The Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames are two of the fiercest rivals in the NHL, but that hasn’t prevented them from making a trade early in the 2013-14 NHL season.
Edmonton has dealt defenseman Ladislav Smid and goaltender Olivier Roy to Calgary in exchange for two prospects, center Roman Horak and goaltender Laurent Brossoit.
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Smid is a physical defenseman, a strong penalty killer and someone who’s willing to block shots and battle for pucks in the dirty areas. He upgrades the size, strength and depth of the Flames blue line, one that recently lost captain Mark Giordano for 6-8 weeks because of an injury. Smid’s 52 hits are the second most in the NHL among defensemen, and he ranks 24th in the league with 34 blocked shots. He has three years remaining on his current contract, which carries a cap hit of $3.5 million.
The two prospects going to Edmonton add more depth to an already impressive group of young players at the minor and junior league levels for the Oilers. With that said, giving up Smid when the team lacks physicality and penalty killing ability on the back end is a strange move. This deal does, however, free up more salary cap space to give Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish a little more flexibility in the trade market.
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