OLYMPICS
The NHL’s decision to withdraw from the 2018 Winter Olympics — no player under NHL contract can participate — created an opening for the 33-year-old defenseman to put a fairy-tale twist on a career that’s been a disheartening drama since the Jackets traded him at the deadline three years ago.
Wisniewski, who proudly has shared pictures on social media of his Olympics experience, including walking in last week’s opening ceremonies, is in Pyeongchang, South Korea, largely because of a bold, humbling decision he made last October.
Wisniewski, who played for six NHL teams in 11 seasons, signed with EC Kassel, a team in Germany’s second league, hoping it would lead to the spot on Team USA’s 25-man Olympics roster he ultimately earned. Wisniewski’s salary with Kassel? About $610 U.S. per game, a morsel of the roughly $67,000 per game he raked in from the six-year, $33 million contract he signed with the Jackets in 2011.
“That shows what kind of guy Wiz is, that he’s willing to make that sacrifice, his family and go play there,” Foligno said. “I admire that.”
Said Dubinsky, “He played in the second league over there because he wanted to be on this Olympic team. So he worked hard, put up good numbers, played well, and he made the team because of it.”
Foligno said Wisniewski told him “he was going to put his focus on making the Olympic team” once he “realized he didn’t have a chance in the NHL this year.”
“He’s obviously gone
through a lot of ups and downs since leaving the NHL,” Foligno added. “For him to be able to have something like this to play for, I’m really, really happy for him.”
Dubinsky, who lives across the street from Wisniewski’s house in Dublin, where his wife and two daughters have remained while he’s been living in a tiny apartment in Germany, said he has kept in touch with Wisniewski through FaceTime and text messages.
“I know he’s pumped about it, and we’re excited for him,” Dubinsky said. “He’s been a good friend of mine since I got here to Columbus, and I’m going to be rooting for him 100 percent over there in South Korea.”
Said Foligno: “He’s a guy who deserves this chance.”
Three months after the Jackets dealt Wisniewski to the Ducks, he was traded again to the Hurricanes at the 2015 NHL Draft.
He then tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee 47 seconds into his Carolina debut on opening night, triggering a two-year tribulation that included four
knee surgeries, minorleague demotions, contract buyouts, playing stints in Russia and Switzerland and a failed NHL comeback attempt last year that didn’t progress past a 25-game professional tryout with the Blues’ AHL affiliate.
Last month, in an Instagram post that showed him holding a cake celebrating his Olympics selection with his wife and daughters beside him, Wisniewski expressed he was “still in awe.” He thanked friends and family for their support and wrote, “I also wanted to say how proud I am of myself after these 2.5 years of a roller-coaster career finally paying off with this accomplishment. After my 4th ACL reconstruction surgery, I know a lot of people would have thrown in the towel. I didn’t! I continued on the path I was destined to be on, and after traveling to Russia, Switzerland, the AHL, now Germany, nothing is (more) gratifying than to be able to wear the Red, White and Blue again!!”