Wheeler was the 5th Overall Pick in 2004 and there were rumblings that he would never live up to the expectations. The Boston Bruins must have thought so, and Wheeler was shipped off to Atlanta in what was their last year in Georgia. Wheeler finally borke out with a 64-Point year in 2011-12. He followed that with similar stats over the next five years, and had his best season in the NHL in 2017-18 with a league-leading 68 Assists, a Second Team All-Star and an eighth place rank in Hart voting. Wheeler improved on his Assists tally the next year with 71 (though he was only third that year), but matched his 91 Point mark that he had the year before.
The two-time All-Star accumulated 812 Points for the second coming of the Jets (making him the all-time franchise leader), and while he did overtake Ilya Kovlachuk for as the top Jet (again, for this lineal franchise) of all-time, all good things came to an end. Tensions between Wheeler and the team rose, and he was stripped of his captaincy going into the 2022/23 season. He still led them to the playoffs, but at season's end, which coincided with his contract's end, he signed with the New York Rangers. The end of his Jets tenure was not pretty, but there is no doubt that he belongs here.
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