Longtime NHL defenseman Brendan Smith has fond memories of his time in Grand Rapids.

Story by Mark Newman

        Brendan Smith was a first-round pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, so he had certain expectations when he joined the Red Wings organization as a 21-year-old after three years at the University of Wisconsin.

        The defenseman thought he had a job waiting in Detroit, so Grand Rapids was the last place he wanted to be. He now admits that he didn't join the Griffins with the best state of mind.

        "My little brother [Reilly Smith] always wanted to play for the Red Wings. And so that was his dream. And then I was drafted by them, so that was my goal," Smith recalled. "But that's not how it worked back then. Prospects usually had to play at least one year in the minors. It was to ensure that players would have longevity in their careers, and that would ultimately help them in the future by not pushing them too early. And so I was told to go to Grand Rapids."

        In his head, Smith might as well have heard "hell" instead.

        "I didn't know anything about Grand Rapids, when I probably should have done a little more research," he chuckles. "But I guess when you're young like that, your mind is set and you have one goal. And for me, it was the Red Wings.

        "And so it was an interesting feeling right off the bat. Your goal as a young kid is to play in the NHL and you go to camp to try to make the Red Wings, right? And so I was a little devastated when I got sent down."

        Smith admits that he did not come with the best attitude. That quickly changed, however.

        "As soon as I came into Grand Rapids and saw Van Andel Arena and the whole area around it, I fell in love quickly. We had a bunch of really good guys on the team, too, which also helped that transition. It turned what I felt was a crappy situation into a really great time."

        Now a member of the Dallas Stars, one of this season's leading Stanley Cup contenders, Smith recently played his 700th NHL game. He believes his three seasons (2010-13) with the Griffins were crucial to his development as a young hockey player.

        As a highly touted prospect, Smith admits that he was probably too confident for his own good when he joined the Griffins.

        "I think I came in like that," he said. "When you're young, you expect things. And that's not how it is, especially in pro sports. And so for me, my time [with the Griffins] was very humbling. I think it was very good for me.

        "This season marks 14 years for me in the NHL. I think without my time in Grand Rapids, I probably don't play as long as I have to this moment. So I owe a lot to Grand Rapids, for sure. And I owe a lot to that organization. Everything that they've done for me, I think, has kind of molded me into the man I am today.

       "You've got to take your ups and downs and learn to grow from them. And I had a lot of both of those in Grand Rapids. So it was fantastic."

        When he thinks about his beginnings in pro hockey, Smith wishes he could turn back the clock and "soak it all in."

        "It's crazy how fast time has flown," he said. "Everybody talks about enjoying the journey. For me, I pictured the NHL as the only goal. And so there were moments when I felt like I don't want to be here or I don't belong here because I want to go to the next level. That's where I wanted to be."

        Smith is thankful for the many mentors that he encountered during his time in Grand Rapids.

        "As my 'D' partner, Doug Janik was massive for me, on and off the ice because he had a family," Smith said. "He was very welcoming to me and very open to any questions and suggestions and anything that I would think of. And when you're young, you have so many questions. I'm sure he probably got fed up with me multiple times, but he never really showed it.

        "So Janik would probably be my number one. But we had lots of good guys – [Greg] Amadio and [Chris] Minard would be two others – and they were great guys who all looked after me. They were just so open to me as a young guy. They tried to help me grow."

        Smith remembers Amadio taking him car shopping.

        "It was like they were trying to help me learn how to be a pro and how to make the right decisions," he said. "I think a lot of what they've taught me has made me who I am. If I saw them now, I would want to thank them because of everything they've done. I was fortunate to have good mentors."

        Smith credits Curt Fraser and Jim Paek, the Griffins' head coach and assistant coach, respectively, at the time, with having a strong hand in helping him become the kind of solid, dependable defenseman that is valued by NHL organizations.

       "Honestly, they were very good for my development because I was pretty raw," Smith said. "There would be moments where I would make huge errors or mistakes. And they were always great at never taking ice time away. I felt that they were always very respectful and just trying to teach me.

        "I was always very highly competitive, so when I was making mistakes, it wasn't out of lack of effort. It was always because I was trying to help the team win or trying to do too much. And so the whole idea as far as they were concerned was the KISS method – Keep It Simple, Smart, or whatever 'S' word you want to put there.

        "Jimmy Paek was so good to me and such a good coach for me as a young player. 'Fraz' was everything you would want as a head coach for a man at a young age. They were always very communicative with me and always tried to help me out. So they were very good with me in that respect."

        They were patient when Smith was often impatient.

