Brad Smith (ice hockey)
Encyclopedia
Bradley Allan Smith is a retired professional ice hockey
player who played 242 regular-season and playoff games over nine National Hockey League
seasons with the Vancouver Canucks
, Atlanta Flames
, Calgary Flames
, Detroit Red Wings
, and Toronto Maple Leafs
. He was also a member of the Central Hockey League
's Adams Cup
winning Dallas Blackhawks, 1978–79.
's book, The Rise and Fall of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Smith led his hometown Windsor Spitfires
in scoring with 37 goals and 90 points during his rookie OHA
season, 1976–77. The following year he was traded to the Sudbury Wolves
for Wes Jarvis
. Registering 80 goals and 172 points in 136 OHA games, Smith was selected by Vancouver 57th overall in the 1978 NHL Entry Draft. During his first intrasquad game, he scored twice and got into a fight with Dennis Kearns
. Sent to the CHL's Dallas Blackhawks where he scored 17 times in 60 games in 1978–79, Smith earned a two-game call-up to the parent club.
on December 14, 1979, tying the game at 3-3 (as noted in a Vancouver Sun report by Arv Olson the following day). Minutes later, Smith set up the game-winning goal.
Smith also played for Vancouver in the 1979-80 Super Series, in which nine NHL teams played a series of games against the top two Soviet clubs. In the opening game of the international series on December 26, 1979 Smith led the Canucks to a 6–2 victory, scoring twice within 17 seconds (both slapshots) against HC Moscow Dynamo goaltender, Vladimir Myshkin
(who shut out the NHL All-Stars the previous year to win the 1979 Challenge Cup
for the Soviet national team before winning Olympic Gold in 1984). It was the only game the Dynamo lost against the four NHL teams faced. As reported by Canadian Press the following day and published in The Leader Post, Smith's outburst is thus described.
"Smith scored his first goal...when he was allowed to skate in from the corner and blast a rising 30-footer over Myshkin's shoulder," CP reported. "Just 17 seconds later, Smith broke in on a two-on-one with Gary Lupul and blistered a 35-footer into the far corner."
On February 8, 1980, Smith and Don Lever
were traded to Atlanta for Darcy Rota
and Ivan Boldirev
, as reported in The Montreal Gazette the following day. Smith played four games for Atlanta before the team relocated for the 1980–81 season, where he became an original member of the Calgary Flames
. On December 27, 1980, Smith scored the game-winning goal on a two-on-nothing, give-and-go breakaway with fellow journeyman Alex McKendry
to beat Philadelphia 2–1, as the Associated Press noted in reports published the following day. In all, Smith scored seven goals over 45 games with Calgary before he was sent down to the Birmingham Bulls
of the CHL. There, he registered 11 points in 10 games before the Bulls folded abruptly on February 20, 1981. Eight days later, Smith was on the move again, this time to Detroit, where he was traded for Rick Vasko
, scoring 5 goals in 20 games for his highest NHL season total of 12.
Splitting the next four years between Detroit and its farm team, Smith was named an American Hockey League
All-Star after registering 72 points with the Adirondack Red Wings
in 1984–85. Playing the final game of the season with Detroit, Smith scored, then suited up for the playoffs, setting up a goal by John Ogrodnick
and fighting Al Secord
.
"Though he spent much of last season in the minors," wrote The Toronto Star's Wayne Parish on Nov 6, 1985, "he was magnificent in playing every single Red Wing playoff game."
After five years in the Detroit organization, The Windsor Star's Jim McKay reported on July 6, 1985 that Smith had turned down a one-year contract offer to test the free-agent market. Signed instead by Toronto for two years, "Motor City Smitty", as he was nicknamed by then Leafs' radio man Bill Waters, enjoyed his most productive years on hockey's biggest stage, Maple Leaf Gardens
. During the 1985–86 season, Smith registered a career NHL high 17 assists to go along with his five goals over 42 games. As reported by Rick Fraser of The Toronto Star on March 19, 1986, Smith was nominated for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy
, awarded annually to the NHL player best exemplifying perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to the game. He also had an excellent playoff showing, scoring twice (one of which involved a lesson in geometry as he shot from the corner, banking the puck off St. Louis Blues goaltender Greg Millen's pads and into the net for Toronto's only goal in the game seven Norris Final 2-1 loss) and adding an assist in six post-season games.
