Report: Smyth wants return to Edmonton

Interesting item today from TSN guru Bob McKenzie, who notes that Ryan Smyth might seek to return to Edmonton for the final year of his contract. Of course, as Bob notes, it’s not that simple. Smyth has a salary-cap hit of $6.25 million and is a 35-year-old winger who, realistically, has a ceiling of 50 points. It’s a bit of a reach to think that the Oilers would be willing to give up anything of substance in trade, although Smyth remains revered in Edmonton. Here’s one possibility: a buyout. The negative for the Kings would be that half of Smyth’s cap figure would remain on the books for 2012-13, and they would get nothing in return (except cap space) for what is still a top-six winger when healthy, but the Kings do have Dustin Penner, Scott Parse and Kyle Clifford on left wing, and of late they’ve been kicking around the possibility of having Brayden Schenn break in at left wing, particularly if they add a center through free agency (Brad Richards, anyone?). So, as Bob notes as well, it’s still a very fluid situation, and we’ll see what develops over the next 10 days or so…

[UPDATE) Smyth told Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal today that he has “not asked for a trade.”

[UPDATE 2] Based on exchanges with a couple sources, while the semantics can still be debated, as to whether or not Smyth actively wants to be traded, the Kings and Oilers have indeed talked trade about Smyth. At the moment, there’s no type of framework for a possible deal.