CAPTAIN SAYS JETS LOST ‘ONE OF THE GREAT ONES’
Wheeler expresses wide range of emotions over club’s parting with veteran Byfuglien
When Blake Wheeler finally decided to address the Dustin Byfuglien issue, he wasn’t at a loss for words.
The Winnipeg Jets captain spoke for nearly 10 minutes on Thursday about the defenceman whose no-show this season continues to hamstring his team, on the ice and off it.
Wheeler says he’s gone through a wide range of emotions since Byfuglien decided he didn’t want to play, including frustration over how it has hurt the Jets in the standings and financially.
But, he says, he told Byfuglien in their last lengthy conversation, at the beginning of the season, that he doesn’t owe anybody anything.
“So obviously a depleted blue line coming into the season, and then you lose your best guy. Selfishly, it hurts,” Wheeler told a media gathering in advance of Thursday night’s game in
St. Louis. “But you’ve got to be respectful of a guy. Especially a guy that’s brought it like he has for so long, and everything he’s done for us. That was his decision to make.
“Would you have preferred him to wake up in May or June and have those thoughts? Selfishly, yeah.”
Byfuglien’s decision just before training camp meant the Jets missed the summer free agency period to find help for their blue line.
Potentially having his US$7.6 million salary cap hit on the books — the Jets suspended Byfuglien without pay but the players union has filed a grievance on his behalf — has also limited what the Jets could do in a trade, even as they fell from playoff position.
“Certainly an impact guy like him that you still have to keep his cap space on your books, it sets you back a little bit,” Wheeler said. “So there’s always that element of it, too. It creates a void, kind of twofold.”
Yet those who vilify Byfuglien, he added, should remember what he’s done for the Jets.
“I don’t think that makes him a villain,” Wheeler said. “It might have set this team back a little bit this year and put us in a tough spot, there’s no question there. But he’s a guy. I think overall people will get to that point. Once it’s all said and done and maybe the bad taste of that goes away, people will wake up and say ‘Man, Buff was one of the great ones for this organization.’”
As teammates with Byfuglien going back to their days in Atlanta, Wheeler says he’s wrestled with the 34-year-old’s decision as much as anyone.
“I came here with Buff and we’ve grown up in this organization together, and our wives are pretty much best friends,” he said. “Two-thirds of our kids, the youngest ones are too young
... are best friends. So those are all the things that go beyond hockey that make it really tough. And then, obviously, you add the element to the ice, and staying here with the dreams of winning it all, and obviously Buff’s a big part of that.
“It makes it really tough without him. Big range of emotions, obviously.”
Wheeler says he and Byfuglien have kept in touch “a little bit here and there” since their pre-season conversation.
“Anyone who knows Buff knows that he’s more likely to drop his phone in a fishing hole than he is to text you back,” the captain said.
Reports this week have the Jets and Byfuglien working toward termination of their contract, which would mean Byfuglien walks away from $14 million in salary and the Jets have plenty of wiggle room going into the
Feb. 24 trade deadline — if they’re in the playoff mix by then.
“We have a group that’s got to move on from that,” Wheeler said. “We’ve just got to show up and do our best to try to win hockey games and stay in the fight, and that’s all we’ve done all year.” pfriesen@postmedia.com
You’ve got to be respectful of a guy. Especially a guy that’s brought it like he has for so long, and everything he’s done for us.