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Confirmed with Link: Rangers sign Blake Wheeler [1Y/800K]

ecemleafs said:
looked like he was still a good offensive even strength player last year. keep him away from the PP cuz his stats sucked in recent years on the PP.
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That is interesting because I would think his lack of speed but big body passing would normally be good with extra space in the offensive zone.
 
I did a little bit of digging to try to learn a bit more about how the "Wheeler is a locker room cancer" thing started.

It looks like it goes back to the Laine trade. The article it was all put into, though, was very much a Laine love-fest and makes it sound like Wheeler and Scheifele were jealous of his success as a Selanne-like star player, Wheeler went out of his way to protect his ice time, and Paul Maurice couldn't control them. The article paints this as the reason everyone wanted out of Winnipeg, from Trouba and Roslovic to Laine and Byfuglien.

If this is indeed the article that started all of that rumor, that's laughable.

I saw some other random hearsay of Wheeler being intense in the locker room and that throwing some guys off, but that sounds like how Lundqvist was as well. They also suggested the team was better without Wheeler in the lineup. All of the hit pieces seem to come from Finns, though.

And not for nothing, but I'm sure Trouba would have spoken up if there were an issue of this magnitude.

Translation of article from Reddit: here

The Jets' star players and coach were the reason for Patrik Laine's desire to get out of Winnipeg, writes Pekka Jalonen. The whole of Winnipeg went crazy when the city’s puck Jets managed to grab Patrik Laine at the NHL annual draft event in the summer of 2016 with the second pick.

Laine, who scored goals with his world-class shot, immediately became the number one favorite of Jets fans. The 18-year-old Finn had no spot on the first power play unit, even though he scored 36 goals during his rookie season. The following season, Laine scored 44 goals on the second line and was even more popular among supporters if possible.

It bothered two players especially.

According to information from Iltalehti's insiders, one of them was the Jets veteran forward, Captain Blake Wheeler. The other was Jets ’number one center, Wheeler weapon carrier Mark Scheifele.

Wheeler felt his position on the right side of the No. 1 chain was threatened because Laine was originally a right winger. Wheeler was also not enthusiastic that a young man from Finland would become almost as popular in Winnipeg as Teemu Selänne.

Scheifele, who was on the team captain's leash, made it clear to everyone that he wanted to play with Wheeler.

Outside the rink, Wheeler and Scheifele threw sand at Laine’s skates in almost every possible way. Wheeler in particular was a master at speaking behind the backs of a Finnish young man for things he certainly did not want in public.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice was too weak to defy Wheeler and Scheife. Maurice let and continues to let Wheeler and Scheifele lead the team.

This three-headed ladder made Laine's life difficult, unhappy with her role and treatment.

In the NHL, opponents are already tough enough, no one needs sanders anymore in their locker room.

On Saturday, Wheeler partially admitted that he had handled some things badly with Laine. Wheeler’s statements, however, were quite hacky and concerned his own frustration with Laine’s performances.

“Maybe I could have communicated a little better instead of being frustrated,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler, of course, didn’t tell what all happened behind the scenes.

Scheifele remained silent. When the Jets faced the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night, Scheifele did not mention a word of Laine or his departure from the team in an interview.

Sometimes what is left unsaid says more than a thousand words.

Maurice, however, admitted his mistake with Laine.

Maurice stated that he tried to create an environment for each player where they could feel they could be at their best. In the case of Laine, Maurice admitted his failure and took full responsibility for it.

In an interview with Iltalehti, Laine raised the cat to the table as early as the summer of 2019, announcing that in some other NHL club he would be playing with the team’s best players.

Iltalehti's story caused a huge uproar in Winnipeg, but did not change the position of the Finnish star.

At that time, Laine's camp put one and one together and devised a strategy to take the Finn road out of Winnipeg in the summer of 2023 at the latest, but hopefully earlier.

The strategy led to a result on Saturday.

