OILERS HOF: Smyth follows his hockey hero to Hall of Fame honour

EDMONTON, AB - It's not often you get to follow in the footsteps of your idols, but in the case of Ryan Smyth, he got to do it in his own way.
The newly enshrined member of the Edmonton Oilers Hall of Fame grew up the son of a mechanic in Banff, Alberta. It was from his father he would learn the tireless work ethic that engrained him in the hearts of Oilers fans, despite being born on the cusp of Calgary Flames country.
In spite of the proximity, it was the Blue & Orange that the young Smyth took a shine to, with Edmonton Oilers icon Wayne Grezky to thank for that one.
When Paul Coffey suggested at Wednesday's Hall of Fame press conference that being a fan of our neighbours to the south was even a possibility, Smytty vehemently shook his head from the crowd. The veteran of 971 NHL games with the Oilers admits to this day that if you cut him open, there's a pretty good chance that he'll bleed blue.
Smyth grew up idolizing Gretzky, and it was apparent just by looking at him. The old school leather gloves that came up way past his wrists, the white accents on his skates, and the two-piece stick - Smyth's whole aesthetic was a throwback to the greatest player to ever play the game.
Of course, once the puck dropped, Smyth and Gretzky couldn't be more different.
"I think that's where the comparison stopped," said Coffey, who shared a locker room with both Oilers stars. "No slight to Smytty, but that's where the comparison stopped. Wayne was Ryan's favourite player, but make no mistake, he wasn't Wayne Gretzky. Smytty will tell you the same thing. What Ryan was, is Ryan Smyth. He played an old school game. He could play in today's era. He could play in our era. He was a pleasure to watch because of this competitiveness."

The now 46-year-old can recall back to the first time he officially donned the Oilers colours, not as a fan, but as the sixth-overall-pick in the 1994 NHL draft.
"Yeah, when I got drafted, when I put my draft sweater on, that was the first like 'oh my gosh' (moment) and then putting on the Oil jersey to play a game," Smyth said. "It brings chills to my spine right now as I talk about it. It was very special."
It didn't take long for Smyth to literally rub elbows with his idol at the pro level. At Wednesday's induction ceremony, Smyth recalled the story of his first taste of the National Hockey League.
"My first NHL game was against the LA kings and was against Wayne Gretzky. My first NHL shift was against Wayne Gretzky. I was lining up on left wing and he was at centre and he got kicked out," Smyth said. "Now I line up against him, right against me, and it's just like, wow, is this really true? I'm pinching myself as I'm saying it. It evolved to play the Heritage Classic game with him. He paved away for a lot of players, and I was very fortunate to know him and meet him."

Like Gretzky, Smyth had a long history of suiting up for his country for some of Canada's biggest hockey moments. The Great One has his legacy on arguably one of the best teams of all-time -- donning the iconic Red & White sweater in the 1987 Canada Cup tournament on a roster that had 12 future NHL Hall of Famers on it, all while Gretzky and Mario Lemieux were at the height of their NHL dominance.
Smyth was famously a member of the 2002 Canadian Men's Olympic Hockey Team that broke a 50-year Gold medal drought in Salt Lake, Utah also alongside Lemieux. The Oilers forward would go on to don the 'C' for his country six times over his career, garnering the nickname "Captain Canada."
Smyth's commitment to his team, his country, and his willingness -- bordering on over eagerness -- to drive to the front of the net endeared him into the hearts of Oil Country. His want to sacrifice his body and take a beating to scrape out every one of his 386 NHL goals is one of the main reasons that he, alongside Lee Fogolin, was part of the inaugural induction class of the Edmonton Oilers Hall of Fame.
"It's funny being back among the Oilers and sitting in there in coaches' meetings trying to get the current Oilers and players in the league to get to those dirty areas," Coffey said about Smyth's style of play. "That's where he lived, he lived in those tough areas."

Part of that old-school mentality that Smyth's game thrived on was represented in the equipment he used. Long cuffed leather gloves weren't good for dangling, but they certainly protected those wrists from slashes and hacks while parked in front of opposition goaltenders. His two-piece stick with a wooden blade couldn't snap a quick release wrist shot to beat a goaltender with deception, but it could receive a pass and handle a beating in the crease while Smyth fearlessly jammed away at loose rebounds.
Even as $300+ dollar carbon composite sticks became the new vogue; Smyth could never stray away from worked for him for all 1,270 games of his career.
"No, I tried. I had reps try to pass me one-piece sticks to carbon graphite blades. I just couldn't, the feel was personal preference," Smyth said. "I felt like when that puck came to me with my stick it just would stop with that wooden blade. I wasn't recognized as a shooter, so whatever works for me in front of the net, that's what I stuck with."
Despite his affinity for Wayne Gretzky, Smyth carved his own unique path to Oilers stardom and became a beloved figure in the community. It was a community, that over his long career, he truly engrained himself in and became fixture in. He set the tone for a scrappy team that grinded their way through sheer will to the 2006 Stanley Cup Final - a series he maintains to this day likely ends with a different result if not for the injury to goaltender Dwayne Roloson.

Smyth was a figure to look up to during an up-and-down time for the Edmonton Oilers franchise. He was a blue-collar player in a blue-collar town, doing his best to follow in the footsteps of local legends.
"These were my childhood heroes. I tried to emulate Gretz at the time and that worked on up through my career. Ron Lowe is one of my first coaches and just really inspired, right from day one, how I was as a player and how these guys really connected in the community. I wanted to connect myself and my family in the community and we got involved with the Stollery and a few other charities around the city."
"But to me, I felt like I knew every single fan," he added. "They were very appreciative of the hard work, and I wore my heart on my sleeve and did whatever I could for the organization to win."