        "I feel like I'm a very in-the-moment kind of person, but there were moments where I would get down on myself because I didn't get a call-up or somebody else got a call-up. It's all petty stuff that when you're just young, you don't know how to deal with those things. I wish I could have told myself to just relax. Just be yourself and enjoy the moment. Enjoy the journey. It's going to work out.

        "I'm positive Doug Janik told me that. I'm sure that I heard it from other people, too. Chris Chelios was a big-time mentor for me at the time and I'm positive that he told me as well. But you're just so young and dumb, you don't hear it. I wish I could have taken other people's advice then.

        "But looking back at it now, it brings a smile to my face."

        He smiles again when he remembers the 2012-13 season. A lockout year for the NHL, he began his third season with the Griffins while the NHL was settling its labor dispute. He played 32 games in Grand Rapids before eventually finishing the season with the Red Wings once the lockout ended.

        After appearing in 33 regular-season games and all 14 Stanley Cup Playoff games with Detroit, Smith did not join teammates Gustav Nyquist, Joakim Andersson, Brian Lashoff, and Danny Dekeyser when they were sent to Grand Rapids during the Griffins' run to their first Calder Cup championship.

        "I forget how it worked, but I was not allowed to go down because I had played too many pro or NHL games," he said. "I was relieved that I had made it and was now an NHL player because that was my goal, but it hurt that I couldn't keep playing. I was very, very happy for them when they won, but I was a little sad that I wasn't there because I had been a part of the team at the start of the year.

        "The guys talked to me the whole time. I was very proud of them. That championship was well-deserved because that was a great team. And so I experienced both sides – I was both happy and sad because I loved playing with them, and everything about it was fun."

        On the positive side, Smith had finally earned a spot in the veteran-loaded lineup put together by then-Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock.

        "My first conversation with Babcock was like, 'If you're going to make the team, you need to be head and shoulders better than the older guy.' Of course, that has kind of changed. Now the younger guy gets the job. But back then, that was the rule because it was all about winning and having the best product on the ice."

        Smith is grateful that he got to play with Red Wings legends like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.

        "I was very fortunate to come into a fantastic team," he said. "In my mind, Pavel was the best player that I've ever played with or against to this day. One of my better attributes is battling for pucks and I learned a lot of that from Pavel – like stick position and using your body.

        "I don't lose many battles because I would play one-on-ones with Pavel after practice, and the little things I learned elevated my game. That has not changed in 14 years. You've got to win puck battles, and he taught me a lot of stuff I didn't know coming out of Wisconsin, And these are things that are still a big part of what I still do today.

        "Guys like Datsyuk and Zetterberg were just playing to try to get better at their game and they helped me in the process. They were true professionals and they're all going to be Hall of Famers if they're not already. So it was awesome to watch those guys. I was lucky to learn from them and I want to thank those guys for that."

        It didn't hurt his development to learn from two of the best blueliners to ever don the Winged Wheel. Watching Nick Lidstrom and Niklas Kronwall every day was a blessing afforded very few defensemen at the time.

        "For me, it was watching and learning how they held themselves to account," he said. "The biggest thing I noticed was how they conducted themselves off the ice, what they did in the gym. It was almost like Nick was a robot. He did the same stuff religiously and made sure his body was in the best shape possible.

        "Some people might call it superstition, but it was all routine. They did that stuff because they knew it worked. I tried to take those aspects and put them into my own game to the point where everything became routine.

        "The NHL is the best league in the world, and you have to do certain things to be able to grind for 82 games a season. I was probably too nervous to ask them the kind of questions I was asking Doug Janik and the other guys in Grand Rapids, so in Detroit, it was more visual learning and picking up tips that way. I tried to emulate what worked for them because I felt like it should work for everyone, and those things helped me get to where I am today."

        Smith established himself as a regular in Detroit. In six seasons with the Red Wings, he appeared in 291 regular-season games and 27 postseason games. He was in the process of negotiating a long-term contract when the Detroit organization traded him to the New York Rangers in February 2017 for second-round and third-round picks.

        "I always thought I was just going to play with the Red Wings forever," he said. "In the back of my mind, I was never going to leave, but that was me being naive again. It was the end of an era because it was going to be the first time we weren't going to make the playoffs after 25 years. Management had to change their tone to get picks and start the process all over again. So being traded was sad."

        Smith joined a Rangers team that got into the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs as the top wild-card team in the Eastern Conference.

        "I realized that this was an opportunity for me to continue to play into the postseason," he said. "I love the playoffs. That's all I want to play. The regular season is great and I enjoy it, but it's nothing like playoff hockey, which is fantastic."

