Former Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler is enjoying life after hockey, now more than a year since he last played an NHL game.
While there was no official retirement announcement last summer when he didn’t sign a new contract, Wheeler confirmed on Wednesday’s edition of Jets at Noon that he is indeed done and retired from the pro game.
“More or less, right after last year knew I was all done,” said Wheeler. “I just haven’t felt like a rush to like make a formal announcement or anything. But yeah, after my injury and kinda the way things ended last year, I just didn’t have anything left in the tank for it. So yeah, I was at peace with it almost immediately after last year and yeah, I’m just enjoying being a dad and kinda slowing things down a little bit, and being around my family.”
Wheeler closed out his career with the New York Rangers in the 2023-2024 season. He suffered a nasty leg injury in February of 2024 and returned to play one game in the playoffs which would turn out to be the final game of his playing career.
“I tore the ligaments on both sides of my ankle and then I broke my fibula,” he said. “Once I got hurt, I was already kinda feeling like that was gonna be sort of my last year when I was playing, even healthy in New York. And then when the injury happened, it just felt like that was some sort of sign. I hadn’t really been hurt my entire career more or less.”
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Wheeler played 12 seasons in Winnipeg and on Wednesday, spoke candidly about his time with the Jets, admitting things weighed on him at times as the team captain.
“I think 2018 we can all agree we were the best team in the league, and we let that one slip away,” said Wheeler. “I wanted to, with every ounce of me, win a Stanley Cup in Winnipeg. And pretty quickly we kinda like, I would call it, had a tumultuous year in 2019. Buff (Dustin Byfuglien) retired and it just kinda fell apart pretty quick.
“I was at a point, I was 35. I was at that point our highest paid player. The expectations were sky high being the captain in a small Canadian town. All those pressures and then you factor in, I had three young children at home. It got really heavy for me and ultimately father time wins, and I could feel my play starting to slip.
“So now I’m answering questions. It just started to like really pile up on me. And so then I started dealing with some things that just made it really tough. And it effected how I was showing up, my leadership. I mean, you guys could probably see in the media how I was responding as well. It just wasn’t who I wanted to be.”
Wheeler dabbled in broadcasting during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but these days the 38-year-old is coaching his kids hockey teams, and he’s also been working with other professional athletes as a mental performance coach.
“I started working with some guys and obviously there’s a ton of sensitivity around like the who. But definitely that is part of my goal, I guess share my experience obviously being a pro athlete, but also like the added tool kit that I’ve been equipped with to sort of help with some of these challenges athletes are facing and how they could maybe relate to it in a different way.”
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