The NHL trade deadline came and went at 3 p.m. yesterday. The action was not what it used to be.

Before the salary cap was instituted in 2005, deadline day was an unofficial holiday in Canada. Big-name players flew hither and yon. Now, it's more like spring cleaning.

Playoff teams still buy. Non-playoff teams still sell. The difference is in the magnitude.

This year, 48 deals were made before and after the Olympic break. Ninety-three players and 34 draft picks were involved. Most of the action rated low on the thrill meter. Arguably, the most exciting trade consummated yesterday was done between Colorado and Phoenix: The Coyotes got semi-sniper Wojtek Wolski for Peter Mueller (whom the Blue Jackets ought to have drafted instead of Nikolai Zherdev) and prospect forward Kevin Porter. Yowza.

The bigger deals were done last month, when Ilya Kovalchuk landed in New Jersey and Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Dion Phaneuf touched down in Toronto. The Kovalchuk trade involved the only first-round pick that was moved during the pre-deadline sales event.

The task for Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson was to shed players with expiring contracts and salvage as much as possible. Howson put his law degree in the bottom drawer for a day and played dentist.

"You're never happy trading away NHL players," Howson. "You'd like to be adding NHL players, not trading them away."

Howson didn't find a suitable offer for Raffi Torres until 1:45 p.m. - and then he moved five players in a span of 75 minutes.

• Torres was traded to Buffalo for defenseman Nathan Paetsch and a second-round pick. There were four or five teams "kicking the tires" around Torres, Howson said, but only two offered a second-round pick. And for Howson, the second-round pick was critical - and not easy to come by. Only nine second-round picks were moved in pre-deadline deals.

"We think the draft is deep," Howson said, "and now we have three picks in the top 60. We thought Raffi would get us that, and he did."

I like Torres. I wish he had re-signed with the Jackets. The question was for how much, and for how long? Torres said he'd take a pay cut to stay. In the end, he would not and did not. Howson offered Torres an extension within the Blue Jackets' salary structure, and Torres decided to take his shot at bigger money on the free-agent market. He'll do well, too.

Torres fits in perfectly with the Sabres, who need his grit and clutch scoring. As for Paetsch, he's an eighth defenseman who can play some forward. The Jackets can use him down the stretch as deadline day left them bereft of bodies.

• Fredrik Modin, traded to Los Angeles for a conditional pick, is a class guy and will be missed. Milan Jurcina, traded to Washington for a conditional pick, played his groin off at the Olympics. Their contracts were expiring. They had to go.

• The Alexandre Picard era has drawn to a merciful conclusion in Columbus - or, rather, Syracuse. The previous Jackets administration always maintained that Picard, drafted with the eighth overall pick in 2004, would turn into a quality third-line thumper. After six years in the system, Picard needs a change of scenery. He was sent to Phoenix for minor-league winger Chad Kolarik, a former University of Michigan star. Kolarik, at least, can skate.

• Mathieu Roy, at times an intriguing prospect on defense, was traded to Florida for the rights to Michigan center Matt Rust. Florida traded away Dennis Seidenberg and Jordan Leopold and needed D. From the Jackets end, this might be one of those middling deals that comes out well somewhere down the road. I just have that feeling. Although Rust is projected as a third-liner, he's a center and he's a smart, fast and gritty little cuss.

So it goes on deadline day 2010 in Columbus. There's a hope that a collegian named Rust is a keeper. Maybe next year will be different.

Michael Arace is a sports reporter for The Dispatch.

marace@dispatch.com