Thomas Joseph Smith (September 27, 1886 – August 1, 1966) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

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 ...

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, who played from 1905 until 1920 for 16 teams in his career. He was a member of two

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

-winning teams, the

Ottawa Silver Seven The Ottawa Senators were an ice hockey team based in Ottawa, which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League (NHL) and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934. The c ...

of 1906 and the

Quebec Bulldogs The Quebec Bulldogs (french: Bulldogs de Québec) were a men's senior-level ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The team was officially known as the Quebec Hockey Club (french: Club de hockey de Québec), and later as the Quebec Athletic Club ...

of 1913. His two older brothers Alf and Harry Smith also played professional ice hockey.

Playing career

Smith was born in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Smith, one of seven brothers who would play senior ice hockey. Smith began playing senior hockey as an amateur with the Ottawa Emmetts from 1903 until 1905. He joined the

Ottawa Victorias The Ottawa Victorias were an early Canadian ice hockey team. The club challenged for the Stanley Cup in 1908, losing to the Montreal Wanderers. History The club was founded in 1901 by Jimmie Enright, owner and manager of the Victoria ice rink in ...

of the

Federal Amateur Hockey League The Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL) was a Canadian men's senior-level ice hockey league that played six seasons, from 1904 to 1909. The league was formed initially to provide a league for teams not accepted by the rival Canadian Amateur Hock ...

(FAHL) in 1905-06, and also played for the

champion Ottawa Hockey Club, aka the "Silver Seven" that same year, playing with his older brothers Alf and Harry. He moved to

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

to become a professional with the

Pittsburgh Professionals The Pittsburgh Professional Hockey Club, also referred to as the Pittsburgh Professionals and Pittsburgh Pros, were a professional ice hockey team that participated in the International Professional Hockey League (IPHL) from 1904 until 1907. The te ...

in 1906, playing three seasons with the team before returning to Canada to join the

Brantford Indians The Brantford Indians were a professional ice hockey team from Brantford, Ontario in Canada. The team played for four seasons in the Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL), from 1907 to 1911. Biography The Brantford Indians had their best OPHL ...

of the

Ontario Professional Hockey League The Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL), sometimes referred to as the Trolley League, and also known as the Canadian Hockey League in its time, was a professional ice hockey league in Canada. It was a fully professional league and consisted ...

(OPHL). Smith played two seasons with Brantford, but missed much of the 1909–10 season with

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. In 1910-11 he became a member of the

Galt Professionals The Galt Professionals were a professional ice hockey team from Galt, Ontario in Canada. The team played for three seasons in the Ontario Professional Hockey League, from 1909 to 1911. Galt Professional won the OPHL league title twice, in 1909 an ...

of the OPHL helping Galt win the OPHL championship. Along with most of the Galt team, he bolted to the

Moncton Victorias The Moncton Victorias were a professional ice hockey team from Moncton, New Brunswick in Canada. The team played for two seasons in the Maritime Professional Hockey League (MPHL), in 1911–12 and 1912–13. Biography Moncton Victorias won the 19 ...

the following season, helping Moncton win the Maritime championship. The Galt and Moncton teams Smith was a member of played consecutive Stanley Cup challenges, Galt against Ottawa in 1911 and Moncton against Quebec in 1912, both times unsuccessfully.

Smith joined the

for the 1912–13 season, where he won the Stanley Cup at the end of the season. After the 1913–14 season in Quebec, he was traded (twice) to

Toronto Shamrocks Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. This caused a dispute with the

Pacific Coast Hockey Association The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was a professional ice hockey league in western Canada and the western United States, which operated from 1911 to 1924 when it then merged with the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The PCHA was cons ...

. At that time, the NHA and PCHA had an agreement whereby the PCHA teams could draft one player from three of the six teams of the NHA. He was traded away from Quebec, which was eligible to lose a player. He started play for Shamrocks, though he had been drafted by Victoria of the PCHA. It was found that the initial trade was not allowed, and Quebec re-traded him to Toronto during the season, disregarding the PCHA efforts to get him. During the 1914–15 season, he was traded back to Quebec, avoiding the PCHA draft again. Much like his older brother Harry, Tommy Smith was a mercenary when it came to club loyalty, playing for a number of different teams both in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and in the

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. In December 1914, when he still had not reached terms with the Toronto Ontarios/Shamrocks franchise, he claimed the location where he played was secondary to the financial aspect of the game:

"There is a big margin between us, I'll play here or in Mexico if the money is strong enough. I don't care where I play. This story about my not wanting to play anywhere else but Ottawa is not correct."

While skating for the Ottawa Victorias in 1906, Smith led the FAHL with 12 goals (including eight goals in a game against

Brockville Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically Independent city, independent of the county. It i ...

on February 23, 1906). In future years, he was the leading goal-scorer in the OPHL (1908–09), the MPHA (1910–11) and the NHA (1913–14, 1914–15).

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Champion.

Awards and achievements

* 1906 – Member of Stanley Cup champion Ottawa Silver Seven * 1913 –

Champion with the

* 1973 – Inducted into the

Hockey Hall of Fame , logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg , logo_upright = 0.5 , image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg , caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992 , map_type = , former_name = , established = 1943 , location = 30 Y ...

References

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Tommy 1886 births 1966 deaths Canadian ice hockey centres Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Ottawa Montreal Canadiens (NHA) players Ottawa Senators (original) players Pittsburgh Bankers players Pittsburgh Lyceum (ice hockey) players Pittsburgh Professionals players Quebec Bulldogs (NHA) players Quebec Bulldogs players Stanley Cup champions Toronto Shamrocks players Burials at Notre-Dame Cemetery (Ottawa)