Ty Smith (ice hockey)

Playing career

Ty Smith was the first pick of the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft, going to the Spokane Chiefs. During his debut season there, he took home the team’s Rookie of the Year and Scholastic Player of the Year honors. The next year, he broke the Chiefs’ single-game scoring record for a defenseman and was named the WHL’s Scholastic Player of the Year, plus the club’s Defenceman of the Year. After the Devils picked him 17th overall in the 2018 NHL draft, Smith inked a three-year entry-level deal on August 20, 2018. He went to New Jersey’s training camp but was sent back to Spokane on September 28. On October 24, he and Jaret Anderson-Dolan were named co-captains of the Chiefs. Smith cracked the Devils’ opening-night roster for the 2020–21 season. His NHL debut came on January 14, 2021, against the Boston Bruins, and he scored his first NHL goal in a 3–2 shootout loss. Over his first five games, he notched a point in each, the second-longest such run for a rookie defenseman in league history, trailing only Marek Židlický. After putting up eight points in nine games, Smith landed on the COVID-19 reserve list on February 2 alongside 13 teammates. When the season ended, he earned a spot on the NHL All-Rookie Team. On July 16, 2022, the Devils traded Smith and a 2023 third-round pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins for John Marino. He spent the 2022–23 season shuttling between the Penguins and their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The entire 2023–24 campaign was spent in Wilkes-Barre. On March 7, 2024, Smith was part of a trade to the Carolina Hurricanes, going with Jake Guentzel in exchange for Michael Bunting, Ville Koivunen, prospect Cruz Lucius, Vasili Ponomaryov, and two conditional 2024 draft picks. He stayed with Wilkes-Barre after the move, totaling 43 points in 63 games. The Hurricanes gave him a one-year, two-way contract extension on June 21, 2024. Once that deal expired, Smith became a free agent and left North America, signing a one-year contract with HC Dinamo Minsk of the KHL on July 17, 2025.