Willis: Oilers fleeced Flames in Smid trade

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by nik-

I personally don't think Smid is very good. Clearly a 3rd pairing D. But he's a warrior and the Oilers need more of them. It was a bad trade for them but it's not like we got a stellar D-man.

I won't even address the "fleecing" because it's just laughable.

Like I said earlier. It's like trying to cackle in victory after exchanging a half eaten chocolate bar for an empty wrapper. Who cares. Neither team is much better off or worse

[Arya Stark]

Originally Posted by TKB

Also to note: I have Whitney on the top pairing, so that must also mean that I think he is still a top pairing D as well?

No, it just means you really don't read defenseman that well and I shouldn't take anything you say that seriously.

Smid is not garbage.

[Arya Stark]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Like I said earlier. It's like trying to cackle in victory after exchanging a half eaten chocolate bar for an empty wrapper. Who cares. Neither team is much better off or worse

How so? One team lost a top 4 defenceman and one gained a top 5 and one lost a couple non NHL tweeners.

Edmonton got worse after that trade and we got better. It really is that simple. How much better doesn't matter. Fact is we got better and they didn't.

[GoJetsGo]

Not to mention this is being discussed because the losing side had some PR monkey make a complete hypocritical a$$ of himself trying to declare it as some kind of victory for them.

That, and after giving away a bottom pairing stay-at-home defenseman, they have gone on to become a circus in their own end completely devoid of defenders who play in that style.

It's ridiculous this is even being discussed, and when you can look back at what this "author" has said in the past and plainly look at the details of the trade itself, Willis should be embarrassed.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Arya Stark

How so? One team lost a top 4 defenceman and one gained a top 5 and one lost a couple non NHL tweeners.

Edmonton got worse after that trade and we got better. It really is that simple. How much better doesn't matter. Fact is we got better and they didn't.

They didn't get worse and we didn't get better.

Smid didn't make us better. We didn't have to go sign another Engelland, so I guess there's that. He's not easily replaced from our farm system, but we could've overspent on another mediocre D on July 1st.


Oilers record from season beginning to November 8th was worse than where they finished. They actually got better last season after the trade, though losing Smid had nothing to do with it.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

I'm not going to venture into any debate on the quality of the players, and I know this has been said already, but this is the most ridiculous article I may have seen written.

Best case scenario, all the Oilers can say for this trade is the following: Smid isn't that good, so it's ok we got nothing of value in return for him.

I'm not saying that the above is true, but it's absolutely the only option for a relatively positive spin they could try to use. Anything else is just pure fabrication and denial of the facts.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

I'm not going to venture into any debate on the quality of the players, and I know this has been said already, but this is the most ridiculous article I may have seen written.

Best case scenario, all the Oilers can say for this trade is the following: Smid isn't that good, so it's ok we got nothing of value in return for him.

I'm not saying that the above is true, but it's absolutely the only option for a relatively positive spin they could try to use. Anything else is just pure fabrication and denial of the facts.

He's saying Smid's cap busting $3.5M makes him a negative asset. Which is weird because it's actually what makes him a better asset for us. Then they took that money and more and gave it to Columbus' favourite healthy scratch Nikitin for more years than Smid had left. Yikes

[Enoch Root]

Actually, they used it to acquire Bryzgalov, who was an absolute failure for them (like any goalie is destined to be)

But all of that misses the point. Just because they moved Smid to gain cap space, doesn't mean that Smid has negative value (he doesn't). All it means is that the Oilers' management of their roster and cap space is... no good.

[Hugh Jahrmes]

Where do I slide a cool $5 via PayPal to have "Brodano" censored