It’s my Parting Shot to float an idea for a pie-in-the-sky block-buster N-H-L trade…..
Normally, I look at what some fans, and even out-of-touch media types, come up with for trades – and shake my head at the lunacy, while chuckling about it at the same time! Those proposed fan-slash-fan-disguised-as-media deals are so slanted towards their favourite team that the other team’s General Manager would, or at least should be fired, for even considering it beyond five seconds of being presented with the proposal!!
However, there are two N-H-L teams that are underachieving so badly – and have players on their rosters that are the targets of so much media and fan vitriol – that those teams should get rid of them and those players should welcome a change of scenery!
The teams are the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Edmonton Oilers. The players are forwards Auston Matthews and William Nylander from the Buds, along with defencemen Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard from the Oil!
Wait a minute, what about a crazy trade involving those two teams, located in fan-crazy and media-crazy Canadian cities?! Maybe, I’m crazy – but hear me out, even though you don’t have a choice!!
These four players all need a change and/or a different role with a different team. In the cases of Nylander and Nurse, their recent public displays of petulance didn’t go over well with fans and media alike. Matthews, as captain in Toronto, has run out of narrative and excuses for the team’s failures this season, and in past year’s playoffs, while Bouchard is an offensively-minded rover who is a disaster without the puck from the opponents’ blueline back to his own goal!
An Edmonton-Toronto trade makes sense, even moreso if you make it a three-way deal that involves, say, St. Louis that brings goaltender Jordan Binnington to the Oilers and Connor Ingram or Tristan Jarry to the Blues. In order to get all teams involved within the salary cap, have the Leafs be on the hook for some of either the Matthews or Nylander or both contracts!
Brilliant – except for one thing! Matthews, Nylander and Nurse all have no movement clauses in their contracts!!
Well, that was fun while it lasted!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!
