I think Mark Stuart was the only contract the Jets have ever bought out, and a Wheels buy out would cost almost 2.5 mill for two years after the current contract. I doubt Chevy would want to do that, and bet he would rather just pay half the current contract now.

Completely agree, I would avoid a Wheeler buy out at all costs, just curious to see others opinions

Agreed with the above comments.

Wheels would be traded with heavy salary retention before he is bought out

I would retain 2.25M as wheels is a decent pickup at 6M.

If there are no bites, I would buy him out as he cannot be on this team come September

I'd rather them retain half if necessary OR just take back some players with one year remaining to make the cap work for the team getting Wheeler.

I've proposed Hornqvist+Gudas for Wheeler which is almost cap neutral for the Panthers for this season, if the Jets retained $450K on Wheeler than it is exactly cap neutral for Florida and better than a Wheeler buyout would be for the Jets, the only sticking point is Hornqvist has trade protection that likely blocks a move to Winnipeg.

I think moving Dubois is far more important than moving Wheeler is, Dubois needs to be gone ASAP.

Gudas could be flipped for a 3rd/4th I'm sure, he'd be a nice presence on the Jets defense as well BUT that'd mean Chevy needs to get busy and find new homes for DeMelo, Dillon and/Schmidt but there in lies the issue, Chevy has to do some actual work which he's loathe to do OR Chipman is ruling over anything and isn't willing to retain money.

This ownership and/or management seems delusional and clueless how to run an NHL team, hopefully they get busy and make me feel differently but as of now and going back a lot of years they've seemed really lost with bad move after bad move. Idk if they have a manager type person between Chipman and Chevy but if they don't than that's the most important thing they need to do this off-season and can't happen soon enough.

Winnipeg is last resort with top free agents. Draft and Trade is the options we have and it seems they have been lacking lately in that department which is why long term employees need to be exchanged sometimes. Maurice realize this and maybe Chevy should also. I am not saying that Chevy should be replaced but he has to change or be replaced.

As for Wheeler, Jets first option should be a trade. A buyout should not be an option. Wheeler is another employee that falls into the category of being turned over as his style of captaincy is no longer working.