehlers got this season — was a dramatic increase in his nightly workload after getting buried by Winnipeg's depth in his previous two seasons. The problem, if you were looking for an instant return, was that his scoring rate marched in place despite playing with Ehlers and Wheeler more than any other teammates. He asked for a trade and got one — to his hometown, where he was meant to flourish. With Columbus: Roslovic flourished. He scored at a 49-point-per-82-game pace over four seasons, backing up his inflated usage on a worse Blue Jackets team with legitimate offence. The same questions persisted: Was he best at centre or at wing? Could he drive a line or was he a complementary piece? Roslovic contributed like a middle-six scorer throughout his time with Columbus and again for Carolina this season. Outlook: He's what Winnipeg drafted him to be, achieving the middle-six potential we saw in short doses during his Jets tenure. The grass was greener for him — first in his hometown, now with Carolina — although it's tough to argue with his usage in that final Jets season. (Roslovic's ice time was paltry before that, but there are concessions available based on the sheer depth of the 2017-18 and 2018-19 Jets teams.) Advertisement Was the grass greener outside of Winnipeg? Yes. Roslovic is a good example in favour of 'more minutes equals more points' for most players. With Winnipeg: Trouba was a top-pairing defenceman who received a 2018-19 promotion to the top power-play unit in the wake of injuries to Byfuglien and Josh Morrissey. He'd always been a productive five-on-five defenceman but added 18 power-play points, scoring 50 points in total. Continued power play success was never a good bet, but Trouba had been a productive even-strength defenceman for several years. The Jets' version of Trouba was an above-average top-four defenceman, even when Byfuglien was healthy and manning the top power-play unit. With New York: Trouba struggled early and late in his Rangers career, with a pair of good top-four seasons sandwiched between multiple seasons of getting outchanced and outscored. He emerged as a violent physical threat in New York, which is an element that is missing from the Jets lineup — and had one great season, results-wise, wherein the Rangers won his minutes by 15 goals. Most often, though, Trouba's pairings were outchanced and outscored over the course of his Rangers tenure. Outlook: It's not that Trouba's performance fell off a cliff in New York. We always knew that he was out of his element playing PP1, as he did prior to the Jets trading him. Still, Winnipeg got Trouba's best year in terms of points (50) and his three best years in terms of shot attempts and expected goals. Trouba's best on-ice situation was playing alongside Morrissey on the Jets — this much is clear — even if he preferred to live in the U.S. Was the grass greener outside of Winnipeg? No. Paul Stastny was acquired at the 2018 trade deadline and became an instant fan favourite, playing defensive conscience for Laine and Ehlers while contributing to the Jets' top power play. The Jets tried to re-sign him in the offseason, thinking themselves set with Scheifele, Stastny, Little and Lowry down the middle, but Stastny chose Las Vegas instead. Two years later, Winnipeg traded for him again — this time, from the Golden Knights — with lower expectations now that he was 36 years old. With Winnipeg: Stastny was a stretch run and postseason darling, scoring the goal that beat Nashville in Game 7 among 15 points in 17 playoff games. His friendship with Wheeler made him an instant cultural fit, while he appeared to fit seamlessly on the Jets' top power play, taking rookie Kyle Connor's interchange spot and adding a few tricks of his own. With Vegas: Stastny scored at a 63-point pace in his first season with the Golden Knights, which seemed to justify Winnipeg's efforts to sign him. An injury limited him to 50 games, however, and his point production fell off the following year. It's oversimplistic to suggest he played poorly in his 38-point, 71-game sophomore effort with the Golden Knights — Stastny, Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty dominated the flow of play without finishing their scoring chances — but he was clearly on the downswing when he arrived in Winnipeg for his second stint. Advertisement Outlook: The Jets were right to want Stastny back in 2018 and he continued to find ways to contribute further down the lineup in his late-career encore. The grass was a little bit greener — he made the Western Conference final in the 2020 bubble — but Stastny's own performance matched the quality he'd reached in Winnipeg. His role was almost identical to the one he'd played in Winnipeg and in St. Louis before that. Was the grass greener outside of Winnipeg? A little bit, via those 2020 playoffs, but nothing to worry about if you're a Jets fan. Blake Wheeler was one of the world's best five-on-five players for nearly a decade, consistently outplaying more famous competition without earning league-wide