New York Rangers: Three Tricks of 2023-24 Season So Far

Deflated Blake Wheeler

Moving from the Rangers’ best player to a newcomer who has struggled to get running in the iconic Blueshirt. After nine games, Blake Wheeler is still without a point during his tenure in New York. After being bought out in the summer by the Winnipeg Jets, Wheeler joined the Rangers on a league-minimum deal, trying to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in his career while playing in the best city in the world.

Now, the issue with that is to win the cup, players like Wheeler will have to contribute, and the 37-year-old Plymouth, Minnesota native is still struggling to get to the success he found in Winnipeg. While this is new for him since he had been in the Jets organization since they were the Atlanta Thrashers, he’s not been introduced to a new organization since his trade from Boston almost 15 years ago.

Wheeler has the talent level to be a key contributor for the Rangers when he gets everything to start clicking. If he can show that off in New York, we will see a fanbase that is demanding more out of the eldest member of the skating group ease up on the calls for him to continue to grow. This Rangers roster has its star talent paper over the cracks right now, but they need players like Wheeler to figure out how to get on the scoresheet soon.

To be fair to Wheeler, he should have had his first point as a Ranger already. He had a beautiful pass to Will Cuylle that Cuylle put into the back of the net that was deemed a kicking motion during the game in Calgary, so there’s evidence to say that he can still create. If that has stood, the confidence he could have collected from it could have helped him ease into the Rangers system.