Blake Wheeler had just given 10 minutes of his time to a couple of Winnipeg reporters, when a kid asked for his autograph at the Iceplex, Tuesday.

The Winnipeg Jets winger took a pen and signed his name on the kid's T-shirt. A red, Team Canada T-shirt.

I'm not sure if Wheeler, a Minnesota native getting ready to play for the U.S. in the World Cup, noticed the irony of the situation.

But he is expecting a much less friendly exchange when the heated hockey rivals meet for keeps, following a pair of exhibition tilts next week.

“There probably won't be a whole lot of bad blood to start,” he said. “But that'll probably change pretty quick once the tournament starts.”

That Wheeler has a place with the finest American players in the game speaks to some changes he made early in his career.

He didn't become a top-10 NHL scorer by accident, but rather through a crisis of sorts.

“It was just an identity crisis — who I was as a player and what my role was going to be,” he explained. “I scored a couple of uncharacteristic goals, for me, early in my career in Boston. A little bit of dangle. So I thought I was going to be a dangler, and got caught a little bit trying to play that style.

“And before you know it you lose sight of what you're good at.”

Despite scoring 50 goals in two-plus seasons with the Bruins, Wheeler was dealt to Atlanta at the 2011 deadline — the shakeup he needed to look in the mirror and find out exactly what he was.

His shaken confidence got exactly what it needed with his new team.

“They gave me an opportunity right off the bat, playing with Bryan Little and Andrew Ladd, first line, 20 minutes — regardless how many mistakes you make and how bad you may look,” Wheeler recalled. “I've always been very thankful for Craig Ramsay giving me that opportunity.”

Today Wheeler plays with a relentless motor, the dangle replaced by a dash, his drop-dead speed and pursuit of the puck a handful for defencemen.

With a work ethic to match, he's the likely successor to Ladd as team captain.

“It took a little bit of time to get my feet planted back on the ground,” Wheeler said. “And once I did, you never want to lose that again.

“I've grown into my body, too. Grown up a little bit. I've always been a late bloomer. I'm kind of turning into a man, here. I'm going to be 30 years old. It's all kind of coming together.”

Which brings him to the precipice of probably the most intriguing season of his nine in the NHL.

There's the World Cup, of course, and a Jets team that has him as excited as he's been in a while, with the addition of blue-chip prospects like second-overall draft pick Patrik Laine and college star Kyle Connor.

“We have some firepower up front,” Wheeler said. “There's going to be a lot of competition for jobs in training camp, which is exciting. That's how you know you're moving in the right direction, when you can't necessarily pencil guys in for certain spots. We have a lot of guys up front who can move really well.

“It's going to create some good problems for the coaches to figure out who's going to play with who. And hopefully some matchup problems for the other team, too.”

Wheeler finished last season on a red-hot line with Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers, two more young, high-speed players he'd love to play a full season with.

Byfuglien will be Wheeler's teammate on Team USA, among seven Jets who'll suit up in the World Cup: Scheifele, Jacob Trouba and goalie Connor Hellebuyck will play for Team North America, Laine for the Finns, Ondrej Pavelec for the Czechs.

How they all mesh as Jets without a training camp together, and whether they'll feel any kind of World Cup hangover when they do return, is one of the season's wildcards.

“Hopefully we'll mesh back into each other and get off to a good start,” Wheeler said. “It's going to be great competition. The farther you go in that tournament the faster the games are going to get, I would suspect. Hopefully that level translates coming back here.”

One thing Wheeler doesn't have to worry about: finding his own game.

Whether in Red, White and Blue, or just Jets blue — it should look the same.

WHAT HE DID ON HIS SUMMER VACATION

He couldn't pinpoint a single highlight of his summer, but Blake Wheeler said seeing the Jets win the NHL draft lottery and take Finnish star Patrik Laine with the No. 2 pick was a pretty good start.

“Good breaks like that -- you look at franchises turn the corner just by doing those things,” Wheeler said. “We can all see his ability and the things he brings to the table. It creates a ton of excitement for us and obviously for the city. At the same time he's 18 years old and hasn't played a game in the NHL. You don't want to put too much on him too early, and have these high expectations that nobody can live up to.

“When he becomes the player he's going to be, he's going to be a huge piece for our organization.”

A member of Team USA, Wheeler will face Laine in the World Cup, next month.

He's never seen the high-scoring winger skate.

“Nothing live,” he said. “Just the highlights. And they look pretty sweet.”

The two did meet up in Winnipeg earlier this summer, and it sounds like off-ice chemistry, at least, wasn't hard to find.

“We poked fun at each other a little bit,” Wheeler said. “I told him I was going to stay out of his way, stay out of that shot lane when he's shooting it. He said that's probably a good idea.

“I'll keep track of him (at the World Cup), and if we get out there together I'll be in his ear a little bit.”