Barry Smith (ice hockey b. 1952)

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Barry Smith, M.Ed (born 1952 in Buffalo, New York) is an American hockey coach. He is currently head coach with the SKA St. Petersburg of the Russian Hockey League.

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[edit] Education

Barry Smith received a degree in physical education in 1972 from Ithaca College where he starred in both hockey and football, being elected to the school's Hall of Fame in 1992.

[edit] Professional career

Smith decided that coaching was where he wanted to be, and became head coach in 1975 at Elmira College while earning his masters degree in education. The Soaring Eagles won three Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference titles and twice went to the NCAA Division III Finals.

After success with Elmira, Smith moved to Europe, coaching in Sweden from 1981–84 and Norway from 1984–86, serving as an assistant on the Norwegian club in the World Championships. He also scouted European prospects for the Buffalo Sabres.

In March of 1986, he returned to America and moved to Buffalo as Scotty Bowman's assistant. After Bowman's departure, Smith decided to remain in Buffalo until 1989, when he then journeyed to Italy for a single season to coach both the Alleghe team and the Italian National Team.

Smith accepted an offer from the Pittsburgh Penguins to serve as assistant for the 1990–91 season under Bob Johnson and was an aide to Johnson on Team USA in the 1991 Canada Cup. He won his first two Stanley Cup championships with the Penguins in 1991 and 1992.

Smith was rejoined with Scotty Bowman when he accepted a position with the Detroit Red Wings on July 28, 1993. He would serve Detroit for 11 seasons (with small breaks for international play) under coaches Scotty Bowman and Dave Lewis, primarily working with the team's forwards. He won three more Stanley Cup championships in 1997, 1998, and 2002.

Smith joined the Phoenix Coyotes coaching staff as an associate coach on August 8, 2005 at the request of head coach Wayne Gretzky.

[edit] International opportunities

In the summer of 1996, Smith was selected to serve as an assistant coach for Team Sweden in the inaugural World Cup of Hockey. Later that season, Smith would take a temporary leave from the Red Wings to assume the head coaching duties with the Malmö Redhawks of the Swedish Elite League, and return in time for Detroit's successful playoff run in the Spring of 1997.

As another credit to his international reputation, Smith was in turn selected to be an assistant coach for Sweden's national team at the 1998 Olympic Games held in Nagano, Japan.

Smith joined the Phoenix Coyotes coaching staff as an associate coach on August 8, 2005 basically basically took the hand of head coach Wayne Gretzky and led him into the coaching scene.

On April 10, 2007 Smith accepted an offer to become a head coach of SKA Saint Petersburg in Russian Super League.

[edit] Awards & achievements

[edit] External links

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