In game two of that second-round series, Smith chased an errant puck and Blues' defenceman Lee Norwood
into the corner, taking Norwood hard into the boards. Norwood responded by sucker punching Smith from behind, and essentially poking Smith in the eye with the thumb of his glove. As Smith felt for blood, looking at his hand, Norwood punched Smith from behind again. The gratuitous clip made Late Night with David Letterman
and today remains something of a cult classic on YouTube. More importantly, Toronto scored the tying goal on the ensuing power play, then the winner, and got back into the series. Smith's shiner, meanwhile, became the local rallying point on the front page of The Toronto Sun, while Hockey Night in Canada
began coverage of game three with a live close-up of Smith's eye under the harsh studio lights. Historically, the incident is seen as a key momentum shift in what would now turn into a seven-game series.
Coached in Toronto by Dan Maloney
and John Brophy
respectively, Smith's skills were best utilized with the Maple Leafs, where his key role was to "change the pace of the game". The Toronto Star's Frank Orr deemed Smith "an adrenalin player" while Brophy saw Smith as "a whirling dervish" who could stray from a disciplined checking role at the flip of a switch, leaving his wing, generally skating all over the ice, and playing what Brophy termed a "helter-skelter" style designed to throw the opposition's systems into chaos—an infuriating trait that would eventually get Smith's name on the Stanley Cup.
In a Toronto Star
article dated, January 27, 1986, Don Cherry
described Smith as "one of the best cornermen in the league". Cherry also liked the fact that fights were a big part of Smith's game. And while one of hockey's last 11 helmetless warriors seldom won, he seldom lost, holding his own against the likes of Clark Gillies
, Stan Jonathan
, "Mad Dog" Bob Kelly, Joey Kocur, Lindy Ruff
, and Glen Cochrane
. As a Maple Leaf, Smith faced his former team, the Red Wings, on November 15, 1986 in Toronto, fighting Gerrard Gallant on the opening face-off, then going on to drop the gloves three more times that game. So distracted were the Wings by their former teammate that Toronto was up 6–0 by the time Smith was ejected and served with 57 minutes, etching his name in Maple Leaf records as the most penalized Leaf in a single game. It was also Toronto's most penalized game in franchise history, as noted in team records. Smith was again a stalwart playoff performer in 1986–87, scoring a game-winning breakaway goal to clinch Toronto's 1987 opening-round series win over the St. Louis Blues on April 16 of that year. At that point, the Leafs had not won a best-of-seven playoff series since 1978, and they would not win another playoff series period until 1993, making Smith's goal, arguably, the most important over a span of 15 years in Toronto Maple Leafs history. More recently, the goal is celebrated in the Hockey Night in Canada DVD box set, Ten Great Leafs and Their Most Memorable Games.
While in Toronto, Smith also set up goals for Wendel Clark
to both tie and surpass the Leafs' rookie goal-scoring mark on March 3, 1986 against the Winnipeg Jets, a game in which Smith deployed a remarkable behind-the-back pass to set up Clark's second goal of the game, an open-netter to break the record. The following day, Toronto Star columnist Wayne Parrish thus described the play: "Smith's behind-the-back pass to set up Clark's second goal was vintage Gretzky." Earlier, Smith picked an errant pass out of the air with his stick (which Parrish deemed "a pretty piece of work") to set up the drive in which Clark tied the rookie mark.
scouting staff in 1991, serving under Glen Sather
.
At the start of the 1995–96 season, Smith became a scout for the Colorado Avalanche
. There, he enjoyed perhaps his finest moment, deconstructing Scotty Bowman
's left-wing lock during the 1996 playoffs and neutralizing it as Colorado beat the favoured Red Wings and went on to win the Stanley Cup. "Smith noticed the Red Wings' left wingers, who stayed back to help the defense, were small," The Sporting News reported. "So the Avalanche made sure to softly dump the puck into the right corner, where the Avs' forwards pounced. This wore down Detroit's left wingers." Colorado won the series, and by the time the Avalanche swept the Florida Panthers
in the finals, Detroit general manager Ken Holland
was publicly crediting Smith with that key assist in Colorado's successful run. The Avalanche won another cup in 2001, and Smith's name is now engraved on the Stanley Cup. He currently serves as the Avalanche Director of Player Personnel.
