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Jason Smith (b. 1973)
Jasonsmith
Position Defence
Shoots Right
Nickname(s) Gator,[1] Smitty
Height
Weight
6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
215 lb (98 kg)
Teams New Jersey Devils
Toronto Maple Leafs
Edmonton Oilers
Philadelphia Flyers
Ottawa Senators
Born (1973-11-02)November 2, 1973,
Calgary, AB, CAN
NHL Draft 18th overall, 1992
New Jersey Devils
Pro Career 1993 – 2009

Jason Matthew Smith (born November 2, 1973) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman. He played in the National Hockey League from 1993–94 to 2008–09.

Playing career[]

Smith was drafted in the first round of the 1992 NHL Entry Draft by the New Jersey Devils. As a member of the Regina Pats, he was named to the Western Hockey League's all-rookie team in 1992 and WHL first all-star team in 1993. He won the Bill Hunter Trophy as the WHL's top defenseman. Smith was a member of the gold medal winning Canadian team at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championship in 1993.

He made his NHL debut with the Devils during the 1993–94 NHL season, though the majority of the season was spent in the AHL with the Albany River Rats. He missed the majority of the 1994–95 season because of a knee injury, but played in one playoff game before returning to captain the River Rats to a Calder Cup championship in 1995, in the same year that the Devils captured their first Stanley Cup. Smith then moved up to the NHL for good, playing with the Devils until 1997 when he was dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On February 25, 1997, he was involved in a blockbuster trade, going to the Maple Leafs along with Steve Sullivan and the rights to Alyn McCauley in exchange for Doug Gilmour, Dave Ellett, and New Jersey's 4th round choice in 1999. Smith spent parts of three seasons in Toronto before being traded to the Edmonton Oilers in 1999. When Oilers' team captain Doug Weight was later traded to the St. Louis Blues, Smith's strong leadership resulted in his being handed the 'C'. He would tie Wayne Gretzky as the longest serving captain in Oilers history at five seasons, wearing the 'C' from 2001 to 2007, excluding the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

Smith captained the Edmonton Oilers to a largely unexpected run to the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, in which they faced the Carolina Hurricanes, another dark horse team. However, the Oilers lost in the final game of a grueling seven game series to the Hurricanes. Smith contributed 1 goal and 4 assists during Edmonton's surprise playoff run.

On July 1, 2007, Edmonton GM Kevin Lowe traded Smith, along with forward Joffrey Lupul, to the Philadelphia Flyers for Joni Pitkanen and Geoff Sanderson, and Philadelphia's 3rd round choice in 2009.

In his first and only season in Philadelphia, Smith captained a rebuilt Flyers squad to an Eastern Conference showdown against their inter-state rivals from Pittsburgh. Despite the fact that the Penguins won the series, the Flyers' turnaround from the worst team in the league to their status in 2007–08 was a credit to Smith's leadership abilities.

Career statistics[]

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1990–91 Regina Pats WHL 2 0 0 0 7 4 0 0 0 2
1991–92 Regina Pats WHL 62 9 29 38 168
1992–93 Regina Pats WHL 64 14 52 66 175 13 4 8 12 39
1992–93 Utica Devils AHL 1 0 0 0 2
1993–94 Albany River Rats AHL 20 6 3 9 31
1993–94 New Jersey Devils NHL 41 0 5 5 43 6 0 0 0 7
1994–95 Albany River Rats AHL 7 0 2 2 15 11 2 2 4 19
1994–95 New Jersey Devils NHL 2 0 0 0 0
1995–96 New Jersey Devils NHL 64 2 1 3 86
1996–97 New Jersey Devils NHL 57 1 2 3 38
1996–97 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 21 0 5 5 16
1997–98 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 81 3 13 16 100
1998–99 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 60 2 11 13 40
1998–99 Edmonton Oilers NHL 12 1 1 2 11 4 0 1 1 4
1999–00 Edmonton Oilers NHL 80 3 11 14 60 5 0 1 1 4
2000–01 Edmonton Oilers NHL 82 5 15 20 120 6 0 2 2 6
2001–02 Edmonton Oilers NHL 74 5 13 18 103
2002–03 Edmonton Oilers NHL 68 4 8 12 64 6 0 0 0 19
2003–04 Edmonton Oilers NHL 68 7 12 19 98
2005–06 Edmonton Oilers NHL 76 4 13 17 84 24 1 4 5 16
2006–07 Edmonton Oilers NHL 82 2 9 11 103
2007–08 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 77 1 9 10 86 17 0 2 2 4
2008–09 Ottawa Senators NHL 63 1 0 1 47
NHL totals 1008 41 128 169 1099 68 1 10 11 60

Transactions[]

  • February 25, 1997 - Traded by New Jersey, along with Steve Sullivan and the rights to Alyn McCauley, to Toronto for Dave Ellett, Doug Gilmour and a third-round draft pick
  • March 3, 1999 - Traded by Toronto to Edmonton for a fourth-round pick in the 1999 NHL entry draft and a second-round selection in the 2000 NHL entry draft
  • July 1, 2007 - Traded by Edmonton, along with Joffrey Lupul, to Philadelphia for Joni Pitkanen, Geoff Sanderson and a third-round pick in the 2009 NHL entry draft
  • July 8, 2008 - Signed as free agent by Ottawa Senators
  • September 2, 2009 - Retired from the NHL.

References[]

  1. Schwartz, Adam. "What's In A Name?", NHL.com, 2008-03-17. Retrieved on 2008-04-24. 

External links[]

Preceded by
Brian Rolston
New Jersey Devils first round draft pick
1992
Succeeded by
'Denis Pederson'
Preceded by
Doug Weight
Edmonton Oilers captains
200107
Succeeded by
Ethan Moreau
Preceded by
Peter Forsberg
Philadelphia Flyers captains
2007–08
Succeeded by
Mike Richards
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Jason Smith (b. 1973). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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