TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — As overtime began in Game 3 of the Carolina series, Blake Wheeler walked through the Zamboni tunnel at PNC Arena and joined backup goalie Jonathan Quick near the glass. Wheeler, who hasn’t played since suffering a gruesome injury on Feb. 15, had spent most of the night watching from the press box, then headed down with the game on the verge of ending.
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“He popped in, gave me someone to talk to for a couple minutes,” Quick said.
Nervous energy coursed through the building as Wheeler and Quick watched the start of overtime together. Then, just under two minutes into the extra period, Artemi Panarin redirected a Vincent Trocheck pass through his legs and past Pyotr Kochetkov. A stunned silence overtook most of the arena, making Wheeler and Quick’s cheers even more pronounced. A mob of elated New York Rangers swarmed Panarin and eventually pushed him toward the glass: right in front of the two veterans.
Wheeler, wearing a dark suit, joined in the celebration, banging a fist against the glass.
“It’s certainly challenging to watch this time of year,” Wheeler said. “But these guys have done such a great job that it’s been a heck of a ride even just to kind of be on the outside.”
Blake Wheeler celebrating among the glass with the Rangers after Panarin’s OT winner pic.twitter.com/oqD1rnMXCi
— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) May 10, 2024
The Rangers players spilled off the ice after Panarin’s goal, and Wheeler greeted each of them with a high five and a grin.
“Let’s f—ing go!” he said, beaming.
With every Rangers win, Wheeler’s chances of returning to game action increase. The 37-year-old told reporters Sunday he’s “ready in any capacity” to play. Whether he gets a chance will come down to coach Peter Laviolette’s discretion.
Wheeler even being a possibility would’ve felt like a pipe dream the night he got hurt. In the first period of a game against Montreal, he absorbed a hit from Jayden Struble. His right leg appeared to get caught in the ice on his way down. It bent at an unnatural angle, and when Wheeler tried to return to his feet, he immediately fell back to the ice. A trainer came out to tend to him, and Trocheck and Chris Kreider eventually had to help him off the ice and onto a stretcher.
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Wheeler immediately worried his year was over. The Rangers quickly ruled Wheeler out for the rest of the regular season, and his teammates were shaken by the injury. Kreider described it as “heartbreaking,” and captain Jacob Trouba, who played six seasons with Wheeler in Winnipeg, admitted he wondered if his teammate had played his last hockey game.
The veteran’s only hope of returning was the Rangers going on a deep playoff run and buying him time. He immediately set his mind to getting back, even if the initial timeline was less than ideal.
“You just have to (believe),” he said. “If you have any other mindset, you’ve got no chance. We just sort of attacked it right away with the mindset that we’re going to hopefully contribute to something special here down the road.”
Of Wheeler’s 1,237 combined regular season and playoff career games, zero have come in the Stanley Cup Final. He started the 2010-11 season with the eventual champion Bruins, but Boston traded him to Atlanta just four months before winning the championship. He spent the next 13 years with the organization, which moved to Winnipeg and became the Jets.
Wheeler’s Winnipeg legacy is layered. The team never made it past the Western Conference final, and the intensity that made Wheeler an All-Star level player at times led to him butting heads with teammates. Still, his time there was unquestionably positive for the organization. He became the captain and franchise career points record holder. And even if the Jets never got over the hump, they became a perennial playoff team with him wearing the “C.”
The former captain also gained a reputation for durability and a high pain threshold — he once finished a game with a ruptured testicl* — which offers a hint as to why he has been able to battle back from injury this year.
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“One of the best leaders I’ve played for,” said Rangers forward Jack Roslovic, who was teammates with Wheeler from 2017-20 in Winnipeg. “Not playing with him, I’ve thought a lot about him throughout my career, the ways that he would do things and the intensity he would bring. Only great things.”
Wheeler’s time with the Jets ended unceremoniously. Coach Rick Bowness stripped him of the captaincy ahead of the 2022-23 season, and the Jets bought him out the final year of his contract the next summer. That opened the door for him to sign a one-year, $800,000 deal with the Rangers, a team with which he felt he could win a Stanley Cup. He quickly became a popular teammate, and that didn’t stop when he was injured. Kreider called him “a consummate professional” and credited him with coming to the rink happy every day.
“He’s an unbelievable human being,” Mika Zibanejad said during the Carolina series. “I’m not the youngest man on the team, but he’s still a role model of how to be a teammate and how he cares.”
Added Jimmy Vesey: “His attitude and his team-first mindset has been contagious all year.”
Wheeler’s production, though, lagged from past seasons. He had nine goals and 21 points — both career lows — in 54 regular-season games. Laviolette played him an average of only 12:43, also a career low. At points he looked a step slow, and then he got hurt.
Given his downturn in scoring, a return to the lineup is not a guarantee for Wheeler, even if he’s healthy. The Rangers’ entire lineup from Game 6 of the Carolina series is available, and Filip Chytil and Matt Rempe also figure to be options in the Eastern Conference final. Roslovic, whom the Rangers acquired at the deadline, has slid into the top-line right wing spot, which Wheeler had been playing before his injury. He has a respectable seven points in 10 playoff games.
There’s no clear player for Wheeler to bump out. His goal was to make himself an option, though, and he has succeeded at that.
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“It’s going to be in the coach’s hands,” he said.
The Rangers never released a specific estimate of how long Wheeler would be out, but Laviolette said he’s been on the quicker end of the team’s estimates. Teammates said watching the way he attacked the rehabilitation process gave them a boost.
“It’s inspiring,” Chris Kreider said.
Added Braden Schneider: “It definitely shows you the character he has and how important he is to us.”
Wheeler started skating on his own on April 19, only two months removed from the injury, then began skating with the team on May 6 in a non-contact jersey. He returned to a full-contact sweater on May 13. During his first media availability since the injury, the wing didn’t hesitate when asked about his motivation to fight so hard to return.
“Sitting on the couch, watching these guys play, I just wanted to be back with the guys, with the group in any capacity I can,” he said. “Certainly the run they’ve been on, that’s the motivation right there.”
(Photo: Josh Lobel / NHLI via Getty Images)
Peter Baugh is a staff writer for The Athletic NHL based in New York. He has previously been published in the Columbia Missourian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Politico and the Washington Post. A St. Louis native, Peter graduated from the University of Missouri and previously covered the Missouri Tigers and the Colorado Avalanche for The Athletic. Follow Peter on Twitter @Peter_Baugh
