Computer magnate Charles Wang told Newsday he regrets buying the New York Islanders nine years ago. Given his costly failure at the helm of the franchise, Hockey Guy can understand that sentiment.

But it wasn’t a bad buy. It was a potentially good buy that went terribly wrong, due to Wang’s naive and/or inept management.

Why did he let Mike Milbury run the franchise into the ground? Appointing the team’s back-up goaltender, Garth Snow, as the latest general manager was equally egregious.

(Former co-owner Sanjay Kumar took stupidity to the next level, earning a 12-year prison term for a $400 million accounting fraud scandal. This franchise became a cursed enterprise.)

Hockey Guy postures as if he could run a franchise better than the men actually in charge. In the case of the Islanders, though, this presumption is legitimate.

There might be 50,000 people – Hockey Guy included – who are better qualified to run that team than Wang, Milbury, Snow, et al.

Trade Roberto Luongo? Sure, why not. Goaltenders like him come to a franchise every 20 years or so, but what the heck.

Give goaltender Rick DiPietro a 15-year, $67.5 million contract extension? Go ahead, it’s only money. So what if the guy is extremely ordinary and unfortunately injury prone.

Spend the better part of a decade struggling to get a new arena built on Long Island? Why not – it’s fun tilting windmills. Never mind that other cities, like Kansas City, are clamoring to give you a favorable lease to move.

Wang claims he has spent an average of $23 million per year keeping this horrible team afloat in its antiquated arena. Wouldn’t it be more fun to just dump bundles of money out of low-flying aircraft?

IN SEARCH OF . . . A DEFENSIVE CORNERSTONE

The Blues would be silly to deal David Perron, Alex Pietrangelo or any other blue-chip youngster to bring Chris Pronger back to St. Louis. This franchise is just starting to take off – so now is not the time to switch directions.

Now, if the Note gets the opportunity to acquire, say, 24-year-old Dion Phaneuf from the Flames for a package of young people and picks . . . well, that would be a different story. Phaneuf is coming off a poor, injury-marred season.

But he is a physical force and a potential power-play hammer. The Toronto Globe and Mail notes that keeping Dion for the long haul could be problematic in Calgary. His deal averages $6.5 million per year, which is NOT a salary cap-friendly number.

Maybe the Flames would rather have free agent Jay Bouwmeester instead. If Mike Keenan stays as coach, he will campaign for that – since Iron Mike once hyped Bouwmeester as the Next Pronger during their days together in Florida.

Stay tuned . . .

AROUND THE RINKS: Look for a complete overhaul of the San Jose Sharks, who won the President’s Trophy and then bowed from the playoffs in the first round. Rob Blake and Jeremy Roenick will retire and Claude Lemieux out to re-retire. GM Doug Wilson sounds understandably willing to blow up the nucleus and start over. Patrick Marleau is just one player badly needing a change of scenery . . . The Boston Globe suggests that the Sedin twins could command a combined $90 million for six years if they hit the free-agent marketplace. Hockey Guy talked to various Vancouver folks about Daniel and Henrik during the Blues series. The consensus: The Canucks want to keep them, but the team won’t pay very top dollar to do so. To this point, the twins have yet to reach their full (read: postseason) potential. Toronto and Los Angeles are among the team needing the sort of talent boost this duo could provide . . . Is Simeon Varlamov the Next New Thing in goaltenders? He is making the Capitals forget about that unfortunate Jose Theodore signing. Fantasy hockey GMs are paying close attention . . . If the Blues want to get bigger in this draft, they should look at winger Zack Kassian. The Globe compares him to budding Bruins power forward Milan Lucic . . . Have you seen a closer goal/no-goal replay ruling that the one Sunday night in the Hurricanes-Bruins game? That was a coin flip, even in high def. There appeared to be a sliver of ice between the puck and the back of the goal line, but perhaps that was just the camera angle.  . . . How can anybody  BUT Andy Murray win the Jack Award Award as the NHL’s top coach?