Surely you can't break up the current second line? They are playing too well together, even PoMo has to see that.
The most seamless thing to do when Scheifele comes back in my opinion is to shift Wheeler back to RW, Scheifele at center and put Laine on the left wing. Drop Connor to the 3rd line and Copp to a still very respectable 4th line.
Laine-Scheifele-Wheeler
Perreault-Little-Ehlers
Connor-Lowry-Armia
Copp-Hendricks/Roslovic-Tanev
I really, really don't want to break up the second line. It's getting the best out of all 3 of those players, and we know that Scheifele and Wheeler are money, and Scheifele and Laine are money.
Again I'm not sure about putting Wheels and Scheif on the same line, but if CLA clicks this would be a very delicious scenario. If not, we need to move Wheels somewhere else to fortify the roster. Scheif and Laine should be a given, there is no reason not to play those two together.
Little and Ehlers are playing their best hockey of the season right now so I'm with you being hesitant about touching that. Can't really move Wheeler to the third line either.
If Connor-Lowry-Armia works, we are in a dream situation. If not, it gets a little weird. In this case, I would probably touch the second line and go
Ehlers-Scheifele-Laine
Connor-Little-Wheeler
Perreault-Lowry-Armia
Copp-Hendricks/Roslovic-Tanev
I think the key is to get as many functioning lines as possible to distribute the TOI properly. I thought it was foolish to get only one line going with crazy minutes and play them until they stopped producing almost completely.
As a Laine fan, I would LOVE to see Laine-Chef-Wheels, but as a Jets fan we need to make sure all the cogs are oiled up and functioning properly.