Bruins Alumni: Happy Birthday Barry Smith

( Photo Credit: MrBurnsCollectorScorer.Weebly.com )

By: Mark Allred  |  Follow Me On Twitter @BlackAndGold277

Barry Smith was born on April 25th, 1955 in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada and even though he lived and grew up almost 2,500 miles away from Boston, Massachusetts he was meant to be a Bruin as he played for two junior teams out in Western Canada having the same team name. Smith was drafted by the Boston Bruins in the 1975 National Hockey League Amateur Draft in the second round with the 32nd selection.

The 5′-11″ 178-pound left shooting center played his amateur hockey with the then WCJHL with the Estevan Bruins (NHL Bruins Affiliate in 1958/59 & 1964/65), and the New Westminster Bruins before the NHL B’s drafted him during the summer of 1975 as a 19-year-old. During his first year of NHL experience, Smith appeared in 19 career games for the Boston club playing a majority of his games with the AHL’s Rochester Americans who were the Bruins top minor-pro affiliate from the 1974 to 1979 campaigns. In those 19 career NHL games with Boston, Smith would score only one goal but in the B’s farm system would put up 62-94-156 numbers in 290 career games with AHL Rochester. His second to last season with the AHL Americans club but last year affiliated with the NHL’s Boston Bruins he would his professional career-high in any league posting 23-43-66 totals in 80 games during the 1978-79 season.

Smith would move on from the Bruins organization spending the rest of his NHL career with the Colorado Rockies playing in two years of service appearing in 95 games for the Golden State team from 1979-80 to 1980-81 posting 6-7-13 totals. In 114 career NHL games, he contributed 7-7-14 numbers. His final season of pro hockey Barry hung up the skates after the 1980-81 hockey season when he spent 14 games playing for the Fort Worth Texans in the CHL.

After retiring from the game and about a ten-year hiatus, Barry returned to the game of hockey this time as a coach. Per Wikipedia from the 1992 to the 1997 hockey seasons, Smith would end up in Knoxville, Tennessee to coach the ECHL’s Knoxville Cherokees. He would man the bench once more from2000 to 2001 with the WPHL’s San Angelo Outlaws before that league ended up folding operations.  Smith passed away at the age of 58 on September 7th, 2013.

A link to a tremendous remembrance article about former Bruins player Smith written by Kevin Oklobzija of the Democrat & Chronicle that was published on September 9th, 2013 can be seen HERE

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