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| Doug Smail | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1957-09-02)September 2, 1957 (age 67) Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada | ||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) | ||
| Weight | 175 lb (79 kg; 12 st 7 lb) | ||
| Position | Left wing | ||
| Shot | Left | ||
| Played for | Winnipeg Jets Minnesota North Stars Quebec Nordiques Ottawa Senators Fife Flyers Cardiff Devils | ||
| Playing career | 1980–1996 | ||
Douglas Dean Smail (born 2 September 1957) is a Canadian formerprofessionalice hockey left winger who played in theNational Hockey League (NHL) for 13 seasons from1980 through1993.
Smail starred at theUniversity of North Dakota for three seasons from 1977 to 1980, scoring 87 points in 40 games in his final season in theWCHA. His performance was enough to warrant notice from theWinnipeg Jets, and the next season he was a full-time NHL player.
Smail played eleven seasons with Winnipeg, being a top two-way player for them, as he had twelve consecutive seasons in which he scored at least one shorthanded goal, with a total of 28 shorthanded goals in his career.
Perhaps Smail's greatest claim to fame was when he tied the NHL record for fastest goal after the opening faceoff by scoring a goal five seconds after the game started on 20 December 1981.[1] Smail finished his career with theMinnesota North Stars,Quebec Nordiques andOttawa Senators, but never achieved the success he had in Winnipeg.
After Smail's NHL career was over, he played three seasons inBritain for theFife Flyers andCardiff Devils before retiring. He was the first player ever to sign for a British team directly from an NHL team when he signed with Fife from the Senators.
Smail was one of fiveplaintiffs along withDave Forbes,Rick Middleton,Brad Park andUlf Nilsson inForbes v. Eagleson, aclass actionlawsuit filed in 1995 on behalf of about 1,000 NHL players who were employed by NHL teams between 1972 and 1991 againstAlan Eagleson, the league and its member clubs. The players alleged that the NHL and its teams violated theRacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by colluding with Eagleson to enable him toembezzle from theNational Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) and that the four-yearstatute of limitations in civilracketeering cases began when Eagleson wasindicted in 1994. The lawsuit was dismissed on August 27, 1998 inUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania byThomas Newman O'Neill Jr. who ruled that the statute of limitations expired because it had begun in 1991 when the players were made aware of the allegations against Eagleson. O'Neill's decision was upheld in theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on October 17, 2000.[2][3]
He now resides in Colorado with his wife and three children. Smail was the assistant coach of the U-16 Team Rocky Mountain AAA Hockey program, where he coached alongside former NHL playerRick Berry, and is now the head coach of the Rocky Mountain Roughriders U-18 AAA squad.
| Award | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| All-WCHASecond team | 1979–80 | [4] |
| All-NCAAAll-Tournament Team | 1980 | [5] |
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
| 1977–78 | North Dakota Fighting Sioux | WCHA | 38 | 22 | 28 | 50 | 52 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1978–79 | North Dakota Fighting Sioux | WCHA | 35 | 24 | 34 | 58 | 46 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1979–80 | North Dakota Fighting Sioux | WCHA | 40 | 43 | 44 | 87 | 70 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1980–81 | Winnipeg Jets | NHL | 30 | 10 | 8 | 18 | 45 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1981–82 | Winnipeg Jets | NHL | 72 | 17 | 18 | 35 | 55 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1982–83 | Winnipeg Jets | NHL | 80 | 15 | 29 | 44 | 32 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||
| 1983–84 | Winnipeg Jets | NHL | 66 | 20 | 17 | 37 | 62 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 1984–85 | Winnipeg Jets | NHL | 80 | 31 | 35 | 66 | 45 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | ||
| 1985–86 | Winnipeg Jets | NHL | 73 | 16 | 26 | 42 | 32 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 1986–87 | Winnipeg Jets | NHL | 78 | 25 | 18 | 36 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 10 | |||
| 1987–88 | Winnipeg Jets | NHL | 71 | 15 | 16 | 31 | 34 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 22 | ||
| 1988–89 | Winnipeg Jets | NHL | 47 | 14 | 15 | 29 | 52 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1989–90 | Winnipeg Jets | NHL | 79 | 25 | 24 | 49 | 63 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 1990–91 | Winnipeg Jets | NHL | 15 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1990–91 | Minnesota North Stars | NHL | 57 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 1991–92 | Quebec Nordiques | NHL | 46 | 10 | 18 | 28 | 47 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1992–93 | Ottawa Senators | NHL | 51 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 51 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1992–93 | San Diego Gulls | IHL | 9 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 20 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 20 | ||
| 1993–94 | Fife Flyers | BHL | 53 | 74 | 65 | 139 | 114 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1994–95 | Cardiff Devils | BHL | 3 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1994–95 | Fife Flyers | BHL | 15 | 20 | 9 | 29 | 26 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 12 | ||
| 1995–96 | Cardiff Devils | BHL | 16 | 12 | 14 | 26 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 10 | ||
| NHL totals | 845 | 210 | 249 | 459 | 602 | 42 | 9 | 2 | 11 | 49 | ||||
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player 1980 | Succeeded by |