from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler had heard all the stories and scouting reports last offseason about his team's new phenom from Finland, who could shoot a puck from everywhere and score at will.

Watching it firsthand, well, that's a whole other thing.

"It's pretty incredible," Wheeler told ESPN.com this week. That phenom -- 18-year-old forward Patrik Laine -- has 15 goals in his first 26 games.

"When we got the pick, everyone was excited at the prospect of having Patty," Wheeler said. "You heard all the stories about his shot and the dynamic things he could do. That's all well and good, but he's 18. You expect there to be a learning curve, you expect to be some speed bumps along the way.

"All of a sudden, he's leading the NHL in goals, and it's not by mistake. It's crazy. He gets the puck in areas [where] you don't really feel like [he has] a scoring chance. All of sudden, it's in the back of the net. You just kind of shake your head.''...

Laine is on pace for 47 goals. He has already had two hat tricks and, yes, he's earned a few nicknames already.

"That was the big thing: 'What do people call him?'" said Wheeler, 30, chuckling. "He started with 'Patty,' and then he got more comfortable and revealed that all his buddies back home call him 'Patsyuk,' obviously after Pavel Datsyuk.

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