Blake Wheeler

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United StatesUnited States  Blake Wheeler Ice hockey player
Blake Wheeler
Date of birth August 31, 1986
place of birth Plymouth , Minnesota , USA
Nickname Wheels
size 193 cm
Weight 99 kg
position Right wing
number # 26
Shot hand Right
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 2004 , 1st round, 5th position
Phoenix Coyotes
Career stations
2004-2005 Green Bay Gamblers
2005-2008 University of Minnesota
2008-2011 Boston Bruins
2011 Atlanta Thrashers
2012 EHC Red Bull Munich
since 2011 Winnipeg Jets

Blake James Wheeler (born August 31, 1986 in Plymouth , Minnesota ) is an American ice hockey player . Since July 2011 he has played for the Winnipeg Jets in the National Hockey League in the position of right winger and has been captain of the team since 2016 . He also holds several records there , including the most assists in franchise history.

Career

Youth and Studies

Wheeler initially played at Wayzata Senior High School during his high school years, but moved to Breck School after just one year . There he made the breakthrough in the 2003/04 season when he was able to record 45 goals and 55 assists , making it the most successful player in his age group in the state of Minnesota . He also led his team to win the state championship and was named Most Valuable Player . The following summer, the Phoenix Coyotes selected the then 17-year-old in fifth overall position in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft . At the beginning of the 2004/05 season, Wheeler decided to spend his last year of high school in the United States Hockey League with the Green Bay Gamblers in order to get used to the higher level of college ice hockey. In the Gamblers, the right winger played a successful season with 47 points in 58 games, making him the Gamblers' best-point player and which earned him an appointment to the USHL's all-rookie team.

Wheeler in the University of Minnesota jersey

In the summer of 2005, Wheeler began his college education at the University of Minnesota , where he also played for the university team in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association , a league of the National Collegiate Athletic Association . In his first year he completed a solid year of play with 23 points in 39 games. In addition, the US Ice Hockey Association nominated him for the U20 national team for the U20 Junior World Championship 2006 in Canada . In seven games, Wheeler scored two goals and only reached fourth place with the team after defeats in the semifinals and game for third place. The following season Wheeler played his most successful year for the Golden Gophers, which was crowned with winning the championship of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Wheeler himself contributed a hat trick in the semifinals and the overtime winning goal in the final in the decisive tournament , which earned him the title of tournament MVP. Also in the 2007/08 season he stayed at college and decided against moving to the professional field. The season he completed - measured by his offensive statistics - similar to the previous season, but the team could not repeat the success in the championship, also due to injury-related losses of some leading players.

Wheeler in the Boston Bruins training kit

Boston Bruins

Four years after Wheeler had been drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes, he had still not come to an agreement with them. Although the Coyotes had offered him a contract valid for the National Hockey League at the maximum conditions for a rookie , Wheeler decided at the end of May 2008 with the start of the free agent period on July 1, 2008 to become an unrestricted free agent, and thus to have the chance to sign a contract with the team of his choice. The Phoenix Coyotes were compensated by Wheeler's cancellation according to the NHL draft regulations with a second-round draft pick in 35th place in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft . As a result, his agent named the New York Rangers , Boston Bruins , New Jersey Devils and Montréal Canadiens some teams for which Wheeler was ready to play, but at the same time signed a contract with the Minnesota Wild , which, like two-thirds of all NHL teams, due to Wheeler's origin, hoped for a commitment. On June 16, 2008, the 21-year-old finally announced that he had decided to move to the Boston Bruins. The signing of a three-year contract was officially announced on July 1, 2008, the first day for possible free agent engagements.

Winnipeg Jets

In February 2011 the Boston Bruins gave him in a transfer deal together with Mark Stuart in exchange for Rich Peverley and Boris Valábik to the Atlanta Thrashers . At the end of October 2012, he signed a contract with EHC Red Bull Munich , which was valid until the end of the NHL lockout.

Even after the Atlanta Thrashers were relocated to Winnipeg and now operated as Winnipeg Jets , Wheeler showed consistently good offensive performances, so he holds the team records for most assists, most scorer points and most games - together with Andrew Ladd - and most consecutive games . He also holds the respective season records in the templates and scorer points categories .

