Alberta Swap

The Edmonton Oilers and their Alberta Province mates have swung a deal.  The Oilers have acquired centre Roman Horak and goaltender Laurent Brossoit from the Calgary, in exchange for  Flames defencemen Ladislav Smid and goaltender Olivier Roy.

“Everybody’s talking about the Battle of Alberta and obviously it’s going to be a little bit strange (for me),” Smid told Sportsnet 960 The Fan from Philadelphia. “Now I’m part of the Calgary Flames so I’ve got to switch the mindset and I’m going to do whatever it takes to help this team.”

While he has just two points this season, the former first round pick joins the Flames after leading the Oilers in both hits (52) and blocked shots (34) on the year.

Horak, 22, meanwhile has spent the past three seasons with the Calgary Flames organization, registering 18 points (5G, 13A) and 16 penalty minutes in 82 games with the Flames. In 86 games with Abbotsford he has posted 41 points (20G, 21A).

In 2012-13, the 6’0”, 170-pound centre, recorded seven points (2G, 5A) and two penalty minutes in 20 games with the Flames. He also spent time in the American Hockey League with the Abbotsford Heat, tallying 30 points (16G, 14A) and 24 penalty minutes in 59 games.

Horak was originally selected by the New York Rangers in the 5th round, 127th overall in the 2009 NHL Draft.

Brossoit, 20, has spent the past four seasons with the Western Hockey League’s Edmonton Oil Kings, posting a record of 88-34-13 in 146 career WHL games.

n 2011-12 Brossoit helped lead the Oil Kings to the best record in the WHL, posting a record of 42-13-5, including three shutouts. In the playoffs the Port Alberni native went 16-4-0 en route to the WHL Championship and a berth to the Memorial Cup Tournament. Brossoit was also named the WHL’s Playoff MVP for his outstanding play.

In his first professional season, the 6’3”, 200-pound netminder has played two games with the Calgary Flames AHL affiliate Abbotsford Heat and three games the ECHL’s Alaska Aces.

Brossoit was originally selected by the Calgary Flames in the 6th round, 164th overall in the 2011 NHL Draft.

The deal didn’t happen overnight.

Flames general manager Jay Feaster exchanged conversations with Oilers GM Craig MacTavish  in October and, while a deal wasn’t immediately reached, eventually it came to fruition.

“It kind of fell off the rails a little bit from a timing perspective,” Feaster said. “Edmonton wasn’t ready to do it. What we said at that time was that we’d stay in touch and if the circumstances are still such that they wanted to do a deal and we were still in a situation we wanted to we would.

“I got a message Thursday from Craig that he wanted to talk today and we talked this morning and we were able to get something done late Friday afternoon.”