Our opinions on Wheels are miles apart Doj. Agree to disagree on this one.
With ya there, although I would say he showed more consistency in his willingness to go into the corners, his battle and compete level once there were so frustrating to watch. I recall a sequence, wish I could remember who they were playing, against a small D-man who not only bumped him back, but took the puck right under his nose with little to no reaction from Blake.
And his on ice hockey IQ via decision making both with and without the puck had become disturbingly poor. In Winnipeg, there will be more pressure on him, that isn`t a fan base where only the diehards will detect poor compete levels, they know their hockey and they will let him know if and when he`s doing his job.
With the market as it is, sure, but I`ll still take a versatile gamer like Pevs at a fraction of Blake`s pricetag any day of the week. I just see Blake as continuing to be a guy who will have fan bases asking "is this it" , you know there is more in the tank than he gives you...
Fairly good value for Wheeler. He got smart and did not go to arbitration this time. I think he will have a pretty good year in Winipeg, scoring around 55-60 points. He is on a team without much depth and that should create a pretty good situation for him. He can produce without having his lack of agility, softness and lack of sense be too closely monitored.
Good luck to him. I was always indifferent about the guy and thought he probably could have used some time in Providence, but the fact he just kind of fell into our lap was always a bonus. I hope he rises to the level that was expected.
With the market as it is, sure, but I`ll still take a versatile gamer like Pevs at a fraction of Blake`s pricetag any day of the week. I just see Blake as continuing to be a guy who will have fan bases asking "is this it" , you know there is more in the tank than he gives you...
That's not really a fair comparison. Peverley is a bargain of epic proportions, really, so of course we would prefer him. $2.5 is pretty much fair for Wheeler - he stepped up when he was put in an expanded role in Atlanta, and it's a pretty small gamble that it will carry over.
Too bad he didn't quite get it together for the B's. It's like they had to break em down to build em back up, and it took em a while to match up what he knew CJ wanted from em, with what his muscle memory wanted to do.
It's pretty frustrating to watch someone that big and skilled go through the struggles he was going through, but I also think he was starting to come around in the physical battle department, just about the time he got traded. Just ran out of time on a Cup contender that couldn't afford to wait any longer. Most other teams woulda been happy to stick it out with em.
We got the better of that deal right now, but I think Winnipeg will be happy with Wheeler and Stu for a very long time.
Stu's got Captain Jet written all over em. Only a matter of time. Best of luck guys