Wheeler had the opportunity to replace Jonathan Toews in the 2016 NHL All-Star Game in January 2016 , but declined. In the summer of 2016, he was named the second team captain in the history of the Winnipeg Jets.

In the 2017/18 season, Wheeler increased his personal statistics significantly to 91 scorer points from 81 games and became the best goal setter in the NHL with 68 assists (alongside Claude Giroux ). At the same time he set a new season record for scorer points and assists at the Winnipeg Jets. He is also considered in the NHL Second All-Star Team at the end of the season . As a result, he signed a new five-year contract in Winnipeg in September 2018, which is expected to earn him an average annual salary of $ 8.25 million from the start of the 2019/20 season.

Achievements and Awards

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2019/20 season

Regular season Playoffs
season team league Sp T V Pt SM Sp T V Pt SM
2004/05 Green Bay Gamblers USHL 58 19th 28 47 43 - - - - -
2005/06 University of Minnesota NCAA 39 9 14th 23 41
2006/07 University of Minnesota NCAA 44 18th 20th 38 42
2007/08 University of Minnesota NCAA 44 15th 20th 35 72
2008/09 Boston Bruins NHL 81 21st 24 45 46 8th 0 0 0 0
2009/10 Boston Bruins NHL 82 18th 20th 38 53 13 1 5 6th 6th
2010/11 Boston Bruins NHL 58 11 16 27 32 - - - - -
2010/11 Atlanta Thrashers NHL 23 7th 10 17th 14th - - - - -
2011/12 Winnipeg Jets NHL 80 17th 47 64 55 - - - - -
2012/13 EHC Munich DEL 15th 6th 14th 20th 51 - - - - -
2012/13 Winnipeg Jets NHL 48 19th 22nd 41 28 - - - - -
2013/14 Winnipeg Jets NHL 82 28 41 69 63 - - - - -
2014/15 Winnipeg Jets NHL 79 26th 35 61 73 4th 1 0 1 2
2015/16 Winnipeg Jets NHL 82 26th 52 78 49 - - - - -
2016/17 Winnipeg Jets NHL 82 26th 48 74 47 - - - - -
2017/18 Winnipeg Jets NHL 81 23 68 91 52 17th 3 18th 21st 10
2018/19 Winnipeg Jets NHL 82 20th 71 91 60 6th 1 4th 5 6th
2019/20 Winnipeg Jets NHL 71 22nd 43 65 37 4th 0 1 1 5
USHL total 58 19th 28 47 43 - - - - -
NCAA overall 127 42 54 96 155
NHL overall 931 264 497 761 609 52 6th 28 34 29

International

Represented the USA at:

year team event result Sp T V Pt SM
2006 United States U20 World Cup 4th Place 7th 2 0 2 6th
2011 United States WM 8th place 7th 2 3 5 6th
2014 United States Olympia 4th Place 6th 0 1 1 2
2016 United States World cup 7th place 3 0 1 1 0
Juniors overall 7th 2 0 2 6th
Men overall 16 2 5 7th 8th

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; 1  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

Commons : Blake Wheeler  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ coyotes.nhl.com, former Coyotes draft pick Blake Wheeler elects for free agency
  2. ↑ startribune.com, Wheeler not interested in the Wild ( Memento of September 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), June 10th, 2008
  3. ^ Boston.com, Bruins to sign Wheeler
  4. ↑ CBC Sports Online , Bruins sign Blake Wheeler
  5. ↑ EHC Red Bull Munich signs NHL star Blake Wheeler. (No longer available online.) In: hockeyweb.de. November 6, 2012, archived from the original on March 15, 2017 ; accessed on March 15, 2017 .
  6. ^ Paul Friesen: Jets' Wheeler says no thanks to all-star game. Winnipeg Sun , January 28, 2016; accessed January 29, 2016 .
  7. ^ Jets sign Blake Wheeler to a five-year contract extension. nhl.com, September 4, 2018, accessed September 4, 2018 .
Winnipeg Jets logo
Squad of the Winnipeg Jets in the 2019/20 season
personal data
SURNAME Wheeler, Blake
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wheeler, Blake James (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ice hockey player
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1986
PLACE OF BIRTH Plymouth , Minnesota