Ladislav Smid: 6 Autographed Cards

I featured Ladislav Smid two years ago, mentioning he had been offered to the Ottawa Senators for Dany Heatley, which in retrospect would have been a great trade for Ottawa had Heatley not nixed it; he was becoming the steady, reliable force on the Edmonton Oilers' blue line, which is why I still fail to understand why they dealt him to their provincial rival Calgary Flames (along with goalie Olivier Roy) in the first year of a four-year contract extension.

Sure, at this point, it's safe to say he'll never be a Norris trophy contender for the amount of points he racks up, but his defensive play is just about flawless. During the locked-out season, he was a minus-1 in 48 games... with the Oilers! And last year, he was a combined -10 with the Oilers and Flames, two bottom-feeders with struggling goalies.

He was still good enough to play for the Czech Team at the Olympics, and has averaged less than a penalty minute per game in the NHL - a feat for a 6'3'' defensive defenseman who averages 19 minutes of ice time per game. He's also a team leader and often in the NHL top-10 for blocked shots.

My previous post featured a card of the late-1990s Oilers uniform; today I can add the current/throwback uniforms, starting with the blue (home) one, from Upper Deck's 2013-14 O-Pee-Chee set (card #347, the Retro variant):

There's also the white (currently 'away') uniform, as featured in this 2013-14 Score card (#189 in the set) by Panini:

I've also used both as variants for my own custom line of Hell's Kitchen 2013-14 Series 2 cards (#14 in the checklist, these are variants A, B and C):

But there's also variant D, showcasing him as a member of the Flames, with their white (away) uniform:

I had written Mr. Smid on April 3rd, 2014, and received these six cards back today, August 5th (2014), 124 days later, with the Flames' address added onto my (usually one-way) return envelope. They were signed in black sharpie with his jersey number tagged at the end (5 with Edmonton, 3 with Calgary).

Ladislav Smid Autographed Card

Ladislav Smid is a towering defenseman barely entering his prime. He has spent his entire career with the Edmonton Oilers despite having been drafted by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks - he was part of the trade that sent Chris Pronger to the Ducks and granted them their Stanley Cup. It seems Mrs. Pronger thought Edmonton's winters were too harsh, so Chris asked out of the permafrost and said hello to California.

Smid was almost dealt to the Ottawa Senators in the failed Dany Heatley trade (the Ottawa winger refused to waive his no-trade clause to play in permafrost, and instead went to play in California), but wound up staying in Edmonton, where he is now, at 26, an important part of this great, young team.

At 6'3'' and 226 pounds, he is coming into his own, using his speed to sometimes help the offense (his 3 goals this year almost equal the 4 he'd had in his career before the season started), and his physique to play well defensively without taking too many penalties, just 42 minutes in 72 games so far. He is also a +1 as we speak.

This card is from Upper Deck's 2007-08 MVP collection (card #128), back when MVP was a stand-alone set - they've been inserted in the other UD sets these past couple of seasons, as ''bonus'' or ''inserts'', but until recently could be had in all-MVP packs. Visually, I think these are nice, the white border being pretty much an Upper Deck staple, and I like the facsimile autograph as a look.

But for the autograph collector, having a player sign next to a copy of his signature feels weird. Smid signed this card for me - the only one I had handy - in blue sharpie, at the Bell Centre earlier this season, on November 8th. The Oilers won 3-1, and he finished the night at +2. It was a weird night for me, personally, as my life seemingly started slipping from my grasp as I was watching my childhood team beat my hometown team, wearing my old Wayne Gretzky jersey, learning my ex-girlfriend - who was watching the game with me - was now seeing another guy.

Life - it's made of ups and downs.