Jets' Wheeler 'didn't agree' with how Bowness handled himself

Blake Wheeler has a bone to pick with Bones.

The Winnipeg Jets forward didn't appreciate head coach Rick Bowness' comments to the media following the club's elimination from the playoffs Thursday.

"I thought Rick had an opportunity to address us as a team. Now we have to answer that question, right? He could've been honest with us. We could've had those discussions behind closed doors," Wheeler said Saturday, per Sportsnet. "I didn't agree with how he handled himself after the game."

Bowness said Thursday that he was "disappointed and disgusted" after the club lost Game 5 to the Vegas Golden Knights.

On Saturday, he said he regrets using the word "disgusted."

"One of my many faults is I'm too emotional and wear my heart on my sleeve," Bowness added, per the Winnipeg News' Mike McIntyre.

Wheeler clarified that Bowness did express his disappointment with the team after Game 5's second period, but the veteran said he wished the coach didn't publicly air his grievances.

The 6-foot-5 winger has been with the franchise for 13 seasons. Wheeler was acquired in a trade with the Boston Bruins in 2011 while the club was still in Atlanta as the Thrashers, making him a Day 1 Jet.

But it might not have been that way. Wheeler, who inked a five-year $41.25-million extension with Winnipeg in September 2018, said he wouldn't have agreed to the pact if the club hadn't succeeded in 2017-18 when it made it to the Western Conference Final before falling to the Golden Knights.

"If 2018 didn't happen, I wouldn't have re-signed here," Wheeler said, according to Postmedia's Scott Billeck.

Wheeler, the Jets' highest-paid player with an $8.25-million cap hit, is set to enter the final year of his contract. If this is it for him in Winnipeg, he said he can accept that he left everything on the ice.

"I gave it everything I had, and I hope that's good enough," Wheeler said, per TSN's Jon Lu. "There wasn't a day I took off. I guess that's the best you can do."

Wheeler served as Winnipeg's captain for six seasons before he was stripped of his "C" after the club hired Bowness prior to the 2022-23 campaign.

Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, defensemen Dylan DeMelo and Brenden Dillon, and forwards Mark Scheifele, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Nino Niederreiter can also become unrestricted free agents in 2024.

And the veteran core clearly isn't keen on any sort of rebuild.

"I'm not interested in a rebuild," Hellebuyck said. "I just want to compete. … I enjoyed myself more in five (playoff) games than I did all year. It's like a high you gotta chase. You can't replicate that anywhere else except in the playoffs."