In recent years, the Jets have lost Evander Kane, Jacob Trouba, Dustin Byfuglien, Jack Roslovic and Laine, all of whom wanted out of Winnipeg. Byfuglien even ended his career in the middle of the contract period.

This tells us that there is something rotten in the club led by GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and in the locker room led by Wheeler.

Prior to Saturday's trade, GM Jarmo Kekäläinen of Columbus Blue Jackets did not receive a promise from Laine about a continuation agreement. Laine’s contract expires next summer and she will become a limited free agent with the right to arbitration.

In the arbitration proceedings, Laine would receive an annual salary of approximately $ 9-9.5 million and would have to enter into a maximum 2-year contract with Blue Jackets.

In the Blue Jackets, Laine is the team’s number one star and number one forward, but does he want to continue her career in Ohio and make a follow-up deal with Kekäläinen?

The Blue Jackets don’t have the kind of center who can feed Laine night after night. Apparently, Laine, who should be planted next to Max Domi, was forced into the spring from the ditch with the deal.

But at least he no longer has to fight his team’s two star players.
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Synergy27 said:
I want young players with wheels and tenacity yo address the lack of those things in the top six. I’d rather pay young, hungry guy to get dirty and drive the other team nuts than a way past his prime former star to be bad at being a scorer.
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Wheeler is the same guy who during a regular season game this season took a slapshot to the nuts, resulting in one of his testicles being ruptured, went into the dressing room and came back after the period break to finish the game (he went on to miss 3 weeks to repair the said testicle).

He is probably more hungry to win than most players in the league.
 
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Synergy27 said:
I don’t like him for this team. I don’t think he addresses a stylistic need.
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Scoring points and distributing the puck are a need on RW. That why we were so luck to be able to get that with the No. 23 pick in the draft. But for now please let me know better value than a proven 55-60 point player for 800k. Things aren't perfect when you have limited cap space to play with.
 
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JetsFan815 said:
Wheeler is the same guy who during a regular season game this season took a slapshot to the nuts, resulting in one of his testicles being ruptured, went into the dressing room and came back after the period break to finish the game (he went on to miss 3 weeks to repair the said testicle).

He is probably more hungry to win than most players in the league.
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Would you say most Jets fans think this is a steal for the Rangers?
 
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LOFIN said:
The only issue here is his character. He was the captain when Buff quit all together, Laine wanted a trade out of Winnipeg. He was just stripped of his captaincy. Combine that with the Rangers locker room that is probably not the toughest and most tightly knit out there...
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There are no character issues with Wheeler. The so called "character issues" are that he cares to much and expects his teammates to be behave like professionals. There were a couple of younger Jets players (Laine being the main one) who Wheeler felt weren't fully putting the work to be expected from an NHL level player on a contender and butted heads with them. In the end Wheeler was probably right as Laine so far has done nothing but underachieve his talent level.

Buff quitting had nothing to do with Wheeler. Buff had a bad ankle injury from which he never quite fully recovered and decided to pack it in. Buff and Wheeler are on great terms with each other and Buff actually made a video message for Wheeler for his 1000th game celebration this season.

PuckLuck3043 said:
Would you say most Jets fans think this is a steal for the Rangers?
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I think 95% of the Jets fans think that this is a great deal for the Rangers. Other 5% are haters with an axe to grind against him because of him "blocking" Laine.
 
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JetsFan815 said:
Wheeler is the same guy who during a regular season game this season took a slapshot to the nuts, resulting in one of his testicles being ruptured, went into the dressing room and came back after the period break to finish the game (he went on to miss 3 weeks to repair the said testicle).

He is probably more hungry to win than most players in the league.
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thats more toughness than i got.
 
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Machinehead said:
He's a RW. That was an emergency need.
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I agree. But I just don’t think he’s the right RW.

Don’t you loudly criticize this team’s lack of speed? We somehow just got even slower.

You also know he’s going to play next to Zib in place of Kakko.

