The last hockey card featuring Craig Smith is probably one that shows him wearing a Dallas Stars jersey.  

It's #544 from Upper Deck's 2023/24 Extended Series.  The card – along with the rest of the subset – was released during the postseason in late June of 2024, so there was time to snap a photo of Smith wearing a Dallas jersey during the only winter he skated for the Stars.  The back side credits him with 12 NHL seasons, 853 games, 200 goals, 214 assists, 414 points, +95, 328 penalty minutes, and 46 power play goals.
 
Those numbers fall somewhat short of Smith's eventual totals.  By the time he stepped off the ice for the final time with the Detroit Red Wings last spring, Smith's career covered 14 seasons and included additional stops with Chicago, as well as Detroit.  He tacked on another 134 appearances and 38 points (20 goals, 18 assists).

Smith was ready to keep adding to those stats when free agency opened six-and-a-half months ago.

"Going through the course of the summer, I was still training as if I was going to be playing this year," says the former Waterloo Black Hawk captain, whose contract with the Wings had run out, leaving him available to sign with any team. "I knew [free agency] was going to be the opportunity to jump on something if it arose, but you know, it didn't.

"It just didn't. We had some interest, and we just couldn't land a deal."

Ultimately, the best offers were training camp try-outs with no guarantee Smith would have a job when final cuts were made.  Smith had moved four times during the prior three NHL campaigns, and he wanted more certainty for himself, his wife, and his young son.

So the forward waited to see what would happen next.  Would a team need an experienced skater who had played both center and right wing?  Would one of his former clubs or general managers or coaches realize that they had a Craig Smith-sized hole in their lineup?  Would a 14-year NHL resume stand up to somehow beget a 15th season?

Smith's agent is Kevin Magnuson, the same advisor he had worked with since playing for the Black Hawks almost two decades ago.

"We talked probably every other day or so throughout the course of the summer," Smith says.  When the right opportunity wasn't forthcoming, Magnuson gave Smith time and room to think about his options.  Then, "we got together here in November. He was able to come down and stay at my place and have a little celebration to highlight the past almost-20-years together and what we've been able to accomplish."

A few weeks later, Smith officially filed his retirement papers with the NHL Players Association in early December.

"I think the decision and getting your mind in a place where you're like, 'okay, I'm happy with it, and this is the direction I'm going to go,' that is the hardest for everybody, because not everybody gets to walk away when they feel like they're ready to or maybe they want to," say Smith, adding, "I feel fortunate enough to be in a spot where I'm good.  I feel happy with what I've done, and I'm grateful that it even happened in the first place.

"My body's in a good spot. I luckily avoided any surgeries during my career. I felt like I was healthy going out and – in a way – I felt like that was my own way of walking away from things."

When Smith was five years old, he had written down 'hockey player' as his career goal.  It was still a possibility when he came to Waterloo in 2006. During Black Hawks tryouts, Smith skated as a 16-year-old and convinced the coaching staff he was ready for the United States Hockey League.  He also drew the attention of a rising star who would prove to be an excellent role model: Joe Pavelski.

"Joe had come back [to Waterloo] in the summer and he was skating right before he was going to camp," remembers Smith. "He left a signed picture in my stall, and I thought that was the coolest thing, being from Wisconsin and watching him play at Wisconsin…and it sparked a little motivation in me, seeing a guy like that being able to do what he accomplished and making it seem like it's attainable."

Turning 17 a few weeks before his first USHL game, Smith had a steady year as the youngest member of the Anderson Cup-winning 2006/07 Black Hawks.  The next year, his points-per-game slipped fractionally and his plus/minus differential flipped from +6 to -3.  But Smith's third season was exceptional.  In 2008/09, he had 76 points, more than Pavelski recorded during either of his seasons in Waterloo.  Smith ended the year tied for second in USHL scoring and vaulted into the fourth round of the NHL Draft, where he was picked by the Nashville Predators.

Like Pavelski, Smith played two years with the Wisconsin Badgers, then signed a pro contract.  Unlike Pavelski - who's first professional games were in the American Hockey League before he was called up to San Jose - Smith made Nashville's season-opening roster as a rookie in the fall of 2011.  On opening night, he scored the go-ahead goal which sent the Predators on the way to a 3-2 road win against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Except for four AHL appearances the next season and a brief stint in Europe during a leaguewide labor dispute, Smith was an NHLer for the remainder of his pro career.  That said, the abbreviated stay with KalPa in Finland did provide at least one indelible memory.

"I'd just got off the plane after a 14- or 15-hour trip for me to get over there in the first place," Smith remembers. "They take me right to a car dealership, and I've got to drive stick for the first time in a city I've never been in. I pulled out of the dealership, and I was on a hill, so I had to figure that out. I think I missed two lights, and everybody was honking.  The team logo was stickered all over my car, so everybody knew who I was."

No doubt, it was a relief to get back to Nashville when the lockout was over.  Smith spent nine years there, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2017.  He signed with Boston during the COVID-affected 2020 offseason.  Late in his third year with the Bruins – the final year of his contract – he was traded to the Washington Capitals.  His time with Dallas, Chicago, and Detroit followed during the succeeding years.

Arguably Smith's best NHL season was the year after Nashville played for the Cup.  He scored a career-high 25 goals, and his points (51) and plus/minus (+20) were just off the best marks he would ever post.  Yet even in subsequent seasons when he was no longer on the power play nor skating on a starring line, Smith found ways to contribute.

"You got to find ways to make yourself better, and it's not easy at times in the summer," reflects Smith.  "Those are the times that I enjoyed the most, working hard to get better, whether you're on the skating treadmill or in the gym.

"When I was young, I was around the right people who were doing the right things at the right time and taking care of themselves…You got to learn to love it, because it's the avenue to play a long career and to stay healthy, to give yourself the best chance even to get your foot in the door, if you're lucky to get there."

Smith says he doesn't have regrets about his career or how it ended, which was the main thing he realized this fall.

"I played in the Stanley Cup Finals. I played overseas for Team USA. You know, I just felt like I checked all the boxes off and felt like I had exhausted everything that I had to give to hockey up until that point."

Smith moved his family back to Nashville.  He watched college football throughout the autumn, something he had missed while he was a pro athlete.  Aside from getting together with some former teammates when they were in town to play against the Predators, he mostly stayed away from the rink.  As December passed, it didn't bother him to be home.

"I just was extremely happy that we're at a point where I could be around my boy a lot more and enjoy the holidays," Smith says about his current fulltime role as a father.  "I just feel thrilled to have the time to spend with my boy…For the last 15 years, you know, I'd be leaving to go to another city right now to get ready to play tomorrow. So it's nice to be able to just stay and not have that in your thoughts."

Smith does have one project he wants to work on.

"I had this idea the other day. I wanted to buy some [hockey] cards of some of the guys I played with and against and put together this book of cards – like every kid probably has with the slots that you put all the cards in – and be able to go through it with him someday. I want to be able to tell a story about each guy that I played against, or especially the guys that have become really good friends. 

"If he's interested and someday he's asking questions and stuff, I'm thrilled to talk about the guys that I played with. I played with some great people."

Hopefully that book will include Upper Deck #544, even if the stats on the back don't tell the whole story.

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