Ladislav Šmíd (, born February 1, 1986) is a Czech former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

. He played in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) with the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

and

Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The ...

Playing career

As a youth, Šmíd played in the 2000

Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament The Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament () is an annual minor ice hockey event in Quebec City. The tournament was founded in 1960 to coincide with the Quebec Winter Carnival, and give an opportunity for international competition to p ...

with a team from

Chomutov Chomutov (; ) is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 47,000 inhabitants. There are almost 80,000 inhabitants in the city's wider metropolitan area. The historic city centre is well preserved and is protected as ...

. Šmíd was drafted in the first round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, ninth overall, by the

Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Mighty may refer to: Businesses *Mighty Audio, an American company known for its product ''Mighty'', a portable audio player *Mighty Animation, an animation studio based in Guadalajara, Mexico Films *''The Mighty'', a 1998 comedy–drama * ''The ...

. He played

junior hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from t ...

for HC Liberec Junior in the 2001–02 season, and split the following three seasons between HC Liberec Junior and the professional

HC Bílí Tygři Liberec Bílí Tygři Liberec (English: ''Liberec White Tigers'') are a professional ice hockey club based in Liberec, Czech Republic. The team competes in the Czech Extraliga, the highest level of play in professional Czech ice hockey. History The firs ...

. He also played for the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

in the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

and

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

IIHF World U20 Championship The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), sometimes referred to as World Juniors, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is traditionally ...

s, as well as for the under-18 team in the

2004 IIHF World U18 Championships The 2004 IIHF World U18 Championships were held in Minsk, Belarus. The championships began on April 8, 2004, and finished on April 18, 2004. Games were played at the Ice Palace and Palace sport in Minsk. Russia defeated the United States 3–2 in t ...

. After coming to North America, Šmíd spent the 2005–06 season with the

Portland Pirates The Portland Pirates were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). Their home arena was the Cross Insurance Arena in downtown Portland, Maine. The franchise was previously known as the Baltimore Skipjacks ...

, at the time the

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(AHL) affiliate of the Mighty Ducks. On July 3, 2006, he was traded to the

with

Joffrey Lupul Joffrey Lupul (born September 23, 1983) is a Canadians, Canadian former professional ice hockey winger (ice hockey), forward. In his professional career, Lupul played in the NHL for the Anaheim Ducks, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers and To ...

and several draft picks in exchange for disgruntled defenceman

Chris Pronger Christopher Robert Pronger ( or ; born October 10, 1974) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player for the 1999–2000 season and was inducted to the Hockey Hall o ...

. Šmíd made the Oilers' roster out of his first training camp with the team, and spent the entire 2006–07 season with Edmonton. After the Oilers missed the

Stanley Cup playoffs The Stanley Cup playoffs () is the annual elimination tournament to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, and the league champion of the National Hockey League (NHL). The four-round, best-of-seven tournament is held after the NHL's regular s ...

, he joined the Czech senior team at the

2007 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships The 2007 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships was the 71st World Ice Hockey Championship. The competition also served as qualification for division placements in the 2008 competition. Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ...

. The following year, he was cut from the Oilers' training camp and assigned to the

Springfield Falcons The Springfield Falcons were a ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) and played in Springfield, Massachusetts, at the MassMutual Center. In 2016, the Falcons' franchise was purchased by the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Arizona Co ...

of the AHL, with whom he played eight games before being recalled to Edmonton. After the 2008–09 season, Šmíd was part of a trade negotiated between the Oilers and the

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. The Senators compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Di ...

that would have seen him, as well as teammates Andrew Cogliano and Dustin Penner, dealt to Ottawa in exchange for forward

Dany Heatley Daniel James Heatley (born January 21, 1981) is a German-born Canadian former professional ice hockey winger (ice hockey), winger. Originally drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers second overall in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, he won the Calder Memorial ...

. Heatley, however, refused to waive the

no-trade clause In professional sports within the United States and Canada, a trade is a sports league transaction between sports clubs involving the exchange of player rights from one team to another. Though player rights are the primary trading assets, draft ...

in his contract to go to Edmonton, and after more than a month of the Oilers unsuccessfully trying to persuade Heatley to change his mind, the trade fell through and Šmíd remained with the Oilers. In October 2009, the Oilers revealed that Šmíd had been diagnosed with

H1N1 Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 (A/H1N1) is a subtype of influenza A virus (IAV). Some human-adapted strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and are one cause of seasonal influenza (flu). Other strains of H1N1 are endemic in pigs ( swine influen ...

, though he did not miss any games as a result. In Šmíd's sixth season in the NHL, he turned into a reliable shutdown defenceman, often paired with

Jeff Petry Jeffrey Petry ( ; born December 9, 1987) is an American professional ice hockey defenceman, defenseman for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected in the second round, 45th overall, by the Edmonton Oilers in t ...

on defence and playing against other teams' top lines each night. Šmíd finished the season with a positive plus-minus rating, and was in the top ten in blocked shots for the majority of the season. Šmíd suffered a neck injury in a game against the

Los Angeles Kings The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The Kings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. ...

; despite avoiding serious neck injury, he did not play in any of the Oilers' remaining games in the season. He ranked top five in the NHL for blocked shots for the 2011–12 season, also receiving attention for accidentally hitting Oilers Head Coach

Tom Renney Thomas Renney (born March 1, 1955) is a Canadian former ice hockey coach and executive. He served as the chief executive officer of Hockey Canada from 2014 to 2022, and was previously an associate coach with the National Hockey League's Detroit ...

with a puck after deflecting it into the air during a drill during practice. On April 1, 2013, Šmíd signed a four-year, $14 million contract extension with the Oilers. At the time of his signing, he was in the final year of a two-year deal worth $2.25 million per season. On November 8, 2013, Šmíd was traded by the Oilers to rivals, the

, along with Olivier Roy, in exchange for Roman Horák and Laurent Brossoit. With his tenure with the Flames marked by a lingering back injury, Šmíd in his last year under contract sat out the entirety of the 2016–17 season, in order to rehabilitate his injury. As an impending free agent, on May 23, 2017, Šmíd signed a two-year contract in returning to his original club in the Czech Republic, HC Bílí Tygři Liberec of the ELH. On March 29, 2022, Šmíd announced his retirement from professional hockey following HC Bílí Tygři Liberec's elimination in the 2022 playoffs. The loss came after the second longest game in the history of Czech ice hockey against

HC Sparta Praha Hockey Club Sparta Praha, commonly known as HC Sparta Prague, is a Prague-based Czech professional ice hockey team playing in the Czech Extraliga. The club has won four Czech championships (most recently in 2007) and four Czechoslovak champio ...

. Šmíd played more than 40 minutes in his final game.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smid, Ladislav 1986 births Living people Anaheim Ducks draft picks HC Benátky nad Jizerou players HC Berounští Medvědi players Calgary Flames players Czech expatriate ice hockey players in Canada Czech expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Czech ice hockey defencemen Edmonton Oilers players HC Bílí Tygři Liberec players Ice hockey players at the 2014 Winter Olympics NHL first-round draft picks Olympic ice hockey players for the Czech Republic People from Frýdlant Portland Pirates players Ice hockey people from the Liberec Region Springfield Falcons players Stockton Heat players 21st-century Czech sportsmen