In October, 2009, Smith was inducted into the Windsor-Essex County Sports Hall of Fame.
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
player who played 242 regular-season and playoff games over nine National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
seasons with the Vancouver Canucks
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver, :British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The Canucks play their home games at Rogers Arena, formerly known as General Motors Place,...
, Atlanta Flames
Atlanta Flames
The Atlanta Flames were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA from 1972 to 1980. The team, a member of the National Hockey League , was relocated to Calgary, Alberta, Canada for the start of the 1980–81 NHL season and were re-named the Calgary Flames. The NHL returned to the...
, Calgary Flames
Calgary Flames
The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is the third major-professional ice hockey team to represent the city of Calgary, following the...
, Detroit Red Wings
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League , and are one of the Original Six teams of the NHL, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, New York...
, and Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
. He was also a member of the Central Hockey League
Central Hockey League
The Central Hockey League is a mid-level professional hockey league, owned by Global Entertainment Corporation. Its current champions are the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, which defeated the Colorado Eagles four games to three in the 2011 playoffs....
's Adams Cup
Adams Cup
The Adams Cup was awarded annually to the championship team in Central Hockey League.The CHL was a top-tier minor professional league that operated in the United States from 1963 to 1984. It was owned and operated by the National Hockey League...
winning Dallas Blackhawks, 1978–79.
Early career
Described as a heady, defensive forward known for his physical play in William HoustonWilliam Houston
William Churchill Houston was an American teacher, lawyer, and statesman. He was a delegate to both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention for New Jersey. Houston was elected in 1785 to the American Philosophical Society.-Early life and career:Houston was born in the Sumter...
's book, The Rise and Fall of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Smith led his hometown Windsor Spitfires
Windsor Spitfires
The Windsor Spitfires are a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League. The team is based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The franchise was granted for the 1975–76 season and revived a previous OHA Jr. A Spitfires team which moved to become the Hamilton Tiger Cubs in 1953.-History:The...
in scoring with 37 goals and 90 points during his rookie OHA
Ontario Hockey League
The Ontario Hockey League is one of the three Major Junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 15-20.The OHL also operates under the Ontario Hockey Federation of Hockey Canada....
season, 1976–77. The following year he was traded to the Sudbury Wolves
Sudbury Wolves
The Sudbury Wolves are the name of the ice hockey team from Sudbury, Ontario. Sudbury has had a hockey team known as the "Wolves" nearly every year since World War I. The Sudbury Wolves, the senior men's AAA team, have twice been chosen to be Canada's representatives at the Ice Hockey World...
for Wes Jarvis
Wes Jarvis
Wesley Herbert Jarvis is a former Canadian ice hockey player, and is a cousin of former NHLer Doug Jarvis.-Hockey career:...
. Registering 80 goals and 172 points in 136 OHA games, Smith was selected by Vancouver 57th overall in the 1978 NHL Entry Draft. During his first intrasquad game, he scored twice and got into a fight with Dennis Kearns
Dennis Kearns
Dennis McAleer Kearns is a retired professional ice hockey defenceman who spent his entire career with the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League.-Playing career:...
. Sent to the CHL's Dallas Blackhawks where he scored 17 times in 60 games in 1978–79, Smith earned a two-game call-up to the parent club.
NHL career
The following year, 1979–80, Smith spent 19 games with Vancouver, scoring his first NHL goal against the Colorado RockiesColorado Rockies (NHL)
The Colorado Rockies were an American professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League that played in Denver, Colorado, from 1976 to 1982. They were a relocation of the Kansas City Scouts, a 1974 expansion team. The franchise moved to East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1982 and was...
on December 14, 1979, tying the game at 3-3 (as noted in a Vancouver Sun report by Arv Olson the following day). Minutes later, Smith set up the game-winning goal.
Smith also played for Vancouver in the 1979-80 Super Series, in which nine NHL teams played a series of games against the top two Soviet clubs. In the opening game of the international series on December 26, 1979 Smith led the Canucks to a 6–2 victory, scoring twice within 17 seconds (both slapshots) against HC Moscow Dynamo goaltender, Vladimir Myshkin
Vladimir Myshkin
Vladimir Semenovich Myshkin is a former ice hockey goaltender. He was a goaltender for HC Dynamo Moscow and the Soviet Union national ice hockey team in the 1970s and 1980s....
