Five Oilers I've Loved Thus Far : #3 Ladislav Smid

Of all the Oilers on the team right now, this guy is my #1 favourite player. I have other favourites, sure, some come closer than others, but if Ladislav got traded I would follow his team religiously. Essentially Ladislav is the reason I began to watch hockey with such regularity. I had watched the play-off run, sure, but I still wasn't quite hooked on it. Instead for the majority of the off-season I listened to how terrible the Pronger trade was, and how the only good thing to come out of it was this kid Ladislav Smid. He was a highly-touted prospect: taken 5th overall by the Ducks in his draft year; word was that at that time the deal almost didn't go through because the Oilers wanted Ladislav Smid. Any way, he had all of these expectations to live up to, and on a team that was deflated with injury and missing pieces he was the one bright spot. I'd probably buy Center Ice just to watch his team play if he was traded and they weren't in our division/conference; but I don't want to talk about him being traded, I want him to stay.

Last season Ladislav didn't make the team out of training camp, he went back down to Springfield instead to work on his game a little bit. When he came back he had this mean streak that appeared; and I liked it. Sure, in the beginning it was a little unpolished: taking penalties for aggression following the whistle etc. But eventually he calmed it down a little, and now he has this wonderful controlled agression that benefits this team nicely.

This season Ladislav also lost his starter position to new-comer Jason Strudwick, a decision I did not support, he didn't play hardly any games, instead Strudwick got to play on the back-end with Staios; and it was not pretty. I'm not entirely sure why it took injuries that required Strudwick up front to bring Ladislav back into the line-up, but it did. I really wanted Ladislav to come back into the game and impress, show every one that his potential had not gone to waste; and that is exactly what has happened.

Ladislav came back into the line-up with vigor. He clears the front of the net, he protects the goaltender, he fights, and he's not afraid to take a hit to make a play; and on a team that has a lot of offensive defensemen, his defensive tone is something the team needs right now. I would like to see him take a bit of training from Lubo Visnovsky on how to handle a one-on-one rush without taking a penalty though. That would be nice.