If Lacroix's M.O. has been repeated, he has requested that when the Sabres and Kings have gotten what they consider their "best" offers for Michael Peca and Blake, respectively, they give Lacroix a last chance to trump them. That could involve a combination of Czech prospect Vaclav Nedorost, the 18-year-old center who was instrumental in his team's gold-medal victory in the World Junior Championships; winger Adam Deadmarsh; one of the Avs' second-tier defensemen; and draft picks.

If one of the elite teams indeed lands Blake, the picture changes drastically. The Wings didn't win the Cup after picking up Chris Chelios two years ago, and the Avalanche didn't win the Cup after acquiring Theo Fleury and Bourque in each of the past two seasons, so this sort of acquisition doesn't come with a guarantee. But Colorado with Blake (and a recovered Adam Foote) would go from Cup favorite to virtual lock. St. Louis with Blake (and a recovered Pronger and Al MacInnis) has a far better opportunity to erase the stigma of recent playoff flops. The Devils with Blake would be a far more bona fide threat to repeat. And ?

You get the point.

It's silly that this remains an issue this late in the season.

Every year, it seems, there are Rob Blakes. Like Blake last weekend, an All-Star or two or three annually shrugs at the All-Star Game proceedings and says he knows he might be going somewhere, but he doesn't know where. It can be because his current contract has become too burdensome for a bad team, or because pending free agency makes his team determined to get something for him before it's too late. And the rumors, which vary from the reasonable and fact-based, to the guesswork involving a dartboard and Ouija Board in the media hospitality room the night before, pick up steam.

The absurdity is that the deals made in the five weeks before the trading deadline can drastically change the playoff dynamic.

In this case, it was Blake repeating his standard lines of the past few weeks. On Saturday, he said the Kings have "made it clear" they won't sign him to a new deal in the next month "and they're not going to wait until the summer and get nothing for me." He said it so many times, to the various waves of reporters during the media availability, he could have put his statement on one of those continuous loop audio tapes (e.g., "The moving walkway is nearing an end; please watch your step") and let the tape recorder do his talking for him. And general manager Dave Taylor is continuing to talk as if trading Blake is as inevitable as if he had put Blake up for auction, without a reserve price, and already had received several bids, so there is no turning back.

We keep coming back to this: The absurdity is that the deals made in the five weeks before the trading deadline can drastically change the playoff dynamic. The phenomenon re-emphasizes the insignificance of the NHL's regular season. When Stanley Cup contenders can play as many as 70 games before retooling as tavern owners are stocking up on kegs for St. Patrick's Day, and salary dumps are more popular strategic maneuvers than the trap for the non-contenders, there's something wrong with the system.

The NHL needs to shove the trading deadline back to midseason, at the latest.

The players association -- which likes the way the late deadline can get players out of bad situations and also get potential free agents to teams whose maneuvers to retain the player possibly could raise the salary bar -- needs to go along with a rollback in the next collective bargaining agreement as a tradeoff, and also for the good of the game.

Now that that's off the chest, the next step is to get completely ridiculous -- and apply logic. The chances of Blake staying with the Kings, whether just for the rest of this season or for the long-term, are being understated.

Yes, odds are he will be traded. But this is like looking at the futures board in a Las Vegas casino and trying to spot the team with both reasonable chances of winning next season's title, yet long enough odds to make it an attractive wager.

The Kings will look absurd if they trade Blake for prospects and draft choices, especially in the context of the battle for attention in a Los Angeles market where dollars seem no object.

Blake likes Los Angeles and while the carrot of free agency next summer, which would allow him to perhaps return to the Toronto area as a member of the Maple Leafs, is enticing, he isn't hungrily looking to get out of Tinseltown.

The Kings will look absurd if they trade Blake for prospects and draft choices, especially in the context of the battle for attention in a Los Angeles market where dollars seem no object -- even in the loophole-filled salary cap milieu of the NBA. Ziggy Palffy and Luc Robitaille aren't sufficiently high-profile, and even beyond the show-biz, box-office issue, winning sells tickets -- and Blake's departure will be tough to sell as anything other than a competitive retreat.

The Kings' owner, the Denver-based Phil Anschutz, is a prideful, self-made billionaire, who understands the wisdom of long-term thinking. So, silly me, it's more possible than we're letting on that Blake could stay with the Kings. The Kings could come off that $40 million, five-year offer, even if that means not trading him before the deadline and worrying about the contract issue later -- while risking losing him for nothing. Not trading him would be a startling risk, but also a statement of faith in their own ability to entice him back and a statement of commitment to not just try to catch either Edmonton or Phoenix in the West and crack the playoff field this season, but get something done in the postseason.

And if Blake just slightly backs off his "Pronger money" stance that involves macho competition more than the dollar figures, acknowledging that he likes L.A. enough to accept a few dollars less than he might get on the open market, then everyone saves face.

Right. It's a longshot. Blake might even be traded before the fine folks at ESPN.com get this missive posted. (HURRY!).

If you're looking at this in the archives, you might be chuckling -- because it turned out that Blake was traded approximately 71 hours and 23 minutes after I finished typing.

But sometimes longshots come through.

And it's ridiculous that we're still talking about this sort of thing after the All-Star Game.