(who shut out the NHL All-Stars the previous year to win the 1979 Challenge Cup
1979 Challenge Cup
The 1979 Challenge Cup was an international ice hockey series of games between the Soviet national ice hockey team and a team of all-stars from the National Hockey League, held in New York City. It replaced the NHL's all-star festivities for the 1978–79 NHL season.The Challenge Cup, unlike its...
for the Soviet national team before winning Olympic Gold in 1984). It was the only game the Dynamo lost against the four NHL teams faced. As reported by Canadian Press the following day and published in The Leader Post, Smith's outburst is thus described.
"Smith scored his first goal...when he was allowed to skate in from the corner and blast a rising 30-footer over Myshkin's shoulder," CP reported. "Just 17 seconds later, Smith broke in on a two-on-one with Gary Lupul and blistered a 35-footer into the far corner."
On February 8, 1980, Smith and Don Lever
Don Lever
Donald Richard "Cleaver" Lever is the head coach of the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League and a retired Canadian professional ice hockey left winger who played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League from 1972–73 until 1986–87.-Playing career:Lever was drafted 3rd overall by the...
were traded to Atlanta for Darcy Rota
Darcy Rota
Darcy Irwin Rota is a retired professional ice hockey player who spent eleven seasons in the National Hockey League...
and Ivan Boldirev
Ivan Boldirev
Ivan Boldirev is a retired Serbian-Canadian professional ice hockey centre who played 15 seasons in the NHL from 1970 through 1985...
, as reported in The Montreal Gazette the following day. Smith played four games for Atlanta before the team relocated for the 1980–81 season, where he became an original member of the Calgary Flames
Calgary Flames
The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is the third major-professional ice hockey team to represent the city of Calgary, following the...
. On December 27, 1980, Smith scored the game-winning goal on a two-on-nothing, give-and-go breakaway with fellow journeyman Alex McKendry
Alex McKendry
Alex McKendry is a retired professional ice hockey player who played 46 games in the National Hockey League. He played with the New York Islanders and Calgary Flames...
to beat Philadelphia 2–1, as the Associated Press noted in reports published the following day. In all, Smith scored seven goals over 45 games with Calgary before he was sent down to the Birmingham Bulls
Birmingham Bulls
The Birmingham Bulls were a professional ice hockey team based in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. They played in the World Hockey Association from 1976 to 1979 and the Central Hockey League from 1979 to 1981. The Bulls played their home games at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center.Prior to being...
of the CHL. There, he registered 11 points in 10 games before the Bulls folded abruptly on February 20, 1981. Eight days later, Smith was on the move again, this time to Detroit, where he was traded for Rick Vasko
Rick Vasko
Richard John Vasko was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in round 3 #37 overall in the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft...
, scoring 5 goals in 20 games for his highest NHL season total of 12.
Splitting the next four years between Detroit and its farm team, Smith was named an American Hockey League
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...
All-Star after registering 72 points with the Adirondack Red Wings
Adirondack Red Wings
The Adirondack Red Wings were a minor professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They played in Glens Falls, New York, USA at the Glens Falls Civic Center. The team was affiliated with the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League...
in 1984–85. Playing the final game of the season with Detroit, Smith scored, then suited up for the playoffs, setting up a goal by John Ogrodnick
John Ogrodnick
John Alexander Ogrodnick is a retired professional ice hockey left winger who played fourteen seasons in the National Hockey League from 1979–80 through 1992–93, with the Detroit Red Wings, Quebec Nordiques, and New York Rangers....
and fighting Al Secord
Al Secord
Alan William Secord is a retired professional ice hockey left wing who played in the National Hockey League for twelve seasons from 1978–79 until 1989–90.-Playing career:...
.
"Though he spent much of last season in the minors," wrote The Toronto Star's Wayne Parish on Nov 6, 1985, "he was magnificent in playing every single Red Wing playoff game."