recognition. Wheeler was Winnipeg's captain for six seasons and, thanks to a power-play explosion quarterbacking the Connor/Scheifele/Laine/Byfuglien unit, he became a 91-point player — twice — before age caught up to him. His brash, sometimes top-down leadership approach served him well until it didn't. His later years are marked by dressing-room conflict, struggles to integrate youth and the eventual removal of his captaincy. He was bought out in 2023 and played his final season for the Rangers. With Winnipeg: Wheeler was everything for Winnipeg for a lot of years. In the year prior to his departure, he was 36 years old and clearly on the downswing, with second-line usage at five-on-five to go with a key role on a struggling power play. Even then, he maintained a 1.85 points per 60 minutes at five-on-five — good by second-line standards, but the third-worst production rate of his career. With New York: To Wheeler's credit, his 1.64 points per 60 minutes at five-on-five in New York was slightly above average for NHL forwards — while doubling as the worst production rate of his career. His ice and impact continued to decline, playing 11:29 per game at five-on-five while getting second-unit power-play duties. His scoring rate dropped on the power play, too, which makes sense moving from Connor and Scheifele to Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafrenière. Outlook: It's clear that Winnipeg had greater use for Wheeler's skill set than New York did. It seems reasonable to guess that his status in Winnipeg led to more first-unit power-play time — his last Jets season was among his worst in terms of power-play production — but his usage had started to drop there, too. It could be a case of a veteran losing clout with a new team; it could simply be that Wheeler's time had come. He played fewer minutes in his final season than Ehlers has at any point in his career. Was the grass greener outside of Winnipeg? No. With Winnipeg: ⭐ Since Winnipeg: 🎣 (Top photo of Nikolaj Ehlers and Pierre-Luc Dubois: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
Reuters
a day ago
- Sport
- Reuters
Report: Rangers' Chris Kreider signs off on trade to Ducks
June 12 - Chris Kreider agreed to waive his no-trade clause in a deal that, once finalized, will send the longest-tenured member of the Rangers to the Anaheim Ducks, the New York Post reported. Kreider, who first suited up for the Rangers in the 2012 NHL playoffs, gave the OK on the reported deal Thursday morning. The Ducks were on the forward's 15-team no-trade list. Multiple media reports said the Rangers will receive forward Carey Terrance and a mid-round draft pick from the Ducks for Kreider and another mid-round pick. Anaheim also will take on all of Kreider's $6.5 million cap hit over each of the next two seasons. Kreider, 34, is entering the sixth season of a seven-year, $45.5 million contract. The Massachusetts native is slated to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2027. Kreider and then-Rangers captain Jacob Trouba were made available on the trade market earlier this season following a league-wide memo from New York general manager Chris Drury. The Ducks then acquired Trouba on Dec. 6 for defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. Kreider recorded just 30 points (22 goals, eight assists) in 68 games this season while nursing both back spasms and an illness. Earlier, he discussed his desire to stay in New York. "I mean, this is home for me," Kreider said in late April, per the New York Post. "This is the organization that gave me an opportunity to live out my dream. I've developed so many incredible relationships and grown up and spent so much time in this area. So, obviously, this is where I want to be and this is the group I want to help in whatever fashion and win hockey games." The franchise's third all-time leading goal scorer (326), Kreider also has 256 assists for 582 points in 883 career games since the Rangers selected him with the 19th overall pick of the 2009 NHL Draft. Terrance, 20, was selected by the Ducks in the second round of the 2023 NHL Draft. He recorded 39 points (20 goals, 19 assists) in 45 games this past season with the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League. --Field Level Media
Reuters
2 days ago
- Sport
- Reuters
Reports: Ducks closing in on acquiring Chris Kreider from Rangers
