Ex-Rangers coach Smith back in game
KITCHENER — Hockey is in Troy Smith’s blood.
The game has been apart of his life since his days in minor hockey while growing up in Hamilton.
It stayed with the defenceman — and occasional forward — in the Ontario Hockey League with the Detroit/Plymouth Whalers, on to St. Francis Xavier University and finally to the minor pro circuit.
And it was there when he retired and switched roles to become a coach for the Kitchener Rangers and, later, the Hamilton Bulldogs.
So it’s no surprise that Smith is back behind the bench as the head coach of the Saginaw Spirit after about a year off to pursue a job outside of the rink.
“As soon as I got away from the game I knew that I missed it and that I really had a desire to be involved,” he said.
The 39-year-old spent seven years as an assistant coach with the Rangers alongside skippers Peter DeBoer and Steve Spott before being promoted to top dog in 2013.
He inherited a young and inexperienced squad that missed the playoffs his first year but showed a 25-point improvement during his sophomore campaign. Despite the progress, Smith was fired.
After one season and a bit as an associate coach with the Bulldogs, Smith left the game altogether to run a vehicle acquisition service for a car dealership group.
“The opportunity was hard to pass up,” he said.
“Truth be told, it was a good thing for me to step away from the game for awhile and just reassess what I wanted to be when I came back. I always knew that I was going to be coming back at some point.”
That time was this past summer.
OHL coaching jobs — once rare — were suddenly abundant. So when Saginaw expressed an interest Smith jumped at the chance to return.
And he finds himself in a familiar situation stateside as the Spirit are one of the youngest teams in the league and in full rebuilding mode.
“I think it’s extremely similar to the first year with the Rangers from an age perspective,” he said.
“I think our average age is 17 and a half and that was similar to what we had in Kitchener.”