Inside Wheeler’s Shocking Summer 2025 NHL Prospect Rankings: Who’s the True Future Star?

After missing the first couple months of his year three season ago rehabbing a hip injury that had become debilitating for him, L’Heureux was a force for the Mooseheads after returning and has progressed nicely while fearlessly playing to his identity up levels ever since. The timing of the injury was a shame, because I thought he was one of the best players at Hockey Canada’s summer showcase for the World Juniors in Calgary and I think he would have had a real chance of making the Halifax team that won gold had he been healthy (even with some of the issues with on-ice discipline that have followed him, he would have made a lot of sense as a bottom-six guy). Two years ago, as a rookie at the AHL level, I liked the way his game translated. He didn’t lose any of his identity as a pest/drink-stirrer and was productive and impactful while being one of the league’s penalty minutes leaders (which comes with some drawbacks, but coaches have learned to live with it because he also pulls his team into the fight). I’d like to see him spend less time in the box than he does, but it’s positive that he didn’t change his style once he started playing against bigger, stronger competition. That continued last year mostly at the NHL level as a second-year pro as well. He’s going to be someone that opposing teams are aware of and hate playing against for a long time, and it’ll just be about striking the right balance within himself.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241