June 11 - The Anaheim Ducks are in advanced talks in their bid to acquire veteran forward Chris Kreider from the New York Rangers, the Daily Faceoff reported. Per the report, there was "mutual interest" between the teams and the "framework of a deal in place." Kreider, 34, is entering the sixth season of a seven-year, $45.5 million contract with an annual cap hit of $6.5 million. The Massachusetts native is slated to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2027. Kreider and then-Rangers captain Jacob Trouba were made available on the trade market earlier this season following a league-wide memo from New York general manager Chris Drury. The Ducks then acquired Trouba on Dec. 6 for defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. Kreider recorded just 30 points (22 goals, eight assists) in 68 games this season while nursing both back spasms and an illness. Earlier, he discussed his desire to stay in New York. "I mean, this is home for me," Kreider said in late April, per the New York Post. "This is the organization that gave me an opportunity to live out my dream. I've developed so many incredible relationships and grown up and spent so much time in this area. So, obviously, this is where I want to be and this is the group I want to help in whatever fashion and win hockey games." The franchise's third all-time leading goal scorer (326), Kreider also has 256 assists for 582 points in 883 career games since the Rangers selected him with the 19th overall pick of the 2009 NHL Draft. --Field Level Media
New York Post
22-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Breaking down biggest reasons why Rangers are in current mess
Second in a three-part series. It wasn't a traditional rebuild, not in the least when the foundation was largely constructed on Artemi Panarin's free agent signing, the trade acquisition of Jacob Trouba and the gift horse landing in their lap called Adam Fox. But the Rangers' unique approach to their reset presaged by The Letter of February 2018 was kind of succeeding, and certainly when compared to traditional tear-it-down rebuilds that have been undertaken in Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, San Jose and Philadelphia the past decade. Just two seasons later, the Blueshirts made it into the expanded 24-team COVID tournament, two seasons after that they were in the conference finals and two years after that they returned to the NHL's final four.
Forbes
03-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Talent Agency Wasserman Expands NHL Division With Deal For KO Sports
Blue-Chip Blueliner: Anaheim Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba is among the biggest names represented by KO Sports, which is selling significant assets to Wasserman. Since launching a hockey representation practice in 2018, talent agency powerhouse Wasserman has built one of the largest groups in the sport, featuring two of the league's biggest stars, Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid and Toronto Maple Leafs sharpshooter Auston Matthews, among 128 clients in the NHL and the developmental American Hockey League. That division is about to get even bigger. On Thursday, Wasserman will announce that it is entering a partnership with KO Sports, starting a process that will eventually end with the Denver-based boutique hockey agency folding into Wasserman's hockey practice. The transition is reminiscent of Wasserman's 2018 deal for an equity stake in Orr Hockey Group, which brought the agency into the sport for the first time; three years later, Orr agents and their clients were fully integrated into Wasserman. For now, the KO banner will live on under Kurt Overhardt, who founded the firm in 1992 and has served as CEO. Simultaneously, though, Overhardt will become an executive vice president with Wasserman hockey and take four of his employees—Joe Oliver, Shawn Hunwick, Brian Schoelzel and Derek Langlois—with him to join the 15 agents and 13 additional team members already in place in the Wasserman division. Of KO's roughly 60 NHL and AHL clients, who include Anaheim Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba and Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin, 55 will make the jump to Wasserman as well, and Overhardt will maintain an existing Sweden-focused affiliate relationship with AMA Sports Agency. Wasserman, which is headquartered in Los Angeles, declined to disclose the financial terms of the agreement. 'We always think great agents lead to great clients, and as we were trying to fill out our hockey business to complete it with high-level operators and we looked around the industry, we really narrowed in on Kurt,' Jason Ranne, Wasserman's president for global talent representation, tells Forbes. 'And he liked our other top hockey people and felt like it was creating a powerful starting lineup in the hockey agency space.' Although Wasserman is a relative newcomer to the sport, it has grown quickly, now managing $1.28 billion in active NHL and AHL playing contracts before the KO tie-up, according to data website PuckPedia, a figure that trails only Newport Sports Management's $2.26 billion and CAA's $2.14 billion among agencies. Acquisitions have accelerated that expansion, with Wasserman buying the Europe-focused Acme World Sports in 2020 and Vancouver-based PointsWest Hockey in 2021 and forming a 'strategic partnership' with Montreal's Momentum Hockey in September that saw the firm immediately take on the Wasserman name. The spending spree has been accompanied by Wasserman acquisitions in other sectors—including digital creators and European soccer with September's purchases of Long Haul Management and International Football Management—and by