"The Total Package" and "A Really Nice Guy": Get to Know Reilly Smith

When the Penguins acquired Reilly Smith back in the summer, just a couple weeks after he recorded the Stanley Cup-clinching goal for the Golden Knights during their championship run, it seemed like a bargain at the time. President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas managed to bring in the five-time 20-goal scorer for the price of a third-round draft pick from cap-strapped Vegas.

Now, after seeing what an incredible fit Smith is here in Pittsburgh, finding chemistry on a line with Evgeni Malkin and bringing so much to their team game with his hockey IQ on both sides of the puck, it’s an absolute steal.

“As a player, I think he’s a really smart player,” said their other linemate Rickard Rakell. “Got great skill, so he’s a great passer, great awareness, and he’s showed off his great shot. So, I think he’s the total package.”

As a person, Bryan Rust called Smith a “really nice guy,” saying that he isn’t overly loud and kind of just goes about his business… adding with a grin that there are some other bigger personalities in their locker room, namely Smith’s center. “But he’s laughing, joking, having a good time with everybody,” Rust said.

Get to know more about the 32-year-old forward, nicknamed Smitty.

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Reilly grew up in the Toronto area, and is the youngest of three boys, with his two older brothers also going on to play professional sports. Because of that, his story is similar to Jake Guentzel’s, in that trying to keep up with them honed his competitive spirit along with his hockey IQ.

“There were a lot of chipped teeth and nosebleeds,” Reilly said. “We played a lot of mini sticks in our basement. You grow up with two older brothers, everything becomes pretty rough and rowdy.

“I know my mom would always tell the story that we'd have birthday parties where everyone would come over and be playing in the basement, and it seemed like as the day and night went on, every kid came up and was crying or something was wrong, except for us three, because we were so used to it.”

Rory, the oldest, plays professional lacrosse while Brendan, the middle child, also plays in the NHL. He’s skated in over 600 games for the Red Wings – who drafted him in the first round back in 2007 – Rangers, Hurricanes, and now the New Jersey Devils. Using them both as a soundboard, particularly Brendan, has been hugely beneficial for Reilly ever since he started to truly chase his goal of being a professional hockey player.

“I probably talk to Brendan more than anyone else,” Reilly said. “Hockey players, just like everyone else, we have good days and we have bad days. Sometimes, he's the best person to vent to when I'm having a bad day because he's the only one who knows exactly what I'm going through. It’s a great support system.”

Speaking of his support system, Reilly can’t say enough about what his parents Lester and Deidre did to let the boys live out their dreams while holding down careers in education as teachers and principals. While they’re both technically retired now, Reilly thinks that Lester still sometimes goes into the office “just to meet people for coffee and talk about hockey,” he smiled.

Reilly is particularly close with his grandparents on Lester’s side, who are from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The Smith family has their own summer cabin on the island and spent at least a month there every summer while growing up. It’s a place that is so special to Reilly that he took the Stanley Cup there on his day with it, taking adorable family photos with his wife Melissa, their infant daughter Isla (pronounced EYE-LAH), and miniature Goldendoodle Hunter.

The couple got the puppy during their first year in Vegas, and spoiled him a lot, so the last year has been an adjustment for Hunter with the arrival of his baby sister. “He likes his attention, and he was just so used to having it for four years,” Reilly said.

“But the nice thing is he's like 20 pounds, so they're pretty much the exact same size. So, it’s kind of an even fight a lot of the time,” he laughed. “But they're great friends and they play along with each other, and it's nice to have something to keep her occupied for a little bit when we’re tired.”

Reilly's big takeaway since becoming a dad is that his day doesn’t start until around 7 PM, once Isla has gone to sleep. “And by that time, you’re pretty tired, so you just want to sit on the couch and watch shows. That's pretty much my main bonding time with my wife. Seven o’clock to pretty much 8:30, then I go to sleep,” he said.

Melissa has gotten Reilly cakes for his birthday – April 1, 1991 – based on different shows they’ve enjoyed over the years, including Game of Thrones and The Mandalorian. Reilly also likes to golf, but says his game is hurting after not hitting the course as much as he used to. Something he does spend a lot of time on, apart from playing hockey and parenting, is fantasy football. “That’s my one vice,” he joked.

Being from Canada, Reilly didn’t get into the NFL until he got involved with fantasy football for the first time, which he thinks happened in Boston (Smith played two seasons there from 2013-15). “I was probably like 23, 24, but I never cared about football at all before that,” he said.

“Fantasy kind of brought me in. I feel like that's the same for a lot of Canadians,” Smith said. “So, one thing I've tried to do is, over the years, bring my Canadian guys into fantasy football, because then they start watching and it’s the best way to learn.”

He's paired up with goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic in the Penguins’ fantasy football league. Smith describes his own personal GM style as “extremely aggressive.”

“There's a limit on transactions, which is seven – and we’re always at seven. At all times,” Smith said. “Sometimes I'll forget the trades that I throw out there. Guys will be like, ‘Smitty, what is this? This is garbage.’ I’ll be like, ‘you’ll have to tell me what it is, because I forgot.’”

It’s certainly starting to become football weather, with Reilly and Melissa looking forward to experiencing the seasons changing for the first time in years.

“We're definitely excited about the snow, because it was about an hour drive for us to get snow in the winter in Vegas,” Reilly said. “That’s still awesome, but it'll be nice to have some in the backyard – and also have Isla be able to see that as well, and then play with Hunter in the snow.”