PITTSBURGH — There are winners and losers every year at the NHL trading deadline and Blake Wheeler knows perhaps better than anyone how a deadline deal can instantly turn you from one of the former to one of the latter.
Wheeler was a member of the Boston Bruins in February, 2011 when he got a call just before the deadline telling him he’d been dealt to the Atlanta Thrashers.
The deal saw Wheeler and Mark Stuart shipped to Atlanta in exchange for Rich Peverley and Boris Valabik, a lopsided deal in favour of the Thrashers (and, ultimately, Winnipeg Jets) the website Bleacher Report this week proclaimed among the top 10 deadline deals of the past decade in the NHL.