After notching more than 650 points in 10 plus American Hockey League seasons, Ottawa native Brad Smyth will be inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame on Jan. 29, 2019.
Smyth’s local connections run deep as he’s also married to Shawville native Jackie Armstrong, daughter of Albert and Gwen.
Smyth will be going into the hall with some notable company. He joins longtime coach and former player, John Anderson, one of the most prolific scorers in league history, Murray Eaves and Hockey Night in Canada mainstay, Don Cherry.
It’s a testament to Smyth’s AHL career that he is going to be inducted with an AHL legend like Don Cherry.
“To be going in with a guy like that, it’s very humbling,” Smyth said. “As well as the other two players – John Anderson and Murray Eaves – who had good careers also.”

Despite the fact that the AHL has been in existence for more than 80 years, the Hall of Fame has only had 14 classes of inductees since it started in 2006.
Smyth first broke into the league during the 1995 season with a quick, three game stint with the Spingfield Falcons.
The following season was when Smyth first made his mark on the league. After scoring twice on opening night, Smyth went on to score at a goal-a-game pace, eventually finishing with 68 goals in as many games.
He finished the season with a league high 126 points, which secured him the AHL Most Valuable Player award at year’s end.
With his point totals as high as they were, it’s no surprise that Smyth describes his style of play as offense-oriented.
“I was definitely an offensive-minded player,” Smyth said. “I had a good compete level and I was fairly gritty. I liked to be on the ice in offensive situations like the power play.”
Smyth made his professional hockey debut when the NHL’s farm system was split between two leagues: the AHL and the International Hockey League (IHL).
“When I was signed by Florida I was assigned to the IHL,” Smyth said. “Which had a lot of veterans. At the time it was actually a more skilled league than the AHL because they were signing older players, who had NHL experience, to independent contracts.”
The AHL has undergone many changes since Smyth first broke into the league. One of the most notable changes was the fact that the IHL eventually merged with the AHL in 2001.
Another major difference is the age of the players themselves.
“I would think the average age of our team my first year pro was close to 30,” Smyth said. “Now, if you’re in the AHL and you’re in your mid twenties, you’re considered old.
“It’s a high-end development league for sure, but more and more players are on entry level contracts,” he said. “So 20-23 basically.”
“It’s a very hungry league,” he said. “In terms of people wanting to move up to the NHL and get called up.”
Smyth said his most memorable season in the AHL was in 2000 while playing for the Hartford Wolf Pack when the team won the AHL championship – The Calder Cup.
He was teammates with fellow AHL inductee Jean Francois Labbé that year. The Wolf Pack was coached by a familiar face for Ottawa Senators fans: John Paddock.
“That was a real tough year where we had to grind and I think we ended up playing over 100 games that year,” Smyth said. “We really earned it.”
His next most memorable year came in his third pro season before a stint in the NHL during the 1995-96 season.
“Florida moved their farm team to Greenville, North Carolina,” Smyth said. “So we had an AHL expansion team and that’s the year I scored 68 goals in 68 games and I got to play with some really creative offensive players.”
On top of his AHL experience, Smyth played 88 games in the NHL, racking up 15 goals and 13 assists for 28 points.
During his time in the NHL, Smyth got to play with legends like Wayne Gretzky, Rob Blake and Daniel Alfredsson.
Smyth said Marc Savard and Derek Armstrong were two players he played with consistently that stood out for him.
“Shooter”, as Smyth is known, is a nickname he picked up from a former teammate – and with his goal totals it should come as no surprise. Smyth’s co-hosts during Ottawa Senators pre- and post-game shows on TSN 1200 often refer to him by his nickname.
Smyth went to the Ottawa Senators farm team in Binghamton for the 2002-03 season where he got to suit up for his hometown team – The Ottawa Senators.
Smyth played a total of 12 games for the Senators, tallying three goals and one assist.
After the 2002-03 season, Smyth made a huge life decision and tried his hand playing hockey in Finland.
This was one of Smyth’s most memorable seasons playing overseas.
