Blake Wheeler opens up about losing Jets captaincy
Blake Wheeler has opened up on the emotions he was feeling after losing the captain role in Winnipeg in a new interview.
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Blake Wheeler has opened up on the emotions he was feeling after losing the captain role in Winnipeg in a new interview.
Wheeler was the captain of the Jets from 2016-2022 but was stripped of the ‘C’ by new head coach Rick Bowness ahead of the 2022-23 season.
“Embarrassed probably doesn’t do justice how I felt,” he said in an interview with leadership coach Dan Leffelaar on the Beyond High Performance Podcast. “I remember the first time I went out for our first game of the season, and I didn’t have the ‘C’ on my jersey anymore. That was a bad feeling, I felt humiliated. I felt like everyone was staring at me.”
“Every day honestly was hard, every day was hard. Because what I felt and wanted for that team and organization didn’t change.”
Wheeler said part of the humiliation came from the fact that he had worked hard — with Leffelaar — to improve his leadership skills in the year before he lost the ‘C.’
He admitted that the 2021-22 season was a challenging one as the stress of being a captain became all-consuming.
“That was the worst year for a lot of reasons for me,” he said. “The worst year in the sense of having panic attacks before every game. I was in a really bad place and I became somebody who I was not proud of.”
For those reasons, Wheeler sought out Leffelaar’s mentorship. One of Leffelaar’s suggestions was to speak to some teammates who hadn’t responded well to Wheeler’s past leadership tactics to learn how he should act differently.
Wheeler said that the experience of putting himself out there with his teammates was “horrifying” at first but it led to some very productive conversations. Which made losing the ‘C’ when he arrived at training camp all the more deflating.
“I’m on a really good trajectory,” Wheeler said of the experience working with Leffelaar. “And then the rug gets pulled underneath. ‘Oh, by the way, you’re not the captain anymore.’”
However, despite the humiliation he felt, Wheeler credited Leffelaar’s lessons for helping him stay grounded after the captaincy change.
“For sure my first instinct was to take the bait of being the victim, I just got screwed, all these different things. But because of the previous year and a half working (with Leffelaar) I was able to slow all that down,” Wheeler said. “I’m eternally grateful that you came into my life when you did and we went through all that stuff together because when the most challenging moment of my career and life happened, I was equipped with tools to handle it in a way that I could be proud of.”
Wheeler played one more season with the Jets before his contract was bought out. Last season he suited up for the New York Rangers but missed the majority of the year with a broken leg.
Now 38, Wheeler is coaching his kids and enjoying time with his family that he missed during his playing career. While he hasn’t announced his retirement, he admitted it’s hard to imagine getting emotionally ready for another long NHL season.
“My body, can I still go play a hockey game? Hell, yeah. I can still play,” Wheeler said. “It’s just the emotional, getting up 82 times, I don’t want to do that. There’s only so much gas in the tank for that.”
