Flames acquire Smid for Horak

 

 

The first ever trade between the Flames and Oilers involved an entirely mediocre defender (Steve Staios!). That’s pretty much true of the second ever trade between the clubs as well, except this time at least the dude isn’t completely over the hill.

Word came down this evening that the Flames have moved Roman Horak and G Laurent Brossoit for Ladislav Smid and G Olivier Roy.

Smid is 27 years old and one of the guys attained for Chris Pronger when he demanded a trade out of Edmonton started their downward spiral. He is entirely uninspiring as an NHLer – he has limited offense (career high 15 points) and doesn’t do anything in particular well. Smid has spent a lot of time taking on tough minutes for Edmonton the last few years, but he’s also spent most of the that time getting beat up. In fact, part of the Oilers on-going issues could be ably summed up by saying "Smid is a top-4 defender on this team".

Which isn’t to say Smid is completely useless. At 27 he’s near the peak age for NHLers. He’s big at 6’3, 209 pounds and he can hold his own in most physical confrontations. If the Flames plan is to sub him at the end of the rotation in favor of O’Brien, Billins, Breen or Smith, then that’s probably a step up. Otherwise, meh.

I was never as high as Roman Horak as some others, but I’m surprised the club moved him along for an eminently replaceable defender. Hartley clearly wasn’t anywhere near as enamoured with the former Ranger draft pick as Brent Sutter, so maybe the organization figured he was never going to crack the big club anyways. 

Brossoit and Roy are a swap of netminding prospects. The success of Jon Gillies probably made Brossoit seem expendable to the Flames, but even then I’m guessing this part of the deal was executed at the request of the Oilers (since Roy is an inferior prospect).

UPDATE – here is JW’s take for Oilersnation.