"No team has come looking to trade for.." is something we don't know.
Of course we don't know definitively; that's a given considering our position as fans relative to the organization. I'm speaking to the somewhat obvious implication in that no proposed trade or interested has come to light in any reported capacity as far as league insiders are concerned.
A: There could have been trades floated, just not what Chevy wants.
B: With both players being exceptionally high grade, isn't it strange no one is knocking down the door to get these pieces they can build around? If signing in Winnipeg will take x+ vs. x to sign with another team, you'd think other teams would be more interested in them than we are...
Indeed, Cheveldayoff doesn't seem like the type of GM to entertain disadvantageous trades, especially with his top players. But again to my previous point: no reported trade proposals have come to light in the seven or so weeks since free agency began. That's telling.
And it's not necessarily strange. It's not common to see pending UFAs get much interest at this time of year unless the team to which they belong is looking to shed salary. That doesn't appear to be the case with the Jets right now (projected to have around $1.8M of cap space to start the 2023-24 season).
You're right, we've gotten a lot of good mileage out of both players, truthfully, its not like they are assets with long futures ahead like Dubois (or Liane that we traded for Dubois) had. And sure, teams trading for 55 or 37 would be signing them to 5-8 year deals expecting to possibly buy out/trade the last few. But they both can help teams now, and could be pieces that make that last step to contender.
We aren't going to get a haul of current stars for either, but there should be trades available with some future prospects/picks. Is there a FA C out there that can bridge us a year of development?
I think the team has moved forward on many fronts, and it will be interesting to see what the new look team will be. Not sure how much different it could be without 55 or 37 or both, but it would be be way to allow a new group of leaders to take over.
To me, there aren't any trades available at this time based on the apparent lack of interest from 31 other teams. What's worth noting is 18 of those teams have less than $1M worth of projected cap space, of which 12 have none whatsoever.
New leaders have already taken over recently. Morrissey, Connor, Lowry - to name a few. But that doesn't mean there isn't room in the leadership for players like Scheifele or Hellebuyck. I'm merely speculating but now that Wheeler's gone - the last of the old guard, as it were - the leadership issues could be sorted out with the current group and perhaps we see improvement in how the team plays in terms of its consistency.
The future of both players beyond next season seems very unclear, IMO. I don't expect that changing any time soon.
