Doug Smail

Douglas Dean Smail (born 2 September 1957) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 13 seasons from 1980 through 1993.

Playing career Smail starred at the University of North Dakota for three seasons from 1977 to 1980, scoring 87 points in 40 games in his final season in the WCHA. His performance was enough to warrant notice from the Winnipeg Jets, and the next season he was a full-time NHL player.

Smail played eleven seasons with Winnipeg, being a top two-way player for them, as he had twelve consecutive seasons in which he scored at least one shorthanded goal, with a total of 28 shorthanded goals in his career.

Perhaps Smail's greatest claim to fame was when he tied the NHL record for fastest goal after the opening faceoff by scoring a goal five seconds after the game started on 20 December 1981. Smail finished his career with the Minnesota North Stars, Quebec Nordiques and Ottawa Senators, but never achieved the success he had in Winnipeg.

After Smail's NHL career was over, he played three seasons in Britain for the Fife Flyers and Cardiff Devils before retiring. He was the first player ever to sign for a British team directly from an NHL team when he signed with Fife from the Senators.

Post-playing career Smail was one of five plaintiffs along with Dave Forbes, Rick Middleton, Brad Park and Ulf Nilsson in Forbes v. Eagleson, a class action lawsuit filed in 1995 on behalf of about 1,000 NHL players who were employed by NHL teams between 1972 and 1991 against Alan Eagleson, the league and its member clubs. The players alleged that the NHL and its teams violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by colluding with Eagleson to enable him to embezzle from the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) and that the four-year statute of limitations in civil racketeering cases began when Eagleson was indicted in 1994. The lawsuit was dismissed on August 27, 1998 in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by Thomas Newman O'Neill Jr. who ruled that the statute of limitations expired because it had begun in 1991 when the players were made aware of the allegations against Eagleson. O'Neill's decision was upheld in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on October 17, 2000.

He now resides in Colorado with his wife and four children. Smail was the assistant coach of the U-16 Team Rocky Mountain AAA Hockey program, where he coached alongside former NHL player Rick Berry, and is now the head coach of the Rocky Mountain Roughriders U-18 AAA squad.

Personal life Smail is a Christian, having been so since his playing days. His relationship with his faith helped inspire teammate Jim Nill to become a Christian.

Awards and honors Award Year All-WCHA Second team 1979–80 All-NCAA All-Tournament Team 1980

Named to the NCAA Championship Tournament MVP (1980) Played in NHL All-Star Game (1990) British Ice Hockey Writers Association Player of the Year (1994)

Records Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes franchise record for career shorthanded goals (25) Fastest goal to start an NHL hockey game (5 seconds) - shared with Merlyn Phillips, Bryan Trottier and Alexander Mogilny

Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular seasonPlayoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 1977–78 North Dakota Fighting Sioux WCHA 38 22 28 50 52 — — — — — 1978–79 North Dakota Fighting Sioux WCHA 35 24 34 58 46 — — — — — 1979–80 North Dakota Fighting Sioux WCHA 40 43 44 87 70 — — — — — 1980–81 Winnipeg Jets NHL 30 10 8 18 45 — — — — — 1981–82 Winnipeg Jets NHL 72 17 18 35 55 4 0 0 0 0 1982–83 Winnipeg Jets NHL 80 15 29 44 32 3 0 0 0 6 1983–84 Winnipeg Jets NHL 66 20 17 37 62 3 0 1 1 7 1984–85 Winnipeg Jets NHL 80 31 35 66 45 8 2 1 3 4 1985–86 Winnipeg Jets NHL 73 16 26 42 32 3 1 0 1 0 1986–87 Winnipeg Jets NHL 78 25 18 36 10 4 0 4 10 1987–88 Winnipeg Jets NHL 71 15 16 31 34 5 1 0 1 22 1988–89 Winnipeg Jets NHL 47 14 15 29 52 — — — — — 1989–90 Winnipeg Jets NHL 79 25 24 49 63 5 1 0 1 0 1990–91 Winnipeg Jets NHL 15 1 2 3 10 — — — — — 1990–91 Minnesota North Stars NHL 57 7 13 20 38 0 0 0 0 1991–92 Quebec Nordiques NHL 46 10 18 28 47 — — — — — 1992–93 Ottawa Senators NHL 51 4 10 14 51 — — — — — 1992–93 San Diego Gulls IHL 9 2 1 3 20 9 3 2 5 20 1993–94 Fife Flyers BHL 53 74 65 139 114 — — — — — 1994–95 Cardiff Devils BHL 3 2 5 7 2 — — — — — 1994–95 Fife Flyers BHL 15 20 9 29 26 6 5 9 14 12 1995–96 Cardiff Devils BHL 16 12 14 26 14 6 3 5 8 10 NHL totals 845 210 249 459 602 42 9 2 11 49