After five years in the Detroit organization, The Windsor Star's Jim McKay reported on July 6, 1985 that Smith had turned down a one-year contract offer to test the free-agent market. Signed instead by Toronto for two years, "Motor City Smitty", as he was nicknamed by then Leafs' radio man Bill Waters, enjoyed his most productive years on hockey's biggest stage, Maple Leaf Gardens
Maple Leaf Gardens
Maple Leaf Gardens is an indoor arena that was converted into a Loblawssupermarket and Ryerson University athletic centre in Toronto, on the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church Street in Toronto's Garden District.One of the temples of hockey, it was home to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the...
. During the 1985–86 season, Smith registered a career NHL high 17 assists to go along with his five goals over 42 games. As reported by Rick Fraser of The Toronto Star on March 19, 1986, Smith was nominated for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy
The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. The winner is selected by a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association after each team nominates one...
, awarded annually to the NHL player best exemplifying perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to the game. He also had an excellent playoff showing, scoring twice (one of which involved a lesson in geometry as he shot from the corner, banking the puck off St. Louis Blues goaltender Greg Millen's pads and into the net for Toronto's only goal in the game seven Norris Final 2-1 loss) and adding an assist in six post-season games.
In game two of that second-round series, Smith chased an errant puck and Blues' defenceman Lee Norwood
Lee Norwood
Lee Charles Norwood is a retired American ice hockey player. Although Norwood was born in California, he grew up in Trenton, Michigan....
into the corner, taking Norwood hard into the boards. Norwood responded by sucker punching Smith from behind, and essentially poking Smith in the eye with the thumb of his glove. As Smith felt for blood, looking at his hand, Norwood punched Smith from behind again. The gratuitous clip made Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
and today remains something of a cult classic on YouTube. More importantly, Toronto scored the tying goal on the ensuing power play, then the winner, and got back into the series. Smith's shiner, meanwhile, became the local rallying point on the front page of The Toronto Sun, while Hockey Night in Canada
Hockey Night in Canada
Hockey Night in Canada is the branding used for CBC Sports' presentations of the National Hockey League...
began coverage of game three with a live close-up of Smith's eye under the harsh studio lights. Historically, the incident is seen as a key momentum shift in what would now turn into a seven-game series.
Coached in Toronto by Dan Maloney
Dan Maloney
Daniel Charles "Snowshoes" Maloney is a former ice hockey left winger in the NHL and former NHL coach.Drafted 14th overall by the Chicago Black Hawks in the 1970 NHL Entry Draft, Maloney played two seasons for the Blackhawks and later played for the Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings and Toronto...
and John Brophy
John Brophy (ice hockey)
John Brophy is a Canadian ice hockey coach and former hockey player who has spent most of his career in minor professional leagues, including 18 years as a player in the Eastern Hockey League and 13 seasons as a coach in the East Coast Hockey League...
respectively, Smith's skills were best utilized with the Maple Leafs, where his key role was to "change the pace of the game". The Toronto Star's Frank Orr deemed Smith "an adrenalin player" while Brophy saw Smith as "a whirling dervish" who could stray from a disciplined checking role at the flip of a switch, leaving his wing, generally skating all over the ice, and playing what Brophy termed a "helter-skelter" style designed to throw the opposition's systems into chaos—an infuriating trait that would eventually get Smith's name on the Stanley Cup.
In a Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
article dated, January 27, 1986, Don Cherry
Don Cherry
Don Cherry may refer to:* Don Cherry hockey player, coach, and commentator* Don Cherry , trumpeter* Don Cherry...
described Smith as "one of the best cornermen in the league". Cherry also liked the fact that fights were a big part of Smith's game. And while one of hockey's last 11 helmetless warriors seldom won, he seldom lost, holding his own against the likes of Clark Gillies
Clark Gillies
Clark "Jethro" Gillies is a retired professional ice hockey player. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He provided both physical presence and offensive punch for the NHL's New York Islanders during their four-year run as Stanley Cup champions. In a career that spanned 958 games, Gillies...
, Stan Jonathan
Stan Jonathan
Stanley Carl "Bulldog" Jonathan is a retired native ice hockey left winger.Jonathan started his National Hockey League career with the Boston Bruins with one game in the 1975-76 season. He continued to play for the Bruins from 1976-1983...
, "Mad Dog" Bob Kelly, Joey Kocur, Lindy Ruff
Lindy Ruff
Lindy Cameron Ruff is the head coach of the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League. Ruff played in the NHL for the Sabres and New York Rangers as a left winger/defenceman. Currently, he is the longest-tenured head coach in the NHL.-Playing career:Ruff was chosen in the second round, 32nd...
