Throughout the summer and into the fall, we’ll be counting down the days until the Edmonton Oilers begin their 2023-24 season with a daily trip down memory lane. Today at No. 5 we have Ladislav Smid, a fan-favourite defenceman during the Decade of Darkness.

The Anaheim Ducks selected Smid with the ninth overall pick in the 2004 draft. He spent his post-draft season playing in the Czech Republic’s top professional league and then came overseas and played for the AHL Portland Pirates in 2005-06. Smid also won a bronze medal at the 2005 World Juniors and captained the Czech Republic in 2006.

He was traded during the following off-season to Edmonton along with forward Joffery Lupul and two first-round picks for Chris Pronger, who had requested a trade shortly after the Oilers were eliminated in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Smid made his NHL debut for the Oilers in 2006-07 and put up 10 points across 77 games while logging an average of 19:14 per game. He spent a few games in the AHL to start the 2006-07 season but was called back up and spent the rest of the year with the Oilers.

Following the 2008-09 season, the Oilers and Senators agreed to a trade that would see Smid, Dustin Penner, and Andrew Cogliano sent to Ottawa in exchange for star forward Dany Heatley. The trade wound up not going through because Heatley refused to waive his no-trade clause.

Over the next few years. Smid developed into a reliable shutdown defender in Edmonton’s top four on the blueline. A few months before he was set to become an unrestricted free agent, the Oilers and Smid agreed to a four-year contract worth $14 million.

He would wind up playing only 17 games of that contract with the Oilers before being traded to the Calgary Flames along with Olivier Roy for Roman Horak and Laurent Brossoit. Smid’s time in Calgary was limited due to a nagging back injury and he played just 109 games with the team across parts of four seasons.

After his contract expired in 2017, Smid returned to the Czech Republic and played for Bili Tygri Liberec, the team he played for before coming to North America. He was named Czech Extraliga Best Defenseman in 2018-19 and led his team to the league final twice before retiring in 2022. He now works as a development coach with the Edmonton Oil Kings.