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Flames' Smith took long road to NHL

Vicki Hall, Calgary Herald, November 30, 2011

Derek Smith fully admits the negative notion infiltrated his mind a time or two on those brain-numbing bus trips that come with the job in the American Hockey League.

“You start to think maybe you’re time is up,” the Calgary Flames defenceman said Wednesday. “Maybe you won’t be able to make it full-time in the NHL.”

With every passing year, a new crop of promising draft picks arrive in the AHL with great fanfare. With every passing year, the reputation of a minor-league lifer becomes tougher to shed.

At age 27, Smith accomplished just that in earning his first full-time NHL job with the Calgary Flames.

“A long journey,” he said. “A much longer road than some of the other guys.”

The road took him to the side of the Nashville net Tuesday in the first period at the Scotiabank Saddledome. His defensive partner T.J. Brodie wisely took a look and unleashed a slap pass that landed right on Smith’s tape.

Just like that, a scenario imagined for some 20 years turned into reality.

“Every kid dreams about playing in the NHL,” he said. “And they dream about scoring their first goal.”

As a kid, Smith pretended to score that goal every day in road hockey games on the crescent in front of his home in Belleville, Ont.

“We would scream ‘car’ run to the side of the road to make sure we didn’t get hit,” he said. “There were tennis balls all over the place.”

His father Rick and mother Sandy watched many of those pickup games. Smith hopes they stayed up long enough Tuesday to witness his first NHL strike on television.

Rick toils as a plant manager for a plastics company. Sandy works at the local school board. Both have to be at the office early in the morning.

“They work long hours,” said Smith, who logged a season-high 22:33 after Mark Giordano went down in the 1-0 win over the Predators. “My dad is on the road a lot. They haven’t been out yet to see me this year.

“Hopefully, they get some time off.”

No rush, according to head coach Brent Sutter. Their son is here for the long term.

“He’s so steady and poised,” Sutter said. “I didn’t know much about Derek at all when he came into camp — outside of the fact he put up some decent numbers in the American League.”

Indeed. Besides a nine-game audition last year in Ottawa, Smith collected 10 goals and 54 points for the Calder Cup champion Binghamton Senators.

Smith signed this summer as a free agent in Calgary.

“It’s never too late,” Sutter said. “If you get an opportunity, you take advantage of it. You look at him. It’s obviously been a great fit for us.

“Just so poised. He makes those plays stick to stick. He’s an intelligent guy.”

An intelligent guy who bulled his way into the NHL the hard way as an undrafted free agent out of Lake Superior State University. Mobile and defensively responsible, Smith is a bit of a hybrid.

No one will ever mistake the six-foot-one, 197-pounder for the next coming of Robyn Regehr on the physical side of things. Senators phenom Erik Karlsson need not worry about the newcomer in the defensive scoring race.

“He knows what his game is,” Sutter said of Smith. “And he pays it to the best of his abilities.”

Which is a good thing. Even though his NHL prospects looked dark at times, Smith never seriously considered another career outside of hockey.

“I would like to say I would be in a band,” he stammered when asked about his other options. “But I’m not very good at that.”

Apparently, Smith doesn’t sing or play any instruments, so his chances of joining a band — something like Alice in Chains or Tool — are remote, to say the least.

Guitar Hero doesn’t count.

“I guess I would have to learn,” he said. “There’s no Plan B as of right now.”

In his case, Plan A has finally come true.

Dean
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