- Blake Wheeler is out of the Rangers front office after one season as hockey operations advisor
- The 39-year-old has moved back to Minnesota, where he grew up and played his college hockey
- Read below for what Wheeler said about his family before he walked away from playing
Blake Wheeler’s front office run in New York lasted exactly one season.
Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic reported Wednesday that Wheeler is out as the Rangers’ hockey operations advisor and has moved back home to Minnesota.
Chris Drury brought him in last September as part of a wider shuffle. Ryan Martin was promoted to associate general manager while staying on as GM of AHL Hartford, Jim Sullivan moved up to assistant GM, and Ryane Clowe came back to the organization as an assistant GM after a year with the Sharks.
The advisor title went to Wheeler in that same release:
Minnesota was always the pull. Wheeler was born in Plymouth, a Minneapolis suburb, and played three years at the University of Minnesota before he ever suited up for an NHL game.
He got into that side of things on exit day in June 2024, when reporters asked whether he wanted to play another season. Wheeler was 37 at the time, coming off a leg injury that wiped out most of his year, and he pointed straight at his three kids.
“I still love the game, I still love to play, but I want to be around for their childhood too. So I think those are the things you weigh.”
Watch his full exit day availability:
Wheeler retired with 321 goals and 622 assists for 943 points in 1,172 games across Boston, Atlanta/Winnipeg and New York, including back-to-back 91-point seasons in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Winnipeg stripped his captaincy in September 2022, six years after he first got the C.
The end came quietly. A February 2024 leg injury shut down his only Rangers season, he got nine minutes in one playoff game, and no team signed him the following summer.
Drury has been tearing up the roster the whole time, moving Artemi Panarin last season and Vincent Trocheck this summer while bringing in Pavel Dorofeyev, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Marcus Pettersson. Wheeler watched one year of that from the inside before heading home.
