During the 2018 New York Rangers preseason there were a lot of players and training camp battles worth watching closely. One of those must-watch players was veteran defenseman Brendan Smith, who is now entering the second year of his four-year, $17.4 million contract.
There has been a lot written and said about Smith’s disastrous 2017-18 season and how big this year’s training camp and preseason were for him. Rather than re-hashing what has already been said by myself and others, I’ll just drop a few links to some relevant pieces below.
Before training camp began, Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton made it clear that Smith was coming into the year with a clean slate, “We’re going to give Brendan [Smith] an opportunity to get back on our team and help us.