Ex-Boston Bruins Fan Favourite Calls It A Career And Officially Retires
A former Boston Bruins fan favourite has called it a career and finally retired from the NHL.
Former Boston Bruins captain and ex-Boston Bruins forward Blake Wheeler has reportedly announced his retirement from the NHL after appearing on a podcast episode of the Beyond High Performance podcast.
Last year he ended up suffering a leg injury that only allowed him to appear in 54 games with the New York Rangers, after having his contract terminated by the Winnipeg Jets during the previous season. With all of this, Wheeler was dealing with a lot of emotional drama and decided to call it a career.
The 38-year-old veteran is over the emotional ups and downs of the NHL.
«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 during his NHL career was known as a very emotional player on and off the ice and had a reputation of being a prickly person.
«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 believes that his emotional nature affected his relationship with the media during his time with the Winnipeg Jets and reflected that on his capabilities as a captain.
«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 while motioning above his own head.
Wheeler retires with 15 years in the NHL having 321 career goals along with 943 points in 1172 games split between the Boston Bruins, Atlanta Thrashers, Winnipeg Jets, and New York Rangers.
It's sad to see, but hopefully Wheeler enjoys his retirement.
| POLL |
DECEMBRE 19 | 144 ANSWERS Ex-Boston Bruins Fan Favourite Calls It A Career And Officially Retires Do you think it was a good time for Blake Wheeler to retire? |
| Yes | 127 | 88.2 % |
| No | 17 | 11.8 % |
| List of polls |
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