Height: 6-4
Weight: 215
Catch: L
Born: 4 Feb 1944, Ottawa ON
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Regular Season Goaltending Record (key)
| year | team | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1978-79 | Indianapolis | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1978-79 | Winnipeg | ||||||||||||||||||
| Totals (2 teams) | |
| Totals:
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Playoff Goaltending Record
| year | team | ||||||||
| 1978-79 | Winnipeg | ||||||||
| Totals: |
• Brother of Brian Smith.
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Excerpts from Zander Hollander's Guide to Pro Hockey, 1979-80 (by Reyn Davis)
Colorful character who has worn two nicknames: "Suitcase" because of the number of teams he's played for (15 in 15 years), and "Axe" because of the way he uses his goalstick to keep his crease clear ... Found in the rubble of the collapsed Indianapolis Racers franchise, he jumped at the chance to play again and led the Jets to their third WHA title ... Has a tendency to drop to his knees but, on them, he's still as tall as some goaltenders ... Good copy for the media ... Lives in Lake Tahoe, Nevada ... Once punted pucks back to center ice after goals were scored on him ... Big harness racing fan. |
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Still In His Blood • by Barbara Huck • The Winnipeg Free Press • October 11, 1979
This one is for trivia fans: Who was the last player to wear No. 4 for the Boston Bruins before Bobby Orr made it his own? Need a hint? He's alive and well and playing for the Winnipeg Jets. You still don't know? Surprisingly perhaps, it was Gary Smith, the much travelled goaltender who has at last found a home here. Or more to the point, who hopes he has found a last home here. Smith, 35, by his own admission, has "done the circuit." The list of teams he's played for in his 15-year professional hockey career is as long as the well-known Smith reach, which is proportionate to the rest of his 6'-3" frame. He has found a place, for lengths of time varying from six weeks to four years, on nine major professional rosters and innumerable minor pro teams, dating back to the pre-expansion era. That's the first pre-expansion era. He's been shuffled from establishment teams, to expansion teams, to the minor leagues and back. After a career which might be referred to as "checkered", Smith harbors few illusions about his prowess. "I was on and off," he admits. "Four years in Oakland, two in Chicago, three with Vancouver, a season in Minnesota, some time in Washington, then back to Minnesota. Most of the years were hardly memorable. "I did have one 'off' season though, one that stood apart from the others — one of the years in Vancouver. I was terrific." Winnipeg fans, who have seen Smith perform in the Jets' nets under pressure since his arrival in the middle of last season from the defunct Indianapolis Racers, think he still is pretty terrific, but the big guy demurrs. "I like it here. I still love the game. It gets into your blood. But I'm not fooling myself. I probably don't have much more time left, at least as a player. I'd like to play this season and really make it a good one. I suppose if it's good enough, maybe I'd consider another year." "But I want to stay in hockey — as a scout, perhaps, or something along those lines — and I'd like to stay within this organization." |
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