It’s mid-morning at the Iceplex, and there’s just one hockey player on this particular sheet of ice, along with one instructor.

The player is working on his touch around the net, collecting rebounds off the pads blocking the bottom of the goal, banging them home, circling outside the blue line and moving in to do it again. And again.

By the end of the session, Dale Weise is bent over, stick across his knees, spent.

“I’ve skated more than I ever have,” Weise said a few minutes later. “It’s a big year.”

Weise’s story is for anybody who’s been told they aren’t good enough.

The 29-year-old can’t count how many times he’s heard that.

“We could be here all day,” he said, grinning. “I remember a teacher one time in Grade 9, I told him I was going to play in the NHL. And he just kind of laughed about it, and was like, ‘That’s not going to happen. You should be focusing on this.’

“I just kind of laugh when I think about stuff like that.”

Growing up, there were always better players on his teams, players who were going to go further.

They told him he’d never make junior. When he did, they said he’d never get drafted by the NHL. When he did, they said he’d never sign a contract.

He’s done all that, and more.

“As a young kid, I never made any all-star teams,” Weise said. “I never played summer hockey on the best teams. I was an eighth-round bantam pick. I got cut three times in junior. I got cut four times in the NHL before I made it.

“Probably me and my family are the only people that believed I could do it this long.”

Going into his eighth NHL season, Weise needs seven more regular-season games to reach 400.

But that’s not what makes this a big season.

Last summer, after bouncing from the Rangers to Vancouver to Montreal to Chicago, the Philadelphia Flyers signed him on the first day of free agency — to a four-year contract worth $9.4 million.

It’s safe to say the Flyers didn’t quite get their money’s worth, Year 1: Weise’s goal total dropped from 14 to eight, his points from 26 to 15.

Mixed in with his offensive struggles was an early three-game suspension for a head hit and plenty of nights as a healthy scratch.

“I got off to a really tough start in Philly last year, for numerous reasons,” Weise said. “I’m not dwelling on that. I really liked the way I finished the year. I want to get off to a start like I finished last year.

“The Flyers invested four years in me, and I want to prove to them they made the right decision. I want to repay them.”

A big, rugged winger who can skate, Weise managed zero goals and just two points in his first 15 games as a Flyer, six goals and 10 points in his last 14.

The contract, and his uneven performance, probably kept Las Vegas at bay in the expansion draft, easing his concern he’d be on the move, yet again.

And while some players might get comfortable with a long-term deal, that’s not the Weise way.

“I’m never comfortable,” he said. “I come from a very blue-collar family. I had to work for everything coming up in my career. I had to fight my way into the league. I finally proved I can play.

“I strive for more. I plan to play for a long time.”

That’s why he’s been on the ice so much, twice a week in July, four times a week most of August.

He does it his own way, shunning group skates and fancy camps to work on what he needs, alone, under the tutelage of Dave Cameron of the Jets Hockey Development program.

“I’ve always kind of gone to the beat of my own drum,” Weise said. “If you go out in a group, skate for an hour with 20 guys, you might shoot the puck 20 times. I come out here for an hour, I could shoot the puck 100 times. And you get a crazy workout when you’re there by yourself for an hour.

“This is something that’s taken my game to a whole new level.”

This is the fourth summer Weise has worked with Cameron. The first two led to career years in goals or points.

“Earlier in my career where I had to fight my way into the league, I didn’t work on a lot of stuff like this,” he said. “I can score goals. I can play. I’m excited. I think this will be my best year, yet.

“I put the work in. I know how good I am.”

Even if nobody else did.