The New York Rangers announced that they have come to terms with Blake Wheeler, signing him to a one-year contract worth $800,000. Wheeler takes a huge discount to go play in a big market where he can thrive offensively. There are lot’s of young players that will benefit from playing with a veteran like him.
After being bought out of his final year with the Winnipeg Jets, Wheeler was among one of the top targets for the group of free-agent forwards. While he isn’t getting any younger, he is still quite a valuable offensive player. Coming off a 55-point campaign, this was his lowest point-per-game total in well over a decade. Was it just a down year, or is age finally catching up to him? We will find out this year. Either way, it is still absolutely worth taking a bet on at this point in his career.
Wheeler is known for his offense. He isn’t going to be relied on for a strong two-way game, but in the right role, he can still be quite useful if deployed appropriately. He is a big-bodied right-winger who plays like it. His skating isn’t excellent, but he still has great hands and vision and can be quite effective with the puck. He makes crisp passes, has a great shot, and especially on the power play he will fit in well.
Related: THW’s 2023 Free Agent Tracker
Wheeler dealt with an injury after blocking a teammate’s shot and, following that, wasn’t playing quite at the pace he was prior to the surgery needing to heal. He started out with 26 points in his first 29 games but only finished the season with 27 points in his last 43 games.
The biggest worry that comes along with Wheeler is in the locker room. Starting with Rick Bowness stripping Wheeler of the captaincy, it should be acknowledged that he isn’t being signed to be a leader. At this point in his career, he is going to be used as a middle-six winger who is producing offense rather than leading a locker room. He still has some great assets to bring with him with his experiences, and with a lesser role, his perceived baggage shouldn’t be an issue.
Wheeler Can Still Produce Offense
As already mentioned, this was one of Wheeler’s worst seasons production-wise. However, to this point, it was an outlier on his career resume. He is going into this season proving he still has lots of hockey left and value to provide. There have been a lot of negative stories surrounding him in Winnipeg over the past few seasons and it is time to put that behind him. The clock ran out for him and the Jets.
It is expected that Wheeler is going to play in the middle six to help out with scoring, and would make the most sense lined up with Filip Chytil as he is a great young center that can mesh well with Wheeler’s game and they can both help each other produce offense.
