Austin Smith (born November 7, 1988) is an American former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player. He was selected by the Dallas Stars in the 5th round (128th overall) of the

2007 NHL Entry Draft The 2007 NHL Entry Draft was the 45th NHL Entry Draft. It was hosted at Nationwide Arena in the city of Columbus, Ohio, on June 22, 2007. The draft consisted of seven rounds with rounds two through seven taking place on June 23, 2007. The draft ...

Playing career

A graduate of

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologi ...

, Smith played with the

Colgate Raiders The Colgate Raiders are the athletic teams that represent Colgate University. The teams include men and women's basketball, cross country, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, swimming & diving, track and field and tennis. Men's sports include g ...

in the NCAA Men's Division I

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relati ...

conference. In his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

year, Smith's outstanding play was recognized when he was recognized as

's most valuable player and was selected to the 2011–12 ECAC Hockey First Team, as well as a Hobey Baker finalist and First Team All-American.ECAC Hockey Mobile : League Announces Regular-Season Awards
/ref> In March 2012 Dallas Stars signed Austin Smith to a two-year entry-level contract. In this two years Smith split between AHL and

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

affiliates

Texas Stars The Texas Stars are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) based in Cedar Park, Texas, near Austin, with home games at the H-E-B Center. They are owned by the National Hockey League's (NHL) Dallas Stars and are the t ...

and

Idaho Steelheads The Idaho Steelheads are an American professional minor league ice hockey team based in Boise, Idaho, and a member of the ECHL. The Steelheads play in the Mountain Division of the ECHL's Western Conference since the 2016–17 season. In 1996, th ...

. In AHL games he scored 2 goals with 4 assist in 38 games. In the ECHL he was the Steelheads leading scorer with 27 goals and 23 assists in 38 games in

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season. Austin was loaned to the

Liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

(Finlands Top Pro League) by the Dallas Stars in December 2013. After a successful loan period with

Ässät Ässät or Ässä may refer to: * HC Ässät Pori Oy, Finnish sports club ** Porin Ässät (men's ice hockey) ** Porin Ässät (women's ice hockey) ** Porin Ässät (men's football) ** PATA (esports) *, Finnish band from Oulu *S Group, Finnish Con ...

during the latter half of the 2013–14 season, as an impending free agent with the Dallas Stars, Smith opted to remain with Pori in signing a one-year contract for the following season on January 22, 2014. After a dispute with one of the coaches which led to no discussion between the two in October 2014, ECHL team

Allen Americans The Allen Americans are a professional ice hockey team headquartered at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas, which currently plays in the ECHL. The team was founded in 2009 in the Central Hockey League (CHL) where they played ...

signed forward Austin Smith to a contract for the 2014–15 season. In December 2014 Smith returned to Europe and signed a contract with Ravensburg Towerstars in the German second level league DEL2. In the 2015–16 season he shared with 37 goals in 40 games the top spot in the DEL2 goal scoring ranks.

Career statistics

Awards and honors

References

External links

* 1988 births Allen Americans players American men's ice hockey forwards Ässät players Bolzano HC players Colgate Raiders men's ice hockey players Dallas Stars draft picks Idaho Steelheads (ECHL) players HC TWK Innsbruck players Living people Penticton Vees players Texas Stars players AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans {{US-icehockey-player-stub