Nothing but praise for Nino

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/12/2023 (670 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DENVER — The smile on Ryan Johansen’s face was a mile wide. The reaction to the question that came his way regarding Winnipeg Jets forward Nino Niederreiter was as heartfelt and genuine as they come.

“He’s an amazing human being,” Johansen, currently in his first year with the Colorado Avalanche, said this week.

“A guy you love to have on your team. The way he carries himself, his professionalism, he’s been a great friend of mine for a long time. He was a great teammate. I know from talking to him he’s super pumped to be in Winnipeg for an extended time now. His personality and his energy is fun to be around. I’m happy for him.”

The bond between Johansen and Niederreiter goes all the way back to 2009, when the pair first met as 17-year-old linemates with the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League.

“We were kind of pushing each other since we were there to get to the NHL,” said Niederreiter. “He’s from such a small town, Port Moody (B.C). and me by myself from Switzerland, we always dreamed about having long careers and playing against each other and with one another.

Johansen was drafted in the first round, fourth-overall in, 2010 by the Columbus Blue Jackets. Niederreiter went one pick later, to the New York Islanders.

Their paths would cross once again, this time on a professional level, when Niederreiter joined the Nashville Predators for the 2022-23 season. At that point, Johansen was already in his eighth year in Music City.

“It was great,” Niederreiter said of the reunion.

However, the Predators were very much in a transition phase which included clearing the way for several younger players and prospects, so their time together was short-lived. Niederreiter was traded to Winnipeg just before the deadline last February in exchange for a second-round draft pick, while Johansen was shipped to Colorado last June as part of a salary dump.

It seems rather fitting that the two long-time friends, now 31, are both making the exact same salary in the NHL (US$4 million). Johansen has one more year left on his deal, while Niederreiter just signed a three-year extension with the Jets last week.

“Winnipeg is definitely lucky to have him,” Johansen said of Niederreiter, who has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 25 games this season. “I could rave about him as a friend and teammate forever. He’s definitely one of my favourite teammates of all time.”

Johansen, once a major part of the Nashville core, is now a more complementary piece on a Colorado club loaded with elite talent such as Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar. He has 10 points (nine goals, one assist) through 26 games this year.

“There’s some special players in this room, as we all know about,” said Johansen.“It’s been fun to be around them on a day-to-day basis and learn from them, watch them and see what they’re all about. And try to add to them and what they bring.”

Niederreiter and Johansen got the chance to catch up on Thursday, with the Jets coming up with a 4-2 victory over the Avalanche.

“Whenever we play one another we battle hard. We talk after the game about the game, how is life and everything,” said Niederreiter. “He’s a terrific centre. He’s a great playmaker, he knows how to put the puck in the net so it’s a great addition for them. He’s very good at faceoffs.”

Winnipeg and Colorado will face each other tw0 more times this regular-season.

AROUND THE GLASS:

Two thumbs up to the NHL for making plans for best-on-best international hockey in 2025.

Is it going to be as good as the Olympics or the 2016 World Cup of Hockey? Absolutely not. If you’re able to provide an event where Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid are going to be wearing the Maple Leaf and the likes of Auston Matthews and Jack Hughes are leading the U.S. on what figures to be an offensive juggernaut as well, we can’t imagine any complaints.

This will not be Canada/Russia of 1972, but it should pave the way for NHLers returning to the Olympics, perhaps as early as 2026 and that’s a good thing for the league and its star players.

“In any sport, you want to see the best-on-best compete. It’s the most entertaining. It’s what everybody looks forward to,” Jets forward Kyle Connor said earlier this week. With 17 goals so far this year, the Michigan product trails only Brock Boeser (18) for the NHL lead in that category.

“For me, personally, I’m extremely excited. I would love to… any chance that you get a chance to represent your country, every guys in this room would love to be a part of that tournament and playing best-on-best hockey like that.”

With all due respect to some of the emerging hockey powers, rounding out the field with Sweden and Finland is making the best out of a tough situation.

“I’m sure they would love to do more teams, but I don’t know if the circumstances in the world right now allow it to,” said Connor. “Everybody’s itching for it, so maybe that’s their solution in the short term, to have a four-team tournament. Obviously, love to have all the countries involved.”

While the crease for Team USA looks pretty crowded with Connor Hellebuyck of the Jets, Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks and Jake Oettinger of the Dallas Stars, soon the debate over who will be under consideration for Team Canada’s net will be underway.

---

The Arizona Coyotes put together a winning streak that was something of a historical oddity.

During a five-game stretch, the Coyotes knocked off each of the past five Stanley Cup champions, including the Washington Capitals (2018), St. Louis Blues (2019), Tampa Bay Lightning (2020 and 2021), Colorado Avalanche (2022) and Vegas Golden Knights (2023).

It’s an impressive run for a Coyotes team that is currently in a wild-card spot in the Western Conference during a season they were hoping to take a step forward.

Arizona’s streak came to an end in a loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, but they look like a team on the rise. One of the many reasons for the Coyotes’ turnaround has been the stellar play of goalie Connor Ingram, who had a string of starts after alternating with Karel Vejmelka for a good chunk of the first quarter of the season.

Could Ingram emerge as a candidate for Canada? The sample size is too small right now, but he’s doing enough to at least put him on the radar, thanks to an 11-4 record, a 2.35 goals-against average and .925 save percentage.

---

You can be sure that neither one of the writers of this weekly column is in favour of decentralizing the NHL Draft, but if the send-off is taking place in June of 2024 at the Sphere in Las Vegas, we can get on board with that.

Mike recently travelled to Vegas and got a bird’s eye view of the spectacular venue and it’s interesting to imagine what things are going to look like when the time arrives.

---

Other news coming out of the NHL board of governors meeting this week was related to a projected rise to the salary cap for the 2023-24 season to just under US$87.7 million, a notable increase.

This figures to be good news when it comes to pending free agents (hello, William Nylander, among others) and it could lead to some additional excitement leading into the NHL trade deadline in early March.

Wondering if it could also lead to some other teams following the trend of last spring where more third-party brokers get involved to facilitate more trades for some of those cap-strapped teams.

---

Finally, a stick tap for the San Jose Sharks using the teal helmets with the road white jerseys. It’s a sharp look.

The Jets aren’t going to see that uniform on Tuesday, but they figure to be facing a team that isn’t performing at the same level as the start of the season when goals were incredibly tough to come by. San Jose rallied for a ridiculous comeback win over the Detroit Red Wings Thursday, overcoming a four-goal deficit before winning in overtime to spoil the debut of Patrick Kane with his new team.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

X: @WiebesWorld