Imagine Patrick Kane(88) and Kyle Connor(81) together...
Kane has a NMC and probably wouldn't like leaving his best buddy Toews to dry. Both could find a home in WPG to close out their careers together... Kane and Toews both have NMC's and would probably lose them for nothing at the end of the year(broken relationship.) CHI getting Schiefele secures a #1 C for the next 2 years at least. And could get his buddy Wheeler, both have a lot of chemistry. Both Wheeler and Toews have bad contracts, but this will help both teams and players figure out things better. CHI will at least still have 2 Top 6 Players after this year. Along with Schimdt for the Top 4, and a good prospect ready player to debut. This is Jones prime and CHI can't waste his years waiting to build a team.
Heinola and Barron would be the primary switches and call-ups throughout the year. Since Barron is only exempt for 31 games, he will start out the year with the Moose, which could be better since he could get top line minutes on an important role to build on. Heinola, Samberg and Stanley are all ready and deserve extended roles to challenge each-other and their abilities. All 3 will fight for the 2nd and 3rd left side pairings. Brenden Dillon is the Jets best all around D-man, so transitioning him to the Right side wouldn't be too hard, he's already a solid all around player, a vet, has size and physicality. The Jets need that for the Right side. Preferably without losing anymore pieces for now. Morrissey and Dillon would be a very dominant top pairing all over the ice in all aspects. Pionk and DeMelo will be good mentors to help build up our Defensive structure. If we need Dillon and Morrissey for the 2 top left side pairs, Kovacevic could play the 3rd Right side pairing as a right hand. This will allow Heinola, Stanley, Samberg and Kovacevic to play games all throughout the year. But we will have to figure out who's staying, as we have Chisholm needing to play next year without waivers. Maybe Chisholm is traded in a package along with Vesalainen and Dubois, so teams can figure out what to work with short term in playoffs and going forward whatever possible package.
Toews and Kane's contracts end this year so the Jets have $20M and possibly Dubois $6M to work with going forward after this year, along with a probable Salary Cap increase.
Kane will still be worth a lot. But at least he probably won't be 'demanding' more than $10.5M, so we could potentially free up a lot of space and possibly still have Kane's and Toews services for decent deals going forward. And could still have a lot of money to attract a very big catch.
This works for everyone involved, a fresh space to build on without all the clutter. Refuel those Jets and be ready to fly high. The future is now.
Toews hasn't been a legit top line center in three seasons, and the only way the Jets should trade for him is if a third team gets involved to pay some salary.
Secondly, Scheifele, and Wheeler aren't waiving to go to Chicago.