, and Glen Cochrane
Glen Cochrane
Glen MacLeod Cochrane is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played ten seasons in the National Hockey League for the Philadelphia Flyers, Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Black Hawks and Edmonton Oilers...
. As a Maple Leaf, Smith faced his former team, the Red Wings, on November 15, 1986 in Toronto, fighting Gerrard Gallant on the opening face-off, then going on to drop the gloves three more times that game. So distracted were the Wings by their former teammate that Toronto was up 6–0 by the time Smith was ejected and served with 57 minutes, etching his name in Maple Leaf records as the most penalized Leaf in a single game. It was also Toronto's most penalized game in franchise history, as noted in team records. Smith was again a stalwart playoff performer in 1986–87, scoring a game-winning breakaway goal to clinch Toronto's 1987 opening-round series win over the St. Louis Blues on April 16 of that year. At that point, the Leafs had not won a best-of-seven playoff series since 1978, and they would not win another playoff series period until 1993, making Smith's goal, arguably, the most important over a span of 15 years in Toronto Maple Leafs history. More recently, the goal is celebrated in the Hockey Night in Canada DVD box set, Ten Great Leafs and Their Most Memorable Games.
While in Toronto, Smith also set up goals for Wendel Clark
Wendel Clark
Wendel L. Clark is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player. He is perhaps best known for being a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League , captaining the team from 1991 to 1994...
to both tie and surpass the Leafs' rookie goal-scoring mark on March 3, 1986 against the Winnipeg Jets, a game in which Smith deployed a remarkable behind-the-back pass to set up Clark's second goal of the game, an open-netter to break the record. The following day, Toronto Star columnist Wayne Parrish thus described the play: "Smith's behind-the-back pass to set up Clark's second goal was vintage Gretzky." Earlier, Smith picked an errant pass out of the air with his stick (which Parrish deemed "a pretty piece of work") to set up the drive in which Clark tied the rookie mark.
Post-playing career
Ironically, Smith's playing career ended in the fall of 1987 following a hit by Clark during an intrasquad training camp game. Having just signed a three-year contract, Smith eventually retired as a result of the back injury, running a charter-fishing business before returning home to Windsor in 1989 to coach the Spitfires for two-and-half years. After returning the Spits to respectability, Smith joined the Edmonton OilersEdmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League ....
scouting staff in 1991, serving under Glen Sather
Glen Sather
Glen Cameron "Slats" Sather is the President and general manager of the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League . He has also served as the head coach of the Rangers, as well as General Manager and coach of the Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association and later NHL...
.
At the start of the 1995–96 season, Smith became a scout for the Colorado Avalanche
Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver, Colorado, United States. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The Avalanche have won the Stanley Cup twice, in 1995–96 and 2000–01. The franchise...
. There, he enjoyed perhaps his finest moment, deconstructing Scotty Bowman
Scotty Bowman
William Scott "Scotty" Bowman is a retired National Hockey League head coach. He holds the record for most wins in league history, with 1,244 wins in the regular season and 223 in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He coached the St. Louis Blues, Montreal Canadiens, Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, and...
's left-wing lock during the 1996 playoffs and neutralizing it as Colorado beat the favoured Red Wings and went on to win the Stanley Cup. "Smith noticed the Red Wings' left wingers, who stayed back to help the defense, were small," The Sporting News reported. "So the Avalanche made sure to softly dump the puck into the right corner, where the Avs' forwards pounced. This wore down Detroit's left wingers." Colorado won the series, and by the time the Avalanche swept the Florida Panthers
Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in Sunrise, Florida, in the Miami metropolitan area. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . They play their games at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise and are the...
in the finals, Detroit general manager Ken Holland
Ken Holland
Kenneth Mark Holland is a retired Canadian professional goaltender and current General Manager and executive Vice President of the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League. Holland was drafted in the 12th round, 188th overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1975 NHL Entry Draft...
was publicly crediting Smith with that key assist in Colorado's successful run. The Avalanche won another cup in 2001, and Smith's name is now engraved on the Stanley Cup. He currently serves as the Avalanche Director of Player Personnel.
In October, 2009, Smith was inducted into the Windsor-Essex County Sports Hall of Fame.