I can appreciate your take on the Bailey trade. I don’t agree with it but you may be right. Perhaps I am just a little skeptical of the Isles personnel moves when they try to be too smart for the room. I lived on LI from 1990-2006 so I had front row seats for the Milbury days. I’ve just seen too many Isles moves that bucked the trends and went against conventional wisdom. Most of those moves didn’t work too well, so I’m not expecting much better this time. The way I remember that last draft was that there was a general consensus that Stamkos was 1, and then those 4 blueliners were the clear 2-5. If you have a chance at a franchise D (even with limited offensive upside), I say you take it. But you’re right, the Bailey trade was not a flat out bad trade, objectively speaking.

Here is a slightly related funny story. I was at Nassau Coliseum right before XMas when I was visiting my parents. They were playing the Leafs and Bailey was credited with his first ever NHL goal. My brother and I went to get beers and some guy in front of us was buying beers for his whole row because at the start of the game he said that if Bailey scored he’d be so shocked he’d buy a round for everyone. As soon as we got back to our seats the official scoring was changed and Bailey was given an assist not a goal. I wish I could have seen that guy’s reaction.