After Sitting Out Last Season, Blake Wheeler Makes His Future Plans Official

Blake Wheeler officially announces his retirement from hockey

After suffering a serious leg injury in the 2023-24 season—his 16th year in the NHL—former Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler says he knew then that he was done playing hockey. This week, he's made it official: Wheeler has retired at the age of 38.

The two-time All-Star and 13-year Jets forward (six of them as captain) revealed his retirement for the record, on Jets At Noon earlier this week:

More or less, right after last year knew I was all done. I just haven’t felt like a rush to like make a formal announcement or anything. But, after my injury and kinda the way things ended last year, I just didn’t have anything left in the tank for it.
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.

In February of 2024, in his last season, spent with the New York Rangers, Wheeler tore the ligaments on both sides of his ankle and broke his fibula.

"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.”

In the first 12 years of his career, Wheeler had missed a mere seven games in total, playing every single contest in eight of those 12 seasons.

Overall, in 1,172 NHL games with the Rangers, Jets and Boston Bruins, he notched 321 goals, 622 assists and 943 points, with 1,351 hits and a plus/minus rating of +67. He led the league in assists with 68 in 2017-18, in one of his two All-Star seasons. He retires as the Winnipeg Jets' all-time assists leader, with 550, and points leader, with 897.

Even better than that, it sounds like Wheeler is comfortable with his new career as a Dad.