Gary Smith

Gary Edward Smith, born February 4, 1944, is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. He came from a hockey family: his father, Des Smith, and his brother, Brian Smith, were both former National Hockey League players. Over his career, Smith tended goal for numerous clubs, including the Chicago Black Hawks, the Oakland/California Seals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Vancouver Canucks, the Washington Capitals, and the Winnipeg Jets. In the 1971–72 season he shared the Vezina Trophy as a co-winner.

Near the end of his playing days, Smith joined the World Hockey Association for its final season of operation in 1978–79, appearing in eleven games as goaltender for the Indianapolis Racers. He went winless across eleven starts and was off the team by January of 1979. At his wife's urging, he inquired whether the Winnipeg Jets needed help after they had lost a game 10–1; two weeks later the Jets called to ask if he was ready to play, and he agreed. He started ten games and won seven before being named to start the 1979 WHA playoffs, where he won eight of his ten starts as the Jets captured the Avco World Trophy. Smith closed out his career the following year with the Jets, by then in the NHL, and with the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League.