James Wisniewski was the picture of frustration early last September. As the hockey world was grinding its gears to start another season, the veteran defenseman was incredulous that no NHL team had shown even the slightest interest.
There were no two-way contracts on the table. He didn’t have an American Hockey League-only offer, either.
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“I couldn’t even get a damn training camp tryout,” Wisniewski told The Athletic.
At 33 years old, he might have considered retirement rather than packing his bags, leaving behind his family in Columbus, and heading off to a foreign land — Slovakia? Switzerland? Russia? — just to keep playing.
But there was something else out there.
“When the NHL pulled out of the Olympics,” Wisniewski said, “well, that got me thinking.”
A harrowing and humbling 2 1/2-year journey — four knee surgeries, two trips through waivers, minor-league demotions, contract buyouts, globetrotting across the world to keep playing — will all be worth it beginning later this month, he said.
Wisniewski, a Canton, Michigan, native, will play for Team USA at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“When I got the phone call, I had goosebumps; I almost started crying,” he said. “My wife and kids and my dad were with me (in Germany) when I found out. My dad cried. My wife got teary.
“Just remembering everything we’ve gone through … the determination, dedication, whatever word you want to use. I can almost guarantee you that most people would have quit.”
Hard times
The Blue Jackets unloaded Wisniewski’s beefy contract at the 2014-15 deadline, trading him to Anaheim for William Karlsson, Rene Bourque, and a second-round pick (Kevin Stenlund).
Wisniewski finished the season with the Ducks and was traded to Carolina during the draft three months later. He played one game with the Hurricanes — opening night, 2015 — before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
His contract was bought out by Carolina the following summer, but the phone calls he expected from NHL teams never happened.
Not in 2016, which is why he headed to Russia to play for the KHL’s Vladivostok, and not last summer, which is why he’s playing this season for EC Kassel in Germany’s second league.
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The NHL is leaving behind veteran players every summer now as teams turn to younger, cheaper players. NHL teams have also expressed concerns about Wisniewski’s ability to keep up with the pace of today’s game, especially with his oft-injured knee.
But Wisniewski, who has never lacked confidence and swagger, isn’t buying it. He’s played for six NHL clubs — Chicago, Anaheim, the Islanders, Montreal, Columbus and Carolina — and is ready for No. 7.
“When I look around the league and see all these teams that want to score more goals, need more offense from their back end, need help on the power play … I just … I don’t understand how I can’t get even a sniff,” Wisniewski said. “I mean, it could drive me crazy if I let it.
“I know I can still play in the NHL. I know it.”
Wisniewski made roughly $67,000 per game under the six-year, $33 million contract he signed with the Blue Jackets in 2011. He’s paid €500 per game — roughly $610 — by Kassel.
Instead of living in the family’s sprawling home on Muirfield Village Golf Club, he’s living in a tiny apartment in Kassel, a city of 200,000 in central Germany, about a 2 1/2-hour drive north of Frankfurt.
Only one of Wisniewski’s Kassel teammates, forward Stefan Della Rovere, has ever played in the NHL. He dressed in seven games for St. Louis in 2010-11.
The rest of the North American-born players mostly petered out in the East Coast Hockey League before moving to Germany for the paychecks and the shorter bus rides.
As you’d expect, Wisniewski is dominating Germany’s minor-league, totaling 9-35-44 in 33 games. He’s seventh in the league in assists and leads all defensemen in scoring.
“The hockey here is a little bit of a mix between what you think of as European-style hockey and North American,” Wisniewski said. “There’s a little physicality, but with the big ice, it’s hard to get hits.”
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Ready for the world
Wisniewski has played for Team USA four times previously: the World Under-18s in 2001-02, the World Junior Championships in 2002-03 and 2003-04, and the World Championships in 2008.
In 2010, Wisniewski said he was the last defenseman cut before the Winter Games in Vancouver.
“They picked Ryan Whitney over me,” he said.
“In 2014, I was coming off my 51-point season in Columbus and I didn’t get a sniff (for Team USA in Sochi).”
At that point, Wisniewski’s chances to ever play in the Olympics seemed minuscule. But when the NHL pulled out of this year’s games — no player with an NHL contract can participate — it opened the door for players like Wisniewski.
On Jan. 1, Wisniewski took a phone call from Team USA’s Jim Johannson, who revealed that he’d made the final roster. The phone call has taken on added meaning after Johannson, Team USA’s general manager, passed away late last month after a heart attack.
“I’ll always remember that phone call, on so many different levels,” Wisniewski said. “To have it come from Jim made it special. He was a guy who always believed in me. It was such a big phone call anyway, but coming from him … ”
You might say it’s the first good break Wisniewski had in three years.
Team USA will gather in Pyeongchang for the first time Wednesday. They open play Feb. 14 vs. Slovenia.
“I’m so looking forward to this experience,” Wisniewski said.
His wife, Nicole, and their two kids will be there. His parents, Jim and Sharon, will be there, as will his sister, Breanna. Friends and extended family are making the trip, too.
“You can probably tell from my voice,” Wisniewski said. “It’s a little different than it was in September.
“We’ll practice every day, but then you’re pretty much on your own. Go watch downhill skiing. Go watch the half-pipe. Go watch big air. Just to be around the other Olympians. This is the pinnacle of sports.
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“For me, it’s such an honor to be able to wear the colors of your country. The opening ceremonies … I mean, I can’t wait to walk in with everybody wearing red, white and blue. It’s a little surreal, even as I get close to it, but it’s something that’s finally paid off for me and my family.”
Wisniewski, 33, made it clear that he does not see these Olympics as a final celebration of his career.
NHL scouts are not expected to have a heavy presence in Pyeongchang, but Wisniewski is hoping the exposure on the world stage will be a springboard to a second act in the NHL.
“I’m a veteran guy, and I obviously have the determination after what I’ve been through the last couple of years,” Wisniewski said.
“The goal going back to this summer was to play in the Olympics and get back to the NHL. Right now we’re at 50 percent of the goal.”
— Reported from Columbus
Photo: James Wisniewski (Evan Habeeb/Getty Images)