Again, the contract is absurd value in a vacuum. This was a “can’t pass it up” deal like the Kane trade. I just don’t think this is the player we need right now.
 
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*sigh*

And here we were hoping they actually changed and Laf and Kakko would get an honest chance instead of putting aged scrubs into the top 6. But alas, here we are and nothing changed.

Watch Wheeler get force-fed top 6 minutes and top PP. Joke of a franchise.
 
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So he's basically playing in NY for free

His post-tax salary effectively covers a studio apartment and subway fare for the season. Optimistically hoping that means he really wanted to play here for another shot at a run. Have to imagine he could've gotten more somewhere else.

This is your Tarasenko replacement ladies and gents. Drury will have to maneuver at the deadline again for contracts @ 50%. I would still give my left nut for Vatrano back at 50%
 
Great signing for the price. Dirt-cheap contract for a good player on a 1 year deal. If it doesn't work out, no big loss, and we can ship him out at the deadline.
 
JetsFan815 said:
There are no character issues with Wheeler. The so called "character issues" are that he cares to much and expects his teammates to be behave like professionals. There were a couple of younger Jets players (Laine being the main one) who Wheeler felt weren't fully putting the work to be expected from an NHL level player on a contender and butted heads with them. In the end Wheeler was probably right as Laine so far has done nothing but underachieve his talent level.

Buff quitting had nothing to do with Wheeler. Buff had a bad ankle injury from which he never quite fully recovered and decided to pack it in. Buff and Wheeler are on great terms with each other and Buff actually made a video message for Wheeler for his 100th game celebration this season.



I think 95% of the Jets fans think that this is a great deal for the Rangers. Other 5% are haters with an axe to grind against him because of him "blocking" Laine.
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Yet for no reason he was stripped from his captaincy, and bought out when you are re-tooling anyway?

Sure...
 
Exactly the type of signing we needed. Absolute bargain big bodied right winger for the middle six.
 
JetsFan815 said:
There are no character issues with Wheeler. The so called "character issues" are that he cares to much and expects his teammates to be behave like professionals. There were a couple of younger Jets players (Laine being the main one) who Wheeler felt weren't fully putting the work to be expected from an NHL level player on a contender and butted heads with them. In the end Wheeler was probably right as Laine so far has done nothing but underachieve his talent level.

Buff quitting had nothing to do with Wheeler. Buff had a bad ankle injury from which he never quite fully recovered and decided to pack it in. Buff and Wheeler are on great terms with each other and Buff actually made a video message for Wheeler for his 100th game celebration this season.



I think 95% of the Jets fans think that this is a great deal for the Rangers. Other 5% are haters with an axe to grind against him because of him "blocking" Laine.
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Thank you. I appreciate the imput from somebody who has watched the guy play every night.
 
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LOFIN said:
Yet for no reason he was stripped from his captaincy, and bought out when you are re-tooling anyway?

Sure...
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The C was removed because his hardass "everyone should take hockey seriously and work hard" leadership style isn't a fit with the modern day snowflake millionaire players. Are the Rangers putting a C on him? If not then I am not sure what the concern is.

Being bought out was a mutual decision and him wanting to attempt for a cup as the Jets aren't going anywhere. He gave the Jets the greenlight to buy him out if they couldn't find a trade.
 
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JetsFan815 said:
The C was removed because his hardass "everyone should take hockey seriously and work hard" leadership style isn't a fit with the modern day snowflake millionaire players. Are the Rangers putting a C on him? If not then I am not sure what the concern is.

Being bought out was a mutual decision and him wanting to attempt for a cup as the Jets aren't going anywhere. He gave the Jets the greenlight to buy him out if they couldn't find a trade.
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Look, in the end I'm very happy and I too think that if Wheeler is just "one of the guys" instead of a leader, it will do him good. I just wonder if our locker room is good enough for that.

But like I said, for that contract, you take that chance. He's a damn good player still.
 
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