JetsFan815
Registered User
- Jan 16, 2012
- 19,247
- 24,438
Wheeler has looked better the past 2 games, after the prior several dismal performances. He is finally playing with some pace to his game and pressuring better on the forecheck.
Regardless of your thoughts on Wheeler we can all agree that is a positive for the team.
Prior to the past 2 games I was fearful that Wheelers game had completely fallen Off the cliff with 3 years and 25mill left on his contract. He has regressed for sure but thankfully not to a disastrous level, that most likely he was playing injured.
It would be very unlikely for Wheeler to have fallen from where he was at the end of last season to where he is earlier this season just due to age related reasons. Even guys like Lucic, Ladd, Neal didn't fall off that dramatically at 5 on 5. They couldn't score anymore but their 5v5 metrics still didn't have a dramatic impact as Wheeler's did between last season and this. Which is why there has to be an injury or some other explanation. That's not to say that he's not experience age related decline, he very likely is but I doubt it is as pronounced as one might imagine just looking at his 5v5 stats. I agree that he has looked much better since the Ottawa series.