        New York beat the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round but got knocked out in six games by the Ottawa Senators during the second round. Smith, who had four assists in 12 playoff games with the Rangers, was rewarded with a new four-year contract.

        As much as things were looking up, Smith was in for a rude awakening the subsequent season when the team started struggling and he was placed on waivers. The Rangers assigned Smith to their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, after he went unclaimed.

        "That was very difficult," he said. "It was probably the toughest moment of my entire life, let alone career. We did not have a good start to the year and they began to blow up the team. They sent out a letter saying that we're doing a whole rebuild, which I thought was a little unusual, but it was a wake-up call when I had to go play in the minors.

        "There were some very, very dark moments because the day I was sent down was actually my birthday. It was a tough time in my life, probably the toughest, but I decided to pull up my trousers, stop crying about it, and start with my mind.

        "I had to really think about things. What do I have to do to reestablish myself? How do I get myself in the best shape physically and mentally? Because I saw a lot of people get sent down and they kinda fizzled out. So I had a new goal of trying to make the NHL again. I figured if I'd done it once before, I could do it again.

        "I worked myself back into the lineup and I've been grinding ever since."

        Smith spent five seasons with the Rangers. "New York was another place I didn't expect to fall in love with, but my wife and I did exactly that," he said. "There's a lot of pressure in New York because their fan base knows hockey and they're rabid about winning. If you're not playing well, they'll let you know. You can hear the boos.

        "When you're winning, you're on top of the world, but when you're playing poorly as a team, it can be a little hellish. I loved my time there. We had a great time. We had our kids there."

        Smith and his wife, Samantha, have two kids. Son Nolan is six and daughter Ryenn is four. Becoming a father had a profound effect.

        "I talked about the maturing process and when you have kids, it changes you in a second because you really have to figure out where you're going in life, because every decision you make impacts your family," he said. "You learn to make smart decisions."

        Sharing his hockey experience with his family means everything.

       "Having my little guy come to the hockey games and cheer me on is a fantastic moment. My daughter being at the front of the glass and blowing me kisses is something that I'll cherish forever. I truly love it. Even at their ages, they know hockey. They know what Dada does and they love to be a part of it.

        "My goal was just to make the NHL, but now with a family your outlook on life changes. You try to be the best version of yourself so that they can kind of see that and grow into the best version of themselves."

        Smith left New York to sign a one-year contract with the Carolina Hurricanes for the 2021-22 season, which was abbreviated when he suffered a fractured skull from blocking a shot.

        "That was scary. I know my wife was quite scared," he recalled. "I couldn't hear out of one ear for seven months. I slept really well, I guess, but it was interesting playing because I couldn't hear people on one side. I had to check over my shoulder a lot more because I couldn't hear the skates. A lot of times when you're going back for a puck, you use all your senses and sometimes I couldn't hear them, so it was something I had to learn."

        "Other than that, it was a great year."

        Smith spent the past two seasons with the New Jersey Devils. He earned a little unwanted notoriety in January 2024 when he delivered a clean hit to an onrushing Connor Bedard, breaking the jaw of the highly touted Chicago Blackhawks rookie.

        "It's a tricky situation," Smith explained. "If I don't hit him, he probably dangles me, so I didn't lower my shoulder, I just tried to finish the check. I don't try to hurt or injure anybody. I try to play hard and so it was an unfortunate situation.

        "I was sad that he got injured and was out for so long because he's such a great player. I was able to reach out to him and tell him that I hoped for a quick recovery and wish him all the best. I told him I was looking forward to watching him play."

        Chicago fans, however, did not take kindly to Smith's play.

        "The amount of publicity and messages was just ruthless," he said. "My wife was getting horrible things sent to her when she had no place in this at all. Some of the messages made me chuckle but the messages went too far with my wife, but I guess that's the world we live in."

        This season, Smith is plying his trade for the Dallas Stars, and for the third year in a row he is the oldest player on the team. 

        As an aging veteran, he is learning what it's like to not play every day but he hopes to contribute any way he can to help the team win the championship that has alluded him since his days in Grand Rapids.

        Smith saw his brother Reilly win the Stanley Cup as a member of 2023 Vegas Golden Knights and would love nothing more than to win that elusive ring. He would consider it a fitting testament to the time that he spent in West Michigan so long ago.

        "I loved being a Griffin – I had a great time," Smith said. "I have a lot of great memories, so much so that I remember thinking when I was called up and the city of Detroit was going through bankruptcy, 'Wouldn't it be nice if the Red Wings could move?'

       "That's how much I loved Grand Rapids."