When was ryan smyth traded

He thanked everyone in the organization, from locker-room attendant Joey Moss to former general manager Glen Sather. Ferrying his trademark sticks, his equipment bag, and 12 years of memories, Smyth then made his way through customs and into the waiting area where he posed for pictures with kids in Oilers T-shirts and shook hands with grown men in disbelief.

His wife Stacey was at his side, just as she was 12 years ago when the two first arrived in Edmonton. She was 18, he was a year older. Stacey will spend the next two weeks laying the groundwork for a temporary move to the area with their two young daughters. Or maybe it will be permanent, if the Islanders make the winger the right deal. Had Smyth had his way, the deal would have been done before the season began, but those talks were tabled while the Oilers got Ales Hemsky under contract.

Then came the news, which he first heard on the television, and a few hours later, the Oilers, without No. Was their best player not deemed worth it? Also the trade for Smyth seems to leave us with a lot of prospects at forward and not much else.

A GM Kevin Lowe is taking major heat for not bucking up for Smyth, but I think he went very hard to sign their most popular player. They were willing to give Smyth a fifth year when they really only wanted to give him four. Ask yourself this question: If the. Can they sign a veteran D-man over the summer? Detroit was looking for a top-six forward, but an aggressive one. While Sykora leads the Oilers in scoring, his play has tailed off considerably, too, the last while. He had 28 points in his first 28 games, but just 21 in the last 36 games.

A Yes. The Nashville Predators was the other team the Oilers were probably targeting, but when they got Peter Forsberg they dropped out of the running. They have an abundance of good young kids on their own team. You can bet the Oilers would have tried for Alexander Radulov off the top. Q Why has the Oilers power play been so poor for so long? Do we blame the coaching? Only the Flyers, Phoenix Coyotes, St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks are worse. The name is Chris Pronger. He ran the power-play unit last year.

They also had Jaroslav Spacek for his one-timers. Look at the teams with good power plays, most have an anchor on the back-end or a big shooter. A If the cap does go up because revenues have increased with teams upping ticket prices almost across the board, yes it will create another Have vs Have-not scenario. Still, they absolutely have to dive into the free-agent pool this summer. But the beauty of the new collective bargaining agreement is not that it permits a GM to overpay for an admittedly special asset like Smyth to appease the fan base.

The beauty is that an astute GM, managing his assets adroitly, can retool a faltering team swiftly so it keeps improving. There are downs in the New NHL, as fans in non-playoff Edmonton and possibly non-playoff Carolina are too painfully aware.

But there also are ups, as fans in Vancouver and Pittsburgh can attest. The dicey optics and potential lost goodwill that may emerge from trading a fan favourite is one kind of pressure. The more serious pressure on Lowe now is to parlay those assets into a playoff contender sooner than later. Will an aggressive posture and some decent cash in the wallet be enough to provide a fix on the back end? Or bolster things up front? Keep in mind the going rate for a defenceman may have been set by the four-year deal ex-Oiler Eric Brewer signed with St.

Not exactly, it turns out. According to E. Just to name a handful of possibles. None of whom, with the possible exception of Kane, would be expected to play in the NHL next season. Turris, who McGuire believes could be taken higher in the draft than any Tier-2 junior player in history, is expected to attend the U.

Might that be an option? At least Lowe now has the wherewithal to bust some impressive moves. But if the Oilers had an aging, over-paid Smyth stapled to the payroll, they would have far less salary cap flexibility, fewer young up-and-coming players and they would have been embarking on a slow but sure waltz to long-term mediocrity. Sign up to receive daily headline news from the Edmonton Journal, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Edmonton Journal Headline News will soon be in your inbox. Was this the mid 90s Islanders? Smith protested, Wang showed him the door.

When the dust settled, Snow was running the front office. Garth knows the league as well as anyone, has an eye for talent and understands how our staff works as a team. Most importantly, Garth is a man of integrity, someone I trust will work hard, be creative and represent the Islanders with dignity. Flash forward to February , the Islanders were in the thick of the playoff race.

Snow had some decisions to make. He decided to go all in. He acquired forward Richard Zednik from the Capitals for a 2nd-round pick. That familiar fate as a quickly dispatched middling eighth seed, no doubt, also helped lead the Islanders to rethink the route back to the top half of the league's table. The strategy that has been followed since about a year after the Smyth trade is still hotly debated, and its very plea -- patience -- constantly tussles with its promise, which is that one day the call for patience will not only end but be rewarded.

Ironically the main prize in the decision that made some of those picks possible -- the trades down to select Josh Bailey at 9 -- is still up in the air as Bailey's future profile as an NHL player is still to be defined. The Smyth trade of course would look different in retrospect if the Islanders hadn't given up prospects that in the end they'd never really miss -- although ironically, had their been a true prospect prize in that trade, it would have made the argument for a rebuild all the stronger.

Today, the Islanders are once again in a bottom-five position. They are not in position to add a rental, but the "core" properties they've collected are starting to sign contracts that will keep them in the fold for a while. One of their better free agent acquisitions and one of their better bargain bin finds, P. Parenteau and Evgeni Nabokov are also looking to sign on rather than be shipped off for parts at the right price, of course.

Sign up today to get the best features and analysis from the NHL and beyond. And this is just the start for them as they ascend the Pacific Division ranks. There is still a lot of hockey to play, but our prospect expert is weighing in on the initial field for a class that promises to keep scouts intrigued.

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