Kitchener linesman will blow his whistle for NHL
Andrew Smith dreamed of this when he began officiating at age 14
KITCHENER — Andrew Smith remembers the early days.
The 14-year-old aspiring hockey official got up at 6 a.m. and hustled over to Kitchener’s Patrick J. Doherty Arena to work the lines.
It was so cold in the old Wilson Avenue barn that Smith could see his breath as he dodged catcalls from overbearing parents while whistling games for children as young as five years old for $12 an hour.
“It was some of the toughest mornings of my life,” said the Kitchener native, now 26. “Rules weren’t the priority at that time, it was more making sure the kids had fun and understood the game.” There were bigger stakes at play. Smith wanted to log as many hours as he could in the zebra stripes. Even as a teenager he knew officiating was his future.
“Everything I did in life was surrounded by this one goal,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to strive to be an NHL official.”
Earlier this summer, he got his wish.
After slugging it out on rinks across the province, the former right winger-turned linesman is headed to the show as an official in the NHL this season.
“It’s definitely a dream come true,” he said. “It’s one of those jobs that I feel lucky to have.”
Smith grew up playing in the Kitchener Minor Hockey Association but was encouraged to give officiating a go in his early teens by league official and family friend Fernando Nogueira.
“I knew he was always a strong skater and a good hockey player and I just threw it out to him,” said Nogueira, who has worked for the KMHA in various capacities for the past 33 years.
Once Smith got a taste of the other side of the game he was hooked and for the next decade or so he led a double life.
He played forward at Resurrection Catholic Secondary School and later won a Sutherland Cup with the Elmira Sugar Kings. He also spent a year on a partial scholarship at Plattsburgh State University of New York and skated for the University of Waterloo for two seasons.
But, through it all, he continued to call games.
Things changed fast last year after he retired as a player. Smith attended the NHL’s officiating combine in Buffalo and was hired as a linesman by the Ontario Hockey League soon after.
He started on a part-time basis but, by the end, was working the league final and the Memorial Cup while also sprinkling in some gigs in the American Hockey League.
And after just one season, he was promoted to the big leagues.
Smith was cutting grass at Budd Park for the City of Kitchener when the call came in. NHL director of officiating Stephen Walkom and officiating manager Al Kimmel had summoned him to Toronto.
“I didn’t know what the meeting was going to be about,” he said. “I was obviously hoping it was the news I wanted but you never know. I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”
Five minutes into the meeting, they offered Smith the job.
“They told me to take my time and go home and talk to my family, that it was a big decision,” he said. “I didn’t waste any time. I told them I didn’t need to talk to anybody.”
Not long after, his NHL preseason work schedule arrived. First stop: New Jersey. Then it’s off to New York, Toronto, Colorado, Dallas, Buffalo and Philadelphia.
“Once I got the schedule I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face,” he said.
Nogueira isn’t surprised at Smith’s meteoric rise.
“He has worked hard to get where he has gotten,” he said. “He has just turned heads. It’s unbelievable. We’re so proud of him.”
Smith credits his intense training — he takes power skating lessons, works out almost daily and has changed his diet — in helping him advance.
And he’s quick to point out that he wouldn’t be here without the help of others, namely his parents Rick and Monique, sister Melanie, girlfriend Kelsie Snider, Nogueira and fellow official Kevin Hastings, among others.
Though, now he’ll have to deal with his Toronto Maple Leafs loving father in a different capacity.
“It will be the same old song and dance,” said Smith with a laugh. “I’ll probably come home (after working a Toronto game) and he’ll have something to say about the Leafs and the officials but it’s all good.”
Making the NHL was Smith’s goal as he toiled on rinks around Waterloo Region as a youngster. Now, he’s got a new one — working a game in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“The playoffs are intense,” he said. “That’s the limelight that everybody strives for.”
And if Smith’s officiating career continues on its current path he’ll be there soon.