Rockets’ Smith bringing heart and heroics to final WHL season

Kelowna, B.C.- When 16-year-old Shane Smith was getting his first reps in the WHL with the Medicine Hat Tigers, he didn’t just have championship aspirations.

He also wanted to make a difference.

“Coming into a bigger community, kind of looking up to Western Hockey League players when I was growing up, knowing the impact that they had on me and that I could have on the same kids… It’s really huge for me, and kind of something that’s always been with me since day one,” Smith said.

Indeed, some of Smith’s most impressive stats have come off the ice.

In 2023-24, his sophomore season, the Cessford, Alta. product led the Tigers with more than 200 volunteer hours.

Smith was known for his regular school visits in the Medicine Hat area to speak to students about leadership, goal-setting and mental health- and to grab a stick for some floor hockey games.

He also helped coach Medicine Hat Minor Hockey players in U19 to U15 age groups while taking part in events like Skate with the Tigers, Canadian Armed Forces Family Skates at CFB Suffield and Tigers Adaptive Floor Hockey Games with the Special Olympics Medicine Hat team ahead of the annual Joey Moss Tournament.

To the surprise of no one, he was named a finalist for the Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy, which is awarded annually to the WHL’s Humanitarian of the Year.

Smith’s giving spirit has been a common denominator throughout his time in the league- but a 2024-25 trade to the Lethbridge Hurricanes, combined with some difficult family news, saw him bring a personal cause to the forefront.

His niece, Maia, was diagnosed with congenital Cytomegalovirus (CMV) at birth.

The virus impacts roughly one in 200 Canadian newborns and is the most common non-genetic cause of birth defects and hearing loss in infants, according to the Canadian CMV Foundation.

“She’s fortunate to be asymptomatic, which is amazing, but obviously that can change any time,” Smith explained. “She goes through two tests a year. Her specific case, they test her hearing twice a year to make sure everything’s good. When she was diagnosed, right away it was a big shock for us, because us and my sister and brother-in-law, specifically, because we didn’t really know what that was.”

While playing for the Hurricanes, Smith launched the ‘Shane Scores for Maia’ campaign, which saw the teen donate $25 for every point he scored to the Canadian CMV Foundation, while creating a platform to spread awareness of the condition.

Since then, Smith has raised nearly $3,000 for the organization (the Hurricanes matched his donation after a 30-point run in 2024-25) in the name of now three-year-old Maia.

“It’s a bit of a smaller foundation, so obviously donating the money is great too, but the biggest part is the recognition to that foundation to make sure that you know people are aware of what can be a serious disease,” Smith added. “(I’m going to) continue to do what I can, and what we can do as a family to raise awareness throughout, not just Saskatchewan, where she’s living, but the whole country.”

He’s carried the initiative on in Kelowna, where the Rockets had keyed in on him as a strong playmaker and veteran presence ahead of hosting the 2026 Memorial Cup.

“He’s got a tremendous heart,” Rockets Head Coach Derrick Martin said. “He cares about people. His emotional intelligence is off the charts. He knows the impact he has on a room and on the relationships that he carries, and we’re just… It’s hard to fabricate all the right words to say about him, but he means so much to us as a hockey team. He means so much to me as a coach.”

Of his four full seasons in the WHL, the Cessford, Alta. product has been named a finalist for the Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy three times, ultimately clinching the award in 2025-26.

While he’s still chasing the CHL’s top prize, Smith says the recognition is one of his proudest achievements.

“Probably the highlight in my career so far,” Smith said. ” It’s a great honor to, you know, have that something I wanted to do when I came into the league. Opportunities were pushed towards me, and obviously took advantage of what I could in all three places I played, so just thankful for the opportunity I had in all three places, and continuing to strive to support the community and kind of be that role model around the community and around the league.”

But don’t mistake his giving nature for weakness.

Smith will be a key player for the Rockets as they prepare to battle the Everett Silvertips- the very team that knocked them out of the 2026 WHL Playoffs- with their season on the line.

“We had some really tough days here, and he was a guy that never quit,” Martin added. “I go back to the Everett series, and we go down t3-0. He’s a guy that sent me a text and goes, ‘I’ll never quit, I promise I’ll give you my best game. And he never needed to send a text like that. We knew what we were getting with him, but he’s just a player that’s all in all the time.”

Kelowna would fall in five games to the eventual WHL Champions- but Smith followed up that text by scoring the game-tying goal with eight seconds left in regulation to set up the Rockets’ Game 4 win, and another late game-tying goal in Game 5.

He’ll look for more of that magic in the rematch between the Rockets and Silvertips on Wednesday, May 27, at 6:00 p.m. PT- with his immediate family in the building and Maia watching on from Saskatchewan.