Per Vince Mercogliano, the Rangers have placed Blake Wheeler on LTIR. While that wouldn’t end his season, the Rangers have said he won’t return until at least the playoffs, if he does return. We still have no word on the injury yet, just that Matt Rempe was recalled to fill in the gap temporarily.
While this certainly impacts the Rangers on the ice, we can’t forget about the impact off the ice. Jacob Trouba summed it up best.
Trouba with a very thoughtful answer on Wheeler: “Yeah, we need a new RW now, but we lost a friend. We lost our teammate… I’m not saying this is true, but maybe he played his last hockey game… It’s emotional. It’s something you think about. You don’t take things for granted.”
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) February 16, 2024
There’s always a human element to this. Guys like to have their careers end on their own terms, and it’s possible that was stripped from Wheeler. Hopefully the injury isn’t as serious as it looked, but that’s holding onto hope that likely isn’t there at this point. The injury looked brutal.
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