Brendan Smith: a man without a role

When Brendan Smith was 15 he regularly played wing for the Toronto Marlboros, a minor midget team in the Greater Toronto Hockey League. He skated on a stacked line with John Tavares and Sam Gagner, and won a championship. Smith moved to a more permanent role on the blue line over the next two years with the St. Michael’s Buzzers before beginning his collegiate career on the blue line of the University of Wisconsin.

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Smith — who signed a four-year, $17.4 million contract on June 28, 2017 to be a mainstay in the Rangers’ top four on the blue line — was spending a lot of time at wing before Libor Hajek left the Rangers lineup with an injury. Needless to say,…