The Blue Jackets signed Brendan Smith to a two-way contract, according to a team announcement. Since he was not placed on waivers today, he will be rostered for tonight’s game against the Capitals. He had played the first several weeks of the season on a professional tryout with AHL Cleveland after being released from a camp tryout with Columbus.
While it’s a delayed resolution, Smith finally gets the NHL contract he’d hoped for ever since signing his PTO with the Jackets back in August. It was the first time in 14 NHL seasons that Smith had needed to settle for a tryout. Because he was already playing in the Jackets’ system, today’s news essentially amounts to a call-up. The past few weeks in Cleveland marked his first minor-league action since being waived by the Rangers in February 2018. In 11 games for the Monsters, the depth defenseman recorded one assist with eight penalty minutes.
Smith was never known for his offense at the NHL level, but he was nearly a point-per-game player in college and had good scoring lines in the AHL in the early stages of his career with the Red Wings organization. That makes his lack of production in Cleveland underwhelming, particularly with his -5 rating being tied for the second-worst on the team.
Nonetheless, the 36-year-old is getting another shot on an NHL roster. Columbus has been down a veteran option for most of the season, with Erik Gudbranson missing all but four games with upper-body and hip injuries. Dysin Mayo has been rostered as a seventh defenseman for a good chunk of the campaign as a result, but they’ve shown an extreme reluctance to play the righty. He’s only appeared once despite being rostered for 13 games.
The Blue Jackets presumably desired a more experienced option for the press box and to challenge the struggling Jake Christiansen for third-pairing minutes, and they’ll get that in Smith. A first-round pick by Detroit back in 2007, he’s gone on to appear in 726 NHL games with 39 goals, 105 assists, and 144 points with a -15 rating. If he gets into a game for the Blue Jackets, they’ll be his sixth NHL team and his third in the past three years following recent stints with the Devils and Stars.