Battalion enlists overage defender
BRAMPTON, Ont. The Battalion has signed overage defenceman Rob Smith, formerly with the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen, as a free agent, the Ontario Hockey League club announced Friday.
Smith, a 6’2 1/2, 212-pound right-shot rearguard from Steinbach, Man., was waived through the WHL in the league’s 20-year-old cutdown draft Thursday.
Smith made his WHL debut with the Hitmen in 2001-02, scoring two goals and adding 13 assists for 15 points in 65 games. He recorded four goals and 16 assists for 20 points along with 104 penalty minutes in 69 games with Calgary last year. Smith has not seen action this season.
We’re really happy to be able to get a player like Rob, said Stan Butler, the Battalion’s director of hockey operations and head coach. We think he’ll really help our team.
Smith will be in the lineup when the Troops visit the Sudbury Wolves on Friday night.
He becomes the second westerner to patrol the Battalion blue line, following Kevin Young, who scored 13 goals and added 30 assists for 43 points in 2002-03 after being waived by the Kelowna Rockets.
Smith brings the Battalion’s complement of overagers to the playing limit of three. Born March 11, 1983, he is the oldest member of the team, ahead of fellow overagers Ryan Bowness and Chris Clayton, both right wingers.
