Always nice to feel like the players are buying into the team and taking ownership of their position with these kind of team friendly contracts. As a whole, I feel Dorion has done a great job with the extensions he has been a part of.
I will paste what I wrote in the main board thread instead of just re-writing the same thing.....
He just had an impressive 2 goal night. He's been one of Ottawa's best all around forwards and could crack 20 again this season.
I'm not surprised he was able to negotiate for a NTC considering this is a clear team friendly deal both in term and in money. Beleskey is the most recent comparable, and he only had one 20 goal season before he cashed in on a longer more expensive deal than the one Smith has just signed.
Early in this season, he had a defined role on the third line but when Hoffman got suspended he was put with Brassard and Stone and the line was too good to break up. Last year he earned himself a top 6 spot part way through the year under Dave Cameron and now we are mid way through the year and he has once again earned a spot on one of the top two lines under a different coach, Guy Boucher. Smith-Brassard-Stone has easily been the Senators best line as of late. Whenever they are on the ice, good stuff happens for Ottawa. They've played about 13 or so with that line together and Smith has been absurdly productive. He's scoring at a PPG rate with Stone and Brass, all even strength. He most likely won't keep that up, but the point is, even with some regression, Smith is for real. He's a very strong middle 6 forward who might even be a true second liner. He's brings leadership, he wants to be in Ottawa. At 3.25M, this is a fantastic signing. Glad to see it got done.
