Penguins Update: Hagelin, Daley Provide a Spark

It isn’t the easiest thing to do. Improve a team through trades. Indeed, there’s a certain hit-or-miss quality about the process that comes with the turf. Kind of like panning for gold nuggets in a partially played-out stream, hoping to strike it rich.

Especially if your counterpart senses you’re itching to make a deal. Overplay your hand and you’re liable to overpay. Dearly.

Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford knows all-too-well how easy it is to get burned. Take last season’s stinker, for example, when he parted with a first-round pick and forward Rob Klinkhammer for erstwhile sniper David Perron. Or the unpopular Simon Despres for Ben Lovejoy swap.

Fortunately, JR doesn’t dwell on past…