My biggest worry is that Wheeler drags down Scheifele. I thought he was a big factor in some of Scheifele's struggles. Once the speed is gone, his neutral zone game is just not as strong. I thought teams closed on him quickly last year to force neutral zone turnovers. And Scheifele was not able to defend these mistakes adequately. Seemed like Scheif's best output came from playing with Stastny and Ehlers, and playing more of a winger type role in that scenario.
Now I don't know how much Wheeler's performance was affected by Covid, and a pretty brutal injury. But I do worry about fragility, if things start to go south.
I had a trade I was pondering today, which was Wheeler, 15% retention ($1,237,500), with Heinola for Sam Bennett, Duclair, and Florida's 2nd next year. If the Panthers buyout or LTIR Hornqvist should make it under the Cap, taking on just under $7 million of Wheeler's contract.
Works out to Heinola for Bennett straight up. Florida desperately needs a quality LD, and Zito loves Finns. He'd conceivably be top pairing there, whereas he's fighting to get into the lineup here, and might remain behind Morrissey and Samberg for the near future. Opens a route to the NHL for Chisholm, who a lot of people are high on, but who sits 6th on the current LD depth chart.
Bennett would give the Jets some toughness at forward, and provides a future 2c if Dubois gets moved at some point, not putting all the pressure on Perfetti to go from an 7 pt winger to a 2C in an instant. Coming off a career year, but that was with Huberdeau. Great value contract for last year's production, with 3 years left. Definitely built for Western Conference hockey. Panthers can afford to lose him with Lundell, and Colin White as potential replacements, basically implodes their 2nd line last year.
Duclair is injured, but could come back at a time when depth is need, in the heart of the season. Goal scoring has more potential than Wheeler, but still a lesser value based on inconsistency. Might be a nice fit with Dubois for half a season.
Getting 2 forwards (eventually) out of Wheeler's Cap space seems like a win.
I think the Jets are counting on 100 goals out of Connor, Scheifele and Ehlers, but some depth scoring goes a long way.
Team would be different in a lot of ways without Wheeler, and some of those could be positive.