You see, Dolan remembers when -- before the 1980 trade deadline -- Bill Torrey found "The Missing Piece" in L.A. and sent the Kings a package of Dave Lewis and Billy Harris for Butch Goring -- and that is how the Islanders won four Stanley Cups.
Now, with The Maven's magical "Thought Recording Machine," we shall get into the head of New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury.
Immediately, it tells us he wants to win The Cup. Everybody knows that. Secondly, his boss,
Jim Dolan wants ditto.
What's more, Jimmy Garden may be -- behind the scenes of course -- pushing harder for his GM-Of-Many-Other-Titles to get THE guy for the job.
You see, Dolan remembers when -- before the 1980 trade deadline -- Bill Torrey found "The Missing Piece" in L.A. and sent the Kings a package of Dave Lewis and Billy Harris for Butch Goring -- and that is how the Islanders won four Stanley Cups.
With that in mind, I'm going to suggest that Drury try for a Goring; knowing that it's near impossible.
For starters, I'll list the "Untouchables" as the goaltenders, the core defense, and the core scorers, which does not include Kaapo Kakko.
That leaves us with the "Touchables" -- Zac Jones, Tyler Pitlick, Blake Wheeler, and Barclay Goodrow. I consider it a solid quartet led by Jones, who's better than many think.
The guy we want is someone we know full well -- and like, of course -- Vladimir Tarasenko.
Ottawa landed the very-briefly-ex-Ranger-of-yesteryear on a one-year, $5 million deal to add additional punch to the right wing.
Punch-schmunch; everything that could go wrong has gone wrong with the Senators so don't even compare his record in Canada's capital with anything relevant.
This Vladdy guy is a player and proved it during his all too brief stint in Rangerville until -- very foolishly -- Patrick Kane was imported and screwed up the chemistry big time.
Since Tara is a right-wing, Ottawa's mixed-up front office would want abRW in return, and that's where Kakko may be demanded by the Sens general staff.
No way, I say. Kakko must be allowed to develop here same as Big Al Lafreniere has matured.
The deal for Tarasenko should include the appealing quartet listed above and absolutely no draft picks.
I like that -- how about You?