Ryan Smyth. Ryan. Smyth. R. Y. A. N. S. M. Y. T. H. Jesus Christ.

Well, he does prefer Ryan, but either is acceptable. Still, you might want to hold back on the immediate reverence: it might not look entirely sincere to Our Lord and Savior.

Also, Dean Lombardi is hell-bent on making me a Kings fan, isn’t he?

C’mon, Rudy. Would you rather the Kings traded for Ryan Smyth and still gave proper qualifying offers to L.A.‘s RFAs, or alternatively would you rather the Kings signed Marian Hossa, but in all the courting neglected to go through the basic steps to protect the team’s young assets?

You’re right, though — the devil does have a funny sense of humor.

Well, the Kings were sorely lacking heart and effort much of last season, so if Ryan (J.C.) Smyth can bring a little of those to the team, I’m OK with it. And I’m not even a Christian.

He has had two monstrously underwhelming seasons in Colorado. I am not sure how much longer the heart and soul, tough-guy, bull in front of the net label is going to last unless he starts delivering on it.

Rudy, I feel your pain.

I was sad because they traded Kyle Quincey, and he once told me he like my moccasins when I saw him in Sport Chalet. BUT we got rid of Tom Preissing, and we didn’t trade anyone crucial to the rebuilding effort. I like this deal for two reasons. One it means we’re keeping Jack My Friend Johnson around, and I’d take him over Quincey, and two we didn’t mortgage the future to get a big name, because I’d like to see our forwards who had an off year (Kopitar, Brown) get another chance to play in Murray’s system. I think they’ll bounce back.

But I can associate with having too many good defenseman. But, hey, we would have been more than happy to give you guys Cheechoo. He hasn’t really done much the past two seasons, in fact, he’s got worse. But I think he just needs a change of scenery. Plus, I think he could do better on a young team like the kings, maybe be a 20 goal scorer. H’es pricey, but the Kings have plenty of cap room it sounds like.

I get the feeling you don’t like this trade, do you, Rudy?

Eh, I kinda like this trade. Really, all the Kings gave up was Kyle Quincey. Basically, the Kings acquire a scoring LW that they desperately needed, and all it cost us is a defenseman. We already have so much defense depth that this loss isn’t that bad. Add the fact that Quincey wasn’t even on our opening day roster last season, and this turns into a free agency signing.

Smyth is overpaid, yeah, but I’d rather the Kings overpay for a scoring LW than to not have one at all. All in all, I like this trade because it improves the team. Maybe DL could’ve gotten a better player than Smyth, but something is always better than nothing.

This guy sounds like a real perceptive guy:

Question: Athletes never seem to be completely surprised by a trade, but did you see this coming at all?

SMYTH: ``Well, with having the no-movement clause, I knew something was going on when they came to me and asked if I would be willing to drop my no-trade clause to come to L.A.

Jesus, this guy sucks.

Yo, I’m just over from the Avs counterpart site, and thought I would share some Ryan Smyth info with you guys:

 - He is a worker. I’m definitely going to miss seeing him out there hustling on the ice while the rest of the team skates in circles and picks their noses.

 - He is a true rink rat. The comments above about him being useless in an interview are completely correct. It always reminds me of Bedazzled, the super-generic idiotic speech about there “being no I in the word team”, and “go out there, and give 110%”. The mullet is at least kinda fun in a cruel and tragic way.

 - He was constantly underperforming here, but not because he’s getting old and over the hill. The Avs, for whatever reason, never gave him the tools that he needed to work best. His best work came from his time on the ice with Statsny and Hejduk, who are both good playmakers. But the real key to Ryan’s game is a shot from the point. If you guys give him that, and let him stand with his ass in the goalies face and knock in floating pucks, he will score lots of goals for you. For some reason our defensemen decided it was better to pass the puck rather than shoot it, so we never got our moneys worth out of him.

 - Without the point shot that I mentioned above, he had to change his game and actually carry the puck in [shocking!]. And, as it turns out, the guy can actually skate a bit. He’s not an artist, but he actually can drive the net and put the puck in without resorting to bumping the goalie’s stick, or crashing headlong into an up-front fray. Its definitely not his best mode, but he can do it.

I can’t think of much else to say, except that we tend to feel you guys completely fleeced us on this trade. As good as Quincey is, taking on Preissing… well, you guys probably know better than we do, but we will find out. Avs are in full salary dump mode, blowing up and starting from scratch. I hate it.

Good Luck with Smytty!

Sorry about taking amusement in your dismay, but that was so funny I had to say thanks!