Blake Wheeler said “no deal” to Wayne Gretzy and the Phoenix Coyotes. Wheeler will now take his chances on the NHL Free Agency market. What was he thinking? Apparently he thinks he has a bigger number in his case (I love game shows and I have made myself a personal pledge to include more game show references in my blog) Sure, I don’t know what the exact offer was, but I doubt Wheeler will get millions via Free Agency so why didn’t he just take the guaranteed money?
"I'm actually quite stunned," Coyotes General Manager Don Maloney said. "Quite frankly, we made him an offer significantly better than any other contract he can get (right now). But that's his choice. I think (he's received) bad advice, and I think he's making a big mistake because of the commitment we've made to our young players and the young players we're prepared to invest in."
Matt Keator, Blake Wheeler's agent, said in several statements that this isn’t about money and that Blake Wheeler wants to pick where he wants to live and play. WTF? What is wrong with sunny Phoenix? This seems like a weird situation to Gopher Gal. If I do recall, though, a few other Gopher alums have went to Phoenix and then moved elsewhere so perhaps Blakey got some advice from them and the Phoenix Coyotes team isn’t a good place for a Minnesota Gopher to be. Don't coyotes eat gophers?
Sure there are rumors that Blake Wheeler wants to sign with the Minnesota Wild (who doesn’t?! ha ha) but the odds of that happening are pretty slim. In fact, recent statements by his agent indicated that probably won’t happen. At first Gopher Gal was thinking that Blake Wheeler may want to experience the life of a Canadian, but Michael Russo from the Star Trib points out the fact that Wheelers agent said Blake Wheeler wants to experience a different part of the country….perhaps east coast? I will keep you posted Gopher Hockey Fans!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
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Oooooh I'm excited about this game show reference bit - how about, "is that your final answer?", or "So-and-so, come on down!!!" Just kidding. On a more serious note, I was really hoping that Blake Wheeler would come to play for the Minnesota Wild. It would just be really cool to have another hometown guy on the team.
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