Newly acquired Smith hopes to provide reliability to Canes

By Lethbridge Herald on October 8, 2024.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Hurricanes Shane Smith helps out his new team by volunteering at the Lethbridge Soup Kitchen on Tuesday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald
Newly acquired forward Shane Smith looks to bring reliability the Lethbridge Hurricanes line-up after coming over in a weekend trade from the Medicine Hat Tigers that sent 20-year-old goalie Harrison Meneghin the other way.

“I think a player who can be relied on in any situation, whether that’s special teams, penalty kill, even strength, whatever that may be,” said Smith.

“Someone who can be reliable and a great leader on and off the ice.”

Smith contributes at both ends of the ice.

“I take a lot of pride in my d-zone for sure,” said Smith.

“You know, obviously not always worrying about  offence, but that being said, like still having that scoring touch and being able to create offence.”

Smith agreed having a week of practice before his first game in Canes colours was a good way to fit in with his new teammates.

“I think 100 per cent,” said Smith.

“You can get the systems kind of down; you can learn the chemistry from your players and get that chance to practice fully with them to get to know them I guess quite a bit more.”

Smith will play his former team for the first time on Nov. 6.

“It’ll be different definitely the first time even stepping out for warm-ups,” said Smith.

“You never kind of  imagine you’d ever be traded to the other side of a rivalry but this is my team now. So it’ll be blast. I think it’ll be fun to definitely play against those guys.”

Smith had a busy 24 hours after the trade.

“Yeah, coming in this morning (on Monday), meeting the guys, the coaching staff, the equipment staff, all you guys (media), it’s been pretty heartwarming,” said Smith.

“You look at it from a rivals standpoint (and) always being on the other side of it, you never really see, in depth, this much to the organization. But no definitely pretty excited and definitely  ready to get started this weekend.”

Canes GM Peter Anholt sees Smith as an offensive player.

“I think he’s proven that,” said Anholt.

“We like that he can brings some offence to our group but he can kill penalties, he can play on the powerplay. As I said ,he can play left wing, centre, right wing, so there’s a lot of moving around that the coaches can do with him.”

Anholt sees Smith being a part of the leadership group going forward into this season and next.

The 19-year-old forward had a career year last season where he collected a career-high 51 points in 64 games and was named a finalist for the WHL’s Humanitarian of the Year  award last season.