RALEIGH, N.C. – There was a time this season when Nikolaj Ehlers was simply trying too hard to be an impact player in the NHL.

His coach saw it, his teammates saw it and even Ehlers himself saw it.

After a hot start, he hit a prolonged down period because he was relying on habits that made him successful in junior but weren’t working in the NHL. He began to force it and his game suffered.

“He was kind of like a wild horse at the beginning and you kind of had to break him a bit,” Winnipeg Jets veteran right-winger Blake Wheeler said Monday after the team practiced for Tuesday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena.

“Guys coming from junior tend to have quite a few bad habits. The game is pretty easy for them and they can make a lot of things happen without having to be 100% there all the time.”

Three quarters of the way through his first NHL season, Ehlers is clearly starting to figure things out. He has simplified his game, done away with most of the bad habits and has let his natural instincts and skill show all over the ice.

“Once we got him to absorb our team concept, what we are trying to do, he embraced it,” Wheeler said. “You have to give him a lot of credit for that because he really cares about being in the right spot and playing the right way.”

Things have improved so much for Ehlers, he is now playing on the first line with Wheeler and centre Bryan Little. It has proven to be a strong combination for the Jets, with blazing speed and a couple of creative playmakers on the wings, and a proven goal scorer in the middle.

“They’re still kind of learning what they can do,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said of the Ehlers and Wheeler combination. “I think they’re excited to play with each other because I think they create every game. Even if there’s not a lot of offence to be had, they seem to be around the puck. There’s a lot of offence there that you know will come more often when they learn each other a little better and get a half-step quicker in terms of anticipation with each other.”

That he is playing first-line minutes this early in his career says something about the 19-year-old Ehlers. He has shown that he’s a fast learner and has the maturity of an older player.

It also says something about the linemates who have taken him under their wings.

“It helps a lot, on and off the ice,” Ehlers said. “They’re two great guys. They talk to me during the game, after the game, before the game, pretty much all the time. They want to help me play my best game. Obviously it’s up to me how I play, but talking to them and hearing that good stuff, and the bad stuff as well, it does help a lot.”

Wheeler, the Jets leading scorer, scored a goal off a nice feed from Ehlers on a two-on-one Saturday night in Edmonton, and you can tell he appreciates being on the ice with a skill player who plays at his own speed level.

“I think we’re on the same page offensively,” Wheeler said. “We’re trying to do the same things, we see the same holes to jump into. It’s nice to be out there with a guy who is kind of on the same wavelength.”

Ehlers now has 13 goals and 26 points this season. It’s nothing earth-shattering but it’s a far cry better than what it might have been had he not found a way to play through a prolonged slump.

“I had a long down period and, to be honest, I haven’t had a lot of those, so I had to pick myself up and just get back to figuring out what I did wrong and start doing it right,” Ehlers said. “Play simple and take it from there, and that’s what I did.

“Now finally being able to be on that first line and get those minutes that I wanted, it feels good. When I look back now, all that I worked for has finally paid off. Not just in the last couple months, but many years.”