consolidation across the talent representation space. When Forbes last published a list of the most valuable North American sports agencies, in 2022, a wave of M&A activity had already widened the gap between the industry's haves and have-nots, and Wasserman ranked second with maximum commissions of $733 million, from an estimated $7.68 billion in playing contracts under management and $1.81 billion in non-playing contracts (such as marketing and media deals). Like Wasserman, fellow representation juggernauts CAA, WME, Excel Sports Management and Octagon have continued to snatch up smaller rivals in the years since, across a wide variety of sports. The NHL is among the professional leagues now dominated by just a handful of agencies. Factoring in the KO deal, Wasserman will have more than doubled its hockey contracts under management since Forbes' 2022 ranking, and the sport's top five agencies—including Octagon and Quartexx Management alongside CAA, Newport and Wasserman—are responsible for roughly $8 billion in playing contracts combined, according to PuckPedia. The other 76 agencies currently representing at least one NHL or AHL client manage a total of $7.6 billion. 'I've never truly believed in, oh, it's just straight-up consolidation—I think everyone's living their own life and they're making the best decisions for themselves and the clients,' Ranne says. 'And we don't just say grow to grow—we're truly trying to fill in gaps and be the best we can for the clients and the agents.' KO Sports founder Kurt Overhardt. Regardless of what exactly is driving the agency arms race, the added firepower was a selling point for Overhardt, who will be able to tap into Wasserman's investment in areas including marketing, keynote speaking and entertainment. 'Our resources are not tripled; they're not even quadrupled—it is much larger than that,' he says. During the year-plus of conversations that it took for the deal to come together, Overhardt was also attracted by Wasserman's success recruiting and developing prospects from Finland and Switzerland, aligning with his own efforts alongside AMA CEO Pontus Noren in Sweden. Perhaps above all, however, Overhardt was excited by the chance to keep his team intact. 'I've had six different opportunities [to sell KO Sports] the last 10 years,' he says, 'but so often in the service business, companies are just looking to get your clients and then destroy you and everything else—scorch the earth.' On Wasserman's side, the fit made sense, too, as the business of hockey changes. The NHL posted attendance and sponsorship records last season, and league-wide revenue crossed $7 billion for the first time, according to Forbes estimates. Teams are also appreciating faster than their counterparts in the other major North American pro leagues, rising 44% just last year to an average of $1.9 billion. That new reality creates new earnings opportunities for players—and, by extension, agents—who have been stuck with the strictest salary-cap system in North American major pro sports since 2005. In that time, no player has topped the $17 million that legendary Colorado Avalanche center Joe Sakic reportedly hauled in on the ice during the 1997-98 season, under a deal coincidentally negotiated by Overhardt's mentor, Don Baizley. (The inflation-adjusted value of $33 million has been even further out of reach.) Meanwhile, salaries in leagues such as the NBA have skyrocketed. 'You can be frustrated, but I also think you've got to be pragmatic, right?' Overhardt says, noting that the NHL's salary cap, which is set at $88 million this season and is projected to rise to $113.5 million in 2027-28, is calculated based on the league's income. 'The only way players' salaries are going to increase is if we increase hockey-related revenue. Can we become a $10 billion sport in the next five years? Can we become a $12 million sport in the next seven years?' There is at least some optimism that the answer is yes, fueled by the success in February of the 4 Nations Face-Off, an international tournament that temporarily replaced the NHL's All-Star Game, and by a new 12-year, $7.7 billion Canadian TV deal with Rogers Communications that was announced on Wednesday. Players are also starting to see the kind of endorsement offers that have mostly been lacking in the sport to this point. (Consider that CAA's hockey division manages just over $28 million in marketing contracts, against $2.1 billion in playing contracts.) In one sign of the potential upside, McDavid and Matthews, Wasserman's star clients, now collect an estimated $6 million and $5 million annually off the ice. Agencies are paying attention. Overhardt notes that, when he became certified in the early 1990s, 'there were probably 20 agents in the world in hockey. Now I think there are over 250 registered' with the NHL Players' Association. 'I think [the NHL and its players] are just scratching the surface in terms of experimentation and putting pressure on themselves to improve the commercial side of this stuff,' Ranne says.
