The Dallas Stars, who are bad this year, traded Patrick Eaves to the Anaheim Ducks, who are maybe okay.  It’s hard to tell in the Pacific division if the team is good or just not the Coyotes and Canucks.

That little word conditional seems so innocent.

So the pick that Anaheim is giving is either the second round pick they get from Toronto, which is the middle of the three that Toronto have, or they get Anaheim’s first.

Okay, so maybe it was a smart trade for both sides and wasn’t stupid at all.  They get a very affordable forward who at 32 is having a career year he will likely never repeat, and they don’t have to do anything foolish like re-sign him.  Given the Ducks’ fairly tepid offence sometimes, it makes sense for them to add something up front.  They still have enough room (all via LTIR) to add one more modestly priced forward if they want to.

Dallas still have players to sell too, so some teams get to have fun this year.

The last thing we want is for the Red Wings to get smart, get picks and get better.  This is a very bad sign.  What if they start trading all their old guys?

What’s that? Tomas Jurco is 24? Oh, okay, carry on then.  At least the Red Wings had a reason to move him.

Jurco has not had a great year, missing a lot of time, and he’s a borderline AHL/NHL player, exactly who Chicago like to play with Jonathan Toews so he doesn’t build up too much ego.  To be perfectly honest, this guy would struggle to make the Marlies lineup right now.  I’m not sure how depth of this sort warrants a third-round pick.

But wait, there’s more:

Chicago immediately sent down Vinnie Hinostroza.  See, now that they have the big guy who can’t score, they can pop this good young player back into the AHL.  Always what you want.  He has 14 points in 48 games, and you wouldn’t want that to continue.

Okay.  Jurco looks like he should be better.  That he was good in junior aura takes a long time to wear off.

You guys explain this one to me.  I don’t get it. What is Chicago trying to do? Make a deal for the sake of it? Why waste their small amount of cap room on this guy?