Thoughts Caps fans

Definitely not adding a pick. Mantha is almost a decade younger than Wheeler and even with retention we’re still taking on cap. Wheeler has had very public issues with being a negative influence in the locker room, and that is the last thing that the caps need right now on top of getting older. The caps need a presence in the locker room who can be a leader. Wheeler isn’t that.

The picks a 3rd, I’d be willing to drop that and it’s 300k in cap. Not really that significant. The idea that wheeler is a locker room cancer is speculation due to the jets failures since 2018. Go back to 2017-2019 and the entirety of Winnipeg media called him a good captain (dubbed captain serious). Media and fans slowly turned against him as he aged and the jets started to fall of. In fact, by all accounts, he’s still the leader in the jets locker room (according to players “checks notes” as of yesterday) and they have a “great” culture. In fact, they said stopping him of the c was basically pointless and they should ask bones why he did that, not them.

While I agree that the jets need to move on, I wouldn’t call wheeler a locker room cancer as it goes against all evidence. While he definitely says some questionable things every now and again, he also gives his all every shift even at 36.

The need to move on comes from the fact that this core has proved it can’t get it done seeing the same problems every year. From all accounts, that locker room is great. For example, Nino Niederieter said he’d be open to sticking long term cause he loves the organization and the team. And idk if u’ve been to Winnipeg or not but the people that live here dont even want to stay long term.

Saying that it goes against all evidence is pretty incorrect objectively lol. He was just stripped of his captaincy last summer and they spent all summer trying to trade him and couldn’t. These are facts. We do not need or want Wheeler. Would much much rather hold onto mantha, it’s really no contest.

As I lay out sentences of evidence from the players themselves... They tried to move a lot of players last year including Dubois, wheeler, and even listened on scheifele.

Bones said he stripped the C because he wanted more young guys to speak up, and that happened. However, wheeler was still the leader by all accounts. They couldn’t trade him cause they didn’t want to retain for 2 years and teams didn’t want to take that cap it for 2 years.

If you don’t want the player, say that. Don’t bring up things like “he’s a negative influence in the locker room” when every player that was asked about it yesterday said otherwise. Cause that’s dishonest.

Caps pass. They are going to focus on getting younger. Only player Caps would be interested from WPG is Ehlers.