The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers have pulled a rarity and joined forces to make a deal.
Edmonton has sent defenseman Ladislav Smid and goalie prospect Olivier Roy to Calgary in exchange for forward Roman Horak... and goalie prospect Laurent Brossoit, TVA’s Renaud Lavoie reports.
Smid, 27, has two points in 17 games for the Oilers this season while averaging close to 18 minutes a night. Anaheim’s first-round pick at the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, he’s spent his entire eight-year career in Edmonton and is in the first year of a four-year, $14 million extension signed last season.
Roy, 22, was a fifth-round pick in 2009 and has played sporadically for AHL Oklahoma City.
As for the pieces Calgary’s giving up...
Horak, 22, was acquired from New York in the Tim Erixon trade and has been up and down between Calgary and AHL Abbotsford for the last two seasons. He has 18 points in 82 NHL contests.
Brossoit, 20, is a Flames selection from the 2011 draft that was briefly in competition during camp for one of the club’s available goalie spots. He’s split time this year between Abbotsford and ECHL Alaska.
At first glance, this might seem like a salary dump as Edmonton’s returns on a potential top-four defenseman aren’t great. This makes even more sense when you consider TSN’s Darren Dreger speculated the Oilers might be freeing up cap space to sign Ilya Bryzgalov.
Oh yes, that’s right.
Edmonton has been plagued by poor goaltending all season long and, with just four wins in their first 17 games, the Oilers have been looking to shake things up. GM Craig MacTavish and team president Kevin Lowe have been spotted at a number of NHL rinks recently, and today reports surfaced that Philly was interested in acquiring Jordan Eberle.
UPDATE
Here’s more on Bryzgalov-to-Edmonton, from CBC’s Elliotte Friedman:Re: Bryzgalov -- EDM looked at him a few weeks ago, didn’t like his salary ask. Maybe things have changed for now.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) November 8, 2013