When Joe Sakic and Bill Guerin spoke Tuesday afternoon about swapping third-pair defenders Ian Cole and Greg Pateryn, the trade made sense to any general manager, in part because the Colorado Avalanche was in Los Angeles and the Wild in Anaheim.
There are pages and pages of COVID-19 protocols this season, and any commercial air travel after a transaction requires quarantine.
But with the Avs right on the highway, private car transport would make Pateryn technically available to the Avs if they wanted to play him against the Kings on Tuesday night and Cole available to make his Wild debut against the Ducks on Wednesday night.
“Ian is a guy I know well from my time in Pittsburgh and someone I trust on the ice. I like the way he carries himself, ”said Guerin. And when Joe told me he would be available, we worked on it quickly and did something. I think the fact that they were down the street in LA, and we’re …