I am the worst this time of year. Trade season is mostly supposed to be about fun, about wishing on ways for your team to improve, marginally now or dramatically in the future. Somehow, over the years, I’ve become the Trade Machine Killjoy, ready to remind you that rules around trades exist and, uh, the other team has to say “yes” to the trade as well. And so here we are, with another instalment of my annual “All your trade ideas are bad” mailbag, and the first here at Sportsnet. I tweaked the approach here a bit, lumping trades into a few like-thinking groups and enlisting the help of a few Sportsnet colleagues. As usual, I also took trade suggestions from readers and listeners, with the advanced warning that, in all likelihood, I’ll be telling them their trade idea is bad (this column is meant to help, not disparage). Before continuing, I recommend reading my deadline primer , as I won’t be explaining in detail why certain things aren’t legal. And before we dive in, a few points ...