Former Winnipeg Jets GM Mike Smith talks about the Tie Domi-Kris King for Ed Olczyk trade he made with Neil Smith while he was in Winnipeg as being his most memorable on his blog at The Hockey News..."The next day I traveled from Boston to Winnipeg. I quickly got a sense of the response to the trade and it was a big win for Neil and the Rangers. As I traveled across the country I read the Boston, New York, Detroit and Minneapolis papers. It was unanimous: I had made a bad trade. Actually, it was worse than bad, it was, as one critic wrote, “the dumbest trade of the year, maybe the decade.”
I called Mike O’Hearn - the Winnipeg Director of Public Relations - from the Minneapolis airport. I said I had read several newspaper reports, mentioned their responses and asked “how bad is it in Winnipeg?” He answered, “What do they know? This city is in an uproar. I’ve never seen such an immediate response to anything we did. There’ll probably be a marching band at the airport to escort you to the arena. You can get elected mayor.”
This was better than being ‘tarred and feathered.’
We lost that night, the first game Domi and King played for us, but there were no boos in Winnipeg. The Jets went the next 14 games without a loss. This trade made the Jets a much more competitive team."
...the Jets might have become a more competitive team but we won the Stanley Cup with Olczyk playing a major part....as a cheerleader.
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