Man of the Week — Niklas Jensen

KHL.ru’s weekly ‘Man of the Week’ series continues with Niklas Jensen. After yet another strong season in the KHL, the Jokerit forward was called to his sixth IIHF World Championship. In Latvia, Jensen started with a bang.

Renowned for his goal-scoring ability — Niklas Jensen tallied more than 80 goals in his four seasons in the league — the Danish forward is also known as one of the best players hailing from his country. Jokerit lost in the playoffs’ first round against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, but Jensen didn’t give up and presented at the IIHF WC in top shape and took the tournament by the storm. In Denmark’s inaugural game, he led the team to a historic 4-3 win over Sweden, scoring a hat-trick and an assist on May 22. After going scoreless in Denmark’s 0-1 loss to Switzerland two days later, Jensen starred again as the Danish had a hard-fought, OT win over Great Britain. After assisting Julian Jakobsen’s tally in the first period, Jensen scored his fourth of the tournament to give Denmark a 2-1 lead after 13 minutes. However, the British fought back and sent the game to OT in the tail of the third period. In extra-time, however, Jensen found D-man Markus Lauridsen on the blue line, who sent it home with a powerful shot from the blue line, giving Denmark two wins in three games and putting them in fourth place in Group A standings. Markus Lauridsen is the younger brother of Oliver Lauridsen, a former Jokerit defenseman from 2016 to 2020 who is now serving as one of the team’s alternate captains. Jensen is currently leading the IIHF WC with 7 (4+3) points, and it isn’t over yet.

Early years

Niklas Jensen was born in Herning, a town in central Denmark, which produced the Bjorkstrand brothers — Patrick played three seasons in the KHL between 2013-2016 — and former Jokerit’s captain Peter Regin. His father, Dan, still serves as an assistant coach for the local team, where Niklas’ brother, Markus, is playing as a forward. Niklas played only one year with Herning’s senior team, helping the team earning bronze hardware in the 2009-10 campaign, winning Danish Rookie of the year’s honors. After that season with Herning, Jensen moved overseas at 17 to play in the OHL.

Move to America

Jensen started playing overseas in 2010 with the Oshawa Generals of the OHL. Later that year, he was drafted in the first round by the Vancouver Canucks, with whom he will have his debut in the NHL in the lockout-plagued 2012-2013 season. He was then moved to the New York Rangers in 2016, but he will play only seven games with the big boys, spending most of his time in the AHL with the Hartford Wolf Pack. As an impending free agent, he decided to return to Europe in the 2017 offseason, signing with the Finnish franchise in the KHL, Jokerit Helsinki.

Move to the KHL

Jensen’s move to Jokerit was a success right away, with the Finnish franchise moving to the second round in his first season in the league and the Danish forward scoring twenty goals in his KHL debut. Jensen will keep the pace in the consequent seasons. In 2019-2020, the forward had his lowest goals total with 15, but he only played 27 regular-season games that year. In the playoffs, he posted 7 (4+3) points in six games.

In the 2020-2021 season, Jensen had another strong showing, with 18 goals in 54 games. In the 2018-2019 season, Jensen had an incredible 12-game point streak spanned over one month from December 28 to January 29. However, all this regular-season success didn’t translate to similar results in the postseason. Most famously, Jokerit is yet to defeat Dynamo Moscow in the playoffs, and the rivalry continues.

However, Jensen can now focus on his play with the Danish national team — today, Denmark faces Russia as the competition for a playoff spot in Group A gets tighter and tighter.