"Is he a locker room cancer?"

Well, my friend... you don't get stripped of the captaincy and traded (in this scenario) for being a locker room hero...

There's been reports of the locker room being a mess, but who knows why at the end of the day

Who knows if he did or not. The one thing he wasn't is a captain meant for Canadian media

As a player, he is fine but I think he doesn't want to leave Winnipeg so he has blocked trades

The whole stripping of the captaincy was more to do with allowing others to step up and free him from being a captain

Yeah the phenomenon of people trading him away at half retained for scraps is a weird one indeed.
I mean, he's still fairly solid, and a machine come power play. Although not the most defensively responsible at times, to be diplomatic.

Wouldn't take him if it gave us 4.1 M in cap space. And under no cirumstance give that cap hit up to have him in the line up.
Just no way. Especially since that would make it impossible to sign Laffy and Miller next year.

I would trade him, but the Jets are so thin at forward depth that we’ll probably end up keeping him for one more year.

The potential Cap boom next year could alleviate that issue, but I get your point.

Was more interested in why a player with his #'s, who you would think would bring in a haul in assets, is being basically pawned off for meager returns.

FWIW, I heard one pundit describe the situation as a divided locker room with the Wheeler camp and the Scheifele camp. Although I heard an interview with Scheifele and he claimed no issue and that Wheeler was his captain. I can't imagine moving that cap hit for this year and next at his age would be that easy even if the Jets were actively pursuing it.

There have been a lot of rumors and pointed comments from former players (Stasny and Laine most notably) about the Jets locker room being very toxic and as the now former captain, Wheeler at best was incapable of stopping it. I think honestly the bigger issue is that his point production has largely relied on the powerplay and that he has put up some of the worst defensive results among forwards in the entire league.

I don't know honestly, but NYR needs to let the kids play. Nothing against of Wheelers, or Horvat or Kane. If NYR needs something it is veteran top 6 DFD.
They thought they had it in Nemeth but unfortunately that didn't pan out.