Inside Wheeler’s Shocking Summer 2025 NHL Prospect Rankings: Who’s the True Future Star?
He plays a fast, clever, determined and consistent 200-foot game, hunting pucks, winning races and then making little skill plays when opportunities or openings in coverage present themselves. He takes or plays pucks into the middle, thrives in give-and-gos playing off his linemate, supports play defensively and can play in a haze/rush but has also shown the ability to use and elevate his linemates. He does a good job holding pucks around sticks at speed. He’s a heart-and-soul guy who I’m confident will take his career as far as it can go. He’ll regularly gain a step on junior defenders and while his effort can sometimes be ineffectively deployed (he has work to do on his routes and decisions on and off the puck), he thrives on instinct more often than it burns him. His overreliance on those instincts will require some coaching in the NHL, though.
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