Ryan Smyth Traded Again, and Again...

by J. Scott Moore

Is it "The Ryan Smyth Curse?"

It seems to me that if you mess with Ryan Smyth you get nothing!

Let’s look at the trail of nothing left behind this guy

• Edmonton trades him for Robert Nilsson (bought out & now out of the NHL) and Ryan O'Marra, (who has scored all of one goal in the big leagues because he can’t break out of the minors) and a first rounder that turns out to be Alex Plante, another guy still in the minors. Not only do these guys look to be a bust, one is for sure, but team has been a bust ever since the trade of Smyth.
• Isles lose him for nothing and have been in the bottom 5 ever since.
• Avs trade him for essentially nothing. Quincey minus Tom Preissing net sum is zero. And a 5th rounder, Luke Walker, yeah, who cares.
• LA tries to trade him to Edmonton for Gilbert Brule and a fourth-round draft pick,  Brule was going to be bought out by the Kings. That fell through and eventually ended up as Colin Fraser and a 7th rounder. Fraser is better than Brule who was just going to be cast aside but it still isn't much.

So Edmonton ends up getting Smyth back 4 years after they balked at his request for a $5M per year contract and guess how much he is making? Yep. In hindsight, amazing stupidity.

The exciting part is that we may get to see the contract negotiation fireworks between Smyth and the Oilers again even before the season is at the halfway mark as the Oilers would be smart to start and finish that aspect before Ryan Smyth is traded away once again due to an inability to come to an agreement. Look at the path of destruction that he has already paved.

The safest thing the Oilers can do for the sake of the franchise is get him signed for the future.