Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

L.A. Kings mad at Edmonton over Ryan Smyth deal as Colin Fraser is injured

Phoenix Coyotes v Edmonton Oilers

EDMONTON, CANADA - MARCH 17: Colin Fraser #16 of the Edmonton Oilers during the game against the Phoenix Coyotes on March 17, 2011 at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Dale MacMillan/Getty Images)

Getty Images

When the Los Angeles Kings traded Ryan Smyth to Edmonton to help do him a solid and allow him to play closer to home, the Edmonton Oilers were happy to do their part and oblige them. After all, the deal helps Smyth go back home and gives the Kings over $6 million in salary cap space. Colin Fraser was the player sent in return and while the Kings plans may have been to either play him or buy him out of his contract those plans are shot now.

The Kings’ medical staff discovered that Fraser is injured when checking him out and now the Kings are upset with Edmonton for sending them a broken player. Under more normal circumstances, the deal would be reversed and nullified while the teams better worked things out. Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal finds out that Fraser needs foot surgery that will knock him out of action for four months making this transaction all the more bizarre.

This time around, the Kings are happy to have Smyth’s salary off their books and after haggling things out with Edmonton on this deal before they should’ve guessed something could be up. The player the Kings initially wanted was Gilbert Brule but that was nixed when it was found out that Brule was also injured.

According to Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times, the Oilers medical staff cleared Fraser but when he arrived in Los Angeles, the Kings staff found out that he was not. This kind of mistake reflects poorly upon Oilers GM Steve Tambellini because he attempted to send out one injured player and managed to not know he had a second one and sent him to L.A. anyhow. Kings GM Dean Lombardi has every reason to be angry about this but according to Elliott, the trade will not be rescinded and the teams will work out an alternate means of compensation.

As it is, the Kings are stuck with Fraser now and they’ll get a little something else from the Oilers for the hassle but this just looks bad for Edmonton all around. Yes, they had injury woes all last season but attempting to peddle off a couple of broken wares and nearly getting away with it the second time makes Tambellini look like a sketchy car salesman trying to ditch a lemon.

To make deals in good faith, especially one where you’re trying to do right by a player that wants to play in Edmonton, the least the Oilers could do is not rip off the team they’re dealing with. We’ll be curious to see if this affects deals moving forward with Edmonton in the near future with other teams.