Let’s be real, half the fun of NHL Trade Deadline day is the speculation and rumors. It’s the reason bored people who have 36 followers on their regular twitter account make up a mock Twitter account with the user name “@PierreULeBrun” and tweet out fake trades and rumors, just to see how many people they can sucker.

The rest of us meanwhile all put on our Armchair GM hats and formulate what we’d do if we happened to be running the show. This year especially with the season the @Winnipeg Jets have had, opinions on what Kevin Cheveldayoff should do have been all over the board. Everything from bring in players who can help the defense right now (which they kinda did earlier this week), to selling off as much as possible and point the team in the direction of missing the playoffs for a chance at a higher first round pick in a deep 2020 Draft.

Today, I’m not sure exactly what I want my favorite hockey club to do. To me, the smart move would be to just stand pat, maybe even see if they can trade someone off the roster for a draft pick or two. Not necessarily do anything to hurt the Jets current chances at a playoff spot, but ya know, don’t go any more out of their way to help it along – especially since they got @Dylan DeMelo.

But I won’t lie, I’ve kind of gotten addicted to the idea of the Jets being major players at the deadline like they have been the last two seasons. I know the Jets now aren’t in the situation they were in 2018 when they acquired @Paul Stastny, nor the one they were in when they traded for @Kevin Hayes in 2019, but I can’t help but want to see another big deal anyway.

That said, I have three players in mind that I would love to see in a Jets uniform. Are these practical, smart moves that the Jets could make to boost the club now and not harm the future? Not really, and I am ok with that. So before you realistic, practical thinking Jets fans bark at me about how adding any of these three players would be “stupid” and probably do more harm to the Jets than help, understand that I agree…

And I don’t care.

As much as I like @Cody Eakin, I feel like the Jets got the wrong Vegas Golden Knight.

The player who actually inspired me to make this list in the first place. I don’t tweet out my “I wish my team had this guy” list very often, so I kind of felt cold and alone in my desire to see the Jets bring home local boy Reaves until another fairly prominent member of Jets Twitter seemingly read my mind…

Screw “next year”, I know he’s a UFA this summer, but I want that to happen now!

Look, you can hate fighting in the game of hockey all you want, and I agree that the role of “an enforcer” as we’ve traditionally known it is pretty much dead in this current era of the NHL and that having a guy who can win a skull punching contest isn’t going to prevent teams from taking runs at @Mark Scheifele and @Patrik Laine…

But it also can’t hurt to have a guy who can win a skull punching contest on your roster either.

As cute as it has been to see @Nikolaj Ehlers step up to take on @Ryan Getzlaf and @Jamie Benn, no Jets fan should want to see Ehlers take off his mitts at any time. @Blake Wheeler can handle himself in these matters, but I’d much rather see the guy who has 20+ goals over each of the last seven seasons on the ice and not in the box. @Nathan Beaulieu can chuck knuckles as well, but I’ve always been averse to seeing defensemen fight because you only have six of them dressed as opposed to 12 forwards.

Ryan Reaves isn’t a slouch by any means on a forth line role. You can play him just under 10 minutes per night and the idea that he’s a shoulder tap by Paul Maurice away from going out and having a “conversation” with someone who dares to take a run at @Sami Niku or @Connor Hellebuyck would at least give other teams pause for thought.

Plus there is that whole Reaves versus Evander Kane thing that would play well with Jets fans.

Damn you Scott Billeck for getting the jump on me for this one.

Off the ice, I love PK Subban. His energy is infectious, his love for the game is obvious and he’s an amazing ambassador for the sport. On the ice I can’t stand him and the feeling is mutual for a lot of other Jets fans who went from booing him because he was regarded as Nashville’s most high profile player, to booing him for his work during the 2018 NHL Playoffs when he was a constant thorn in the side of the Jets in that classic Winnipeg / Nashville series.

Is he prone to defensive mistakes? Yes, he has a long history of them. Can he be considered overrated? I think there is a strong argument to be made that he is. He for sure is overpaid as he has two years left on his massive $9 million per season AAV deal.

But if nothing else, PK would be entertaining to watch on multiple levels. He’d be an instant upgrade to the Jets power-play over @Neal Pionk and @Josh Morrissey, and maybe Paul Maurice could work some magic to get him to focus in on his defensive work a little more.

As Scott noted in his piece… It’s not like Subban is that far removed from the days he was mentioned in the same breath of other Norris Trophy winners, maybe a trip back to Canada would help PK find that level of play again.

The first two on this trios list are kind of silly and I know are highly unlikely to happen, but this is one name I think the Jets should definitely consider and I brought it up a few weeks ago…

Gostisbehere would be an upgrade over @Tucker Poolman or @Luca Sbisa and the Jets would not have to give up a whole ton to the Flyers to get him (@Nikolaj Ehlers stays put, as we’ve argued he should from the beginning.)

Trading for Dylan DeMelo kind of took care of that whole “top four” defenseman issue for Winnipeg, so the chances again of this happening are low as are the chances of the Jets trading for the other two players on my list, and really having added DeMelo and Eakin, it kind of feels unlikely the Jets make any other moves…

But what good is Trade Deadline Day without having a personal player wish list, no matter how crazy it is?