Stating the obvious

When you plan to retire a player's jersey, do not do it on the same day as the trading deadline.

Beyond that relevating piece of awe, however, the Ryan Smyth trade had plenty of flaws beyond the players directly involved in the deal. It may be that Ryan O'Marra and Robert Nilsson might pan out to be solid NHLers, and that the team grabs a gem in their acquired 1st-round pick, or all three assets may turn out to be a collective dud. It doesn't matter; Oilers GM Kevin Lowe couldn't risk losing Smyth at the trade deadline and had to move in the end. I disagree with Matt; this deal did take cojones and kudos to Lowe for doing so.

The kudos end there, however; The reason they had to trade Smytty is because (as Matt also suggested) Lowe had been such a chickenshit GM in the past year and now his hand was forced. Take Fernando Pisani, please. Here's a guy who had a hell of a post-season run, exceeding all expectations, and was rewarded for his efforts with a big contract to stay in his hometown. How's that deal paying out now?

People may have already forgotten, but a similar situation happened a few hundred klicks south and a couple years earlier. A fleet-of-foot winger with hands of stone surprised everyone by scoring the second-highest amount of goals in the season and by playing a key role in a hard-fought bid for the Stanley Cup. Yet, the GM let him go, despite the the player's popularity with fans and teammates alike. Why was he let go? Because Shean Donovan was on a rare hot streak which would be unlikely to occur again, even if he did nab a big raise.

That's the difference between the Flames and the Oilers: Darryl Sutter has never been afraid to upset the home crowd; Lowe trusts in his fans' instincts until he has no choice than to make a tough deal.

Obviously, things will be different next year, with the amount of high-calibre Flames up for free agency. There may very well be a fire-sale, and fans will be pissed off no matter what Sutter does. However, the man trusts his own instincts and, though every deal will not be a great one, there should be no doubt that Darryl will do what Darryl thinks is best for Darryl's team.

If I were a managing partner in the Oilers organization, I might give Kevin Lowe exactly one more opportunity, that being getting Ryan Smyth back. If he can do that, he essentially grabbed three decent prospects in exchange for missing the playoffs one season, which isn't such a bad deal.

Then again, considering how much time Kevin Lowe has had to put his mark on the team, and considering the almost complete lack of team identity left on the roster, I'd fire that guy in a heartbeat and bring in an experienced soul tout de suite.

Maybe Bobby Clarke misses the northern lights.