Veteran forward and former New York Rangers has officially announced his retirement from the NHL
Longtime NHL and former New York Rangers forward Blake Wheeler has just recently announced his retirement from the league during a podcast episode of the 'Beyond High Performance podcast'.
Blake Wheeler unfortunately suffered a leg injury last season with the New York Rangers that limited him to playing only 54 games, and the offseason prior he to that he had an emotional contract termination from the Winnipeg Jets.
According to Wheeler, the emotional ups and downs of an NHL season are no longer excites him, with him being 38 years old and how the Rangers have been playing this season it's safe to say he made the right choice.
Here's what Wheeler at to say:
«My body, can I still go play a hockey game? Hell, yeah. I can still play,» Wheeler said. «It's just the emotional, get up 82 times - I don't want to do that. There's only so much gas in the tank for that.»
Wheeler then continued to talk about how emotional of player he was on and off the ice:
«As an emotional person, that was my battery every game. Tapping into the emotion,» Wheeler said. «What was really challenging for me as a leader was after the game, you've got to dial that down and talk to the media in a way that's respectful. And I'm like a 10 out of 10 on the emotion scale for the last three hours. I can't get there.»
Wheeler also stated how his emotional nature affected his relationships with the media and his ability to be a captain for the Jets:
«I know,» Wheeler said. «And I think, I don't think - that's where some of the media stuff in Winnipeg, they probably don't like me very much. But it was never personal. An hour after every game I could have a great conversation, even if I had the worst game of my life. It's just 10 minutes after, I'm still here,» Wheeler said.
Click here to watch full podcast
Blake Wheeler will end his NHL career after 16 seasons, where he managed to tally a total of 321 goals and 943 points in 1172 games split between the Boston Bruins, Atlanta Thrashers, Winnipeg Jets and New York Rangers.
On behalf of NY Rangers Insider we wish nothing but the best for Blake Wheeler as he embarks upon his next journey in life.
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