Brendan Smith Signs 2-Year Deal with Devils | RELEASE

The New Jersey Devils today have signed unrestricted free-agent defenseman Brendan Smith to a two-year contract with an average annual value of $1,100,000. The breakdown is as follows: 2022-23, $1,000,000 and 2023-24, $1,200,000. The announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Tom Fitzgerald.
Smith, 33, completed his 11th NHL season and first with the Carolina Hurricanes. The left-handed shot earned eight points (4g-4a) in 45 regular-season games, inked his third-career game-winning goal and logged a career-high plus/minus rating (+6). Additionally, Smith's 73 hits ranked third on Carolina. The blueliner played in 14 games during the 2021-22 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which tied a career-high set in 2012-13 with Detroit. Smith also netted his first-career shorthanded goal in the playoffs last season and finished with four points (1g-3a), overall.
Drafted 27th overall by the Red Wings in the 2007 NHL Draft, Smith skated in parts of six seasons with Detroit (2011-12 to 2016-17) and posted a career-high 19 points (5g-14a) in 2013-14. In 2016-17, the NY Rangers acquired Smith and he played with New York until the end of the 2020-21 campaign, posting a career-high 73 PIM in his final season. In 571 career regular-season games, the 6'2", 200lbs. blueliner earned 33 goals and 85 assists for 118 points, with 630 PIM. He also played in 56 career Stanley Cup Playoff games, totaling 14 points (3g-11a) and two game-winning goals.

The defenseman also experienced time at the American Hockey League (AHL) level with stints in Grand Rapids, from 2010-11 to 2012-13, and then 11 games with Hartford in 2017-18. Smith totaled 163 regular-season games in the AHL and tallied 88 career points (27g-61a), and chipped in 10 game-winning goals with 271 PIM. He was also named to the AHL's 2011 All-Rookie Team.
Born on Feb. 8, 1989, the Mimico, Ont., native played at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) level with the University of Wisconsin from 2007-08 to 2009-10. In his final season with the Badgers, he was named the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Defensive Player of the Year, a First Team All-Star and was a Hobey Baker Award finalist. Smith inked his most productive NCAA season in 2009-10, after he finished third on the Badgers and led all Wisconsin defensemen with 52 points (15g-37a).
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