pydist-build fails on invalid command 'bdist_wheel'

I can reproduce this locally, but gitlab CI has some problems downloading npm packages, so I'll paste my local output here:

$ gitlab-runner exec docker package:amd64_stretch
…
http_proxy= /usr/bin/npm run build:production

> bitmask_js@0.0.1 build:production /builds/project-0/source/ui
> NODE_ENV=production webpack

Hash: 140ca861fcd26e16f7f2
Version: webpack 1.15.0
Time: 9049ms
                                 Asset       Size  Chunks             Chunk Names
                      img/envelope.svg    3.19 kB          [emitted]  
  f4769f9bdb7466be65088239c12046d1.eot    20.1 kB          [emitted]  
 fa2772327f55d8198301fdb8bcfc8158.woff    23.4 kB          [emitted]  
  e18bbf611f2a2e43afc071aa2f4e1512.ttf    45.4 kB          [emitted]  
  89889688147bd7575d6327160d64e760.svg     109 kB          [emitted]  
                         app.bundle.js    2.08 MB       0  [emitted]  main
                     app.bundle.js.map    2.47 MB       0  [emitted]  main
                    img/arrow-down.svg    2.73 kB          [emitted]  
                      img/arrow-up.svg    2.75 kB          [emitted]  
                         img/cloud.svg    2.98 kB          [emitted]  
                      img/disabled.svg    3.12 kB          [emitted]  
448c34a56d699c29117adc64c43affeb.woff2      18 kB          [emitted]  
                         img/error.svg    4.86 kB          [emitted]  
                          img/gear.svg     5.6 kB          [emitted]  
                          img/mask.svg    8.41 kB          [emitted]  
                           img/off.svg    3.54 kB          [emitted]  
                            img/on.svg    3.39 kB          [emitted]  
                        img/planet.svg    3.98 kB          [emitted]  
                       img/unknown.svg    6.41 kB          [emitted]  
                          img/user.svg    3.81 kB          [emitted]  
                          img/wait.svg    5.62 kB          [emitted]  
                            index.html  255 bytes          [emitted]  
                          js/zxcvbn.js     822 kB          [emitted]  
   [0] multi main 40 bytes {0} [built]
    + 895 hidden modules
cd pydist && python setup.py bdist_wheel
usage: setup.py [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...]
   or: setup.py --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...]
   or: setup.py --help-commands
   or: setup.py cmd --help

error: invalid command 'bdist_wheel'
make[2]: *** [pydist-build] Error 1
Makefile:41: recipe for target 'pydist-build' failed
make[2]: Leaving directory '/builds/project-0/source/ui'
debian/rules:25: recipe for target 'override_dh_prep' failed
make[1]: Leaving directory '/builds/project-0/source'
make[1]: *** [override_dh_prep] Error 2
make: *** [binary] Error 2
debian/rules:21: recipe for target 'binary' failed
dpkg-buildpackage: error: fakeroot debian/rules binary gave error exit status 2
gbp:error: 'dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -us -uc' failed: it exited with 2
Edited by Varac