NY Islanders GM Lamoriello has done a little bit of everything at the trade deadline

2019-20: Pageau, Pageau, Pageau

The Islanders were once again on track for the Stanley Cup playoffs as the 2020 trade deadline approached. Fans have been waiting over a calendar year for Lamoriello, a noted bold hockey executive make a significant trade. The team was battling multiple injuries to their forward group, with Casey Cizikas out with a leg laceration and Cal Clutterbuck suffering a wrist injury. However, Lamoriello had added depth defensively earlier in the month by acquiring Andy Greene from NJ.

Then, on deadline day, Lamoriello made his first big move, trading for versatile center Jean-Gabrielle Pageau of the Ottawa Senators. To acquire the 27-year-old Pageau, who was having a career season in Ottawa with 24 goals, the Isles sent to the Senators a first-round pick in 2020, a second-round pick in 2020, and a conditional third-round pick in 2022. The bigger news came minutes later when it was announced that the team signed Pageau to a six-year extension.

"To have the chance to be joining the team, it's just such an honor for me. I couldn't be more excited just to go on a team that's going to be competing every year for a playoff or for a championship," said Pageau after the trade and extension was announced. "I couldn't be more excited as a player. That's what we play for; that's what drives us. That's why I'm excited to go and play for them."

The Islanders didn't win a game in the regular season after acquiring Pageau and were on a seven-game winless streak and in danger of missing the postseason when the season was suspended due to Covid-19. Of couse, the team got healthy and found their game in the Toronto bubble, and Pageau, who also famously won the team's hotel ping pong tournament, was instrumental in their first trip to the Eastern Conference Finals since 1993.