Smith played his junior hockey with the
Toronto St. Michael's Majors,
Toronto Neil McNeil Maroons and the
Toronto Marlboros. He won a
Memorial Cup with the Toronto Marlboros in
1964. Smith made his NHL debut with the
Toronto Maple Leafs in the
1965-66 NHL season, and was one of five goalies who played for the Maple Leafs during
1966–67, their most recent Stanley Cup season. In his first season with Toronto, Smith left his crease in a game against the
Montreal Canadiens in an attempt to be the
first NHL goalie to score a goal. He reached the Canadiens' blueline before
J. C. Tremblay issued a heavy bodycheck. The NHL subsequently introduced a rule prohibiting the goaltender from being involved in play after crossing the center red line. On occasion, Smith continued to attempt to score from within his side of the red line. He was eventually given the nickname "Suitcase" Smith by
Toronto Star journalist
Red Burnett due to the large number of teams for which he played; Smith disliked the nickname, stating that his friends called him "Axe". After playing with the dismal
California Golden Seals from
1967–68 to
1970–71, with whom he set records in 1970–71 for both the most games played in a single season and most losses in a single season, his first success was sharing the
1971–72 Vezina Trophy with
Tony Esposito while with the
Chicago Black Hawks. One year later, Smith and Esposito helped lead the Black Hawks to the Stanley Cup Finals, which they lost to the
Montreal Canadiens in six games. In
1974–75, he had a fine season with the
Vancouver Canucks, with 72 games played and six shutouts. Smith finished fifth place in balloting for the 1975
Hart Memorial Trophy, awarded to the player judged most valuable to his team. The ultimate winner,
Bobby Clarke, said in his acceptance speech that Smith was more deserving of the award. The following season, after giving up five goals to the
Pittsburgh Penguins, Smith was pulled from the game but rather than stay on the bench he left the
Pacific Coliseum and drove home still wearing his equipment. later reduced to five games, and later said "It's tough driving in your skates." He played in ten games later in the 1978-79 season and won seven of them leading up to the
1979 WHA playoffs. In ten starts as goaltender, Smith won eight of them as a key part of the
Winnipeg Jets' 1979
Avco World Trophy championship run against the
Edmonton Oilers, who were led by Gretzky. Coincidentally, when Gretzky attended his first NHL game at Maple Leaf Gardens, Smith played for the California Golden Seals against the Maple Leafs. While Smith did not have the best relationship with McVie in Washington, the coach did defend him in the press in 1979; Oilers coach
Glen Sather raged that Smith "had his stick in front of our guys' faces", accusing the referees of letting him get away from it, while McVie called him "an old time goalie who likes to establish his domain." Smith gave up the last goal in WHA history to
Dave Semenko. Smith was noted for his ritual of removing his entire uniform and goaltending gear between periods and putting it all back on again. He claimed his skate boots would stretch in size, forcing him to wear as many as 13 pairs of socks at times. He performed his undressing routine throughout his career as an active player, even after resolving his skate boot issues. Smith was also known for punting the puck down the ice, allegedly in at attempt to hit the scoreclock. ==Personal life==