He wanted to make the Blue Jackets better. He wanted to give them a better chance because the last month of the regular season is going to be "really hard." He wanted to do something to help them get better down the stretch. He wanted to do something that would help them now and in the future.

Yet, odd as it seems, his most impressive statement during and after a news conference on the NHL trade deadline had to do with deadline-day failures:

"Sometimes you can't help," he said. "That would have been disappointing, but if that's what it is, that's what it is."

Howson offered that in the same gray monotone. He didn't look around to see if anybody bought it. After he made a big trade to bring a solid player to the Jackets, it didn't matter. But that's what struck me about it: As badly as Howson wanted to do something at the trade deadline to help his team -- and being forced to subtract Adam Foote and Sergei Fedorov from a competitive team last year probably heightened his urgency -- it was just as clear that he wouldn't have done it just to sell tickets.

"You have to feel right about it," he said. "You never deal on hope. There are no guarantees on this, anyway "

Sending goaltender Pascal Leclaire and a second-round draft pick to the Ottawa Senators for forward Antoine Vermette looks like a shrewd move. The Blue Jackets needed help up front and particularly at center, which is Vermette's natural position. They could desperately use another scorer, and as recently as last season, Vermette had 24 goals and 29 assists. And they also needed a two-way player because, well, if a guy isn't good on both ends of the ice, he's going to flunk out of coach Ken Hitchcock's system.

A goaltender with Leclaire's potential and a draft pick might not have been too much to pay -- we could debate that for days -- but Leclaire is injured, stuck behind budding star Steve Mason and wasn't likely to play here. So in effect, the Blue Jackets got a 26-year-old who can help now and next season, and they didn't have to subtract from this team -- or the future -- in the process.

For that reason, it's hard to imagine a trade deadline day going much better for the Jackets. Any fan can indulge in the drunken fantasies that sometimes seem to fuel talk radio, the why-don't-we-trade-(insert your favorite three journeymen here)-for-Evgeni-Malkin deals. But this was a solid, real-world deal by a guy who has his feet planted firmly on it, an improve-the-team deal by an intelligent, analytical general manager whose two-year track record has been pretty good.

When Howson analyzes this stuff, you aren't blinded by the flash; the overriding impression is one of competence, one that says the man is in control and has thought things through.

What if Vermette turns out to be a better winger than center?

"Even if we went out and got a really good center right now, we'd still want Antoine," Howson said. "We feel like he makes us better."

Does it concern him that he has been a 20-goal guy and he's not having a 20-goal year?

"No, we've watched him play a lot," Howson said. "He does a lot of other things that help teams win, and he's done that his whole career. He's just not an offensive player. He has some offense to him, but he's a two-way player. He just wasn't having a great offensive year. But even if he doesn't produce great offensive numbers while he's here, we feel he's going to help us win and that's why we did the deal."

So Howson's happy?

The smile was almost noticeable.

"I feel like we're a better team."

Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch.

bhunter@dispatch.com