“I enjoyed my year in Finland,” Smyth said. “We won a championship, which makes it easier.”
Smyth said that team included two young players who’ve gone on to have plenty of success at the NHL level – Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne and Washington Capitals Centre Nik Backstrom.
“We were in the most northern part of Finland,” Smyth said. “Not a whole lot of sunshine, probably four hours a day.”
“I enjoyed the culture of the Fins,” he added. “They’re an honest people.”
Smyth went back to the AHL for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons before returning to Europe to play for the Hamburg Freezers in the German professional league – the DEL.
Smyth said his time in Hamburg were some of his most memorable years as a hockey player.
“It’s such a diverse place,” he said. “It’s upwards of five or six million people, it’s got a beautiful rink, there’s a lot to do and you’re central to a lot of places in Europe.”
As much as the off-ice experience was unfamiliar to him, Smyth said there were adjustments that had to be made on the ice as well.
“I had to adjust, big time,” Smyth said. “When I went over there, I was never the best skater.”
Smyth said the changes that he had to make in order to be effective on the larger European ice surfaces made him a better skater when he returned from overseas.
“It probably extended my career,” Smyth said. “Which is why I played until I was 40.”
With a career that lasted as long as Smyth’s did, it’s inevitable that there would be the odd funny story.
He recounted one in which a Dallas-area bus company drove his hockey team from Denver to Aspen – a notoriously steep and perilous route – without snow tires. After four hours on the side of the road watching the bus driver change the tires, the team finally made it to Aspen.
Another memorable story is typical of many NHL players making their debut performance – the infamous hot lap.
Smyth had just been traded from Florida to the Los Angeles Kings and was suiting up for a game at the hallowed Maple Leaf Gardens.
“You’re all fired up because it’s Maple Leaf Gardens,” Smyth said. “And you go sprinting on the ice and there’s nobody coming behind you so you end up doing a lap by yourself.”
Another memorable story involves the Great One himself and his passion for an equipment manufacturer that he owned near the end of his career.
“I put black tape on the shaft of my stick,” Smyth said of one of his many routines. “It was Gretzky’s second last year near the end of the season. So he picks it up and he looks at it – he owned Hespeler at the time – so he took some white chalk and wrote Hespeler on the black blade.”
Clearly, Smyth has seen his fair share of dressing rooms throughout the hockey world, but one of the most unusual items on his hockey resume is the year he spent playing for the Ottawa Loggers roller hockey team in 1996.
“I was drafted three times in that league,” Smyth said with a laugh. “I wanted to come home in the summer if I was playing somewhere else in the winter.”
The adjustments he had to make to shift from ice hockey to roller hockey served him well when he went to Europe.
“It’s not as easy as it looks,” Smyth said. “The puck is a lot lighter so you can hammer it. But the stopping is tough, you have to almost do small circles to stop.”
Smyth played just the one season of roller hockey, suiting up with trailblazing female goaltender, Manon Rheume, who was the first female to ever play in one of North America’s four major professional leagues.
“It was fun, it was a good summer time job,” he said.
Smyth finally hung up his skates after the 2012-13 season when he played for the Denver Cutthroats of the Central Hockey League.
He now spends his time running NHL alumni hockey camps throughout the Ottawa Valley.
He also goes to China, the host of the 2022 Olympics, twice a year for a hockey camp that teaches young players who’ve had limited exposure to the sport.
“We try to Canadianize it as much as possible because it’s not in their culture yet,” Smyth said. “It’s a big deal because they want to have a good showing in the 2022 Olympics.”
Smyth says there is plenty to be proud of and thankful for after a full career playing professional hockey.
Asked what he takes the most pride in from a long career like his, Smyth got philosophical.
“Probably fulfilling my dream,” he said. “I think that’s the biggest thing because you grow up playing street hockey or higher level hockey and you always want to get to the NHL.”
As for the thing he was most thankful for, it was the experiences and the person he got to share them with.
“Especially on the back end of my career, the traveling I got to do with Jackie and all the places we got to see,” Smyth said. “That’s what I’m most thankful for.”