By TRACY WATSON
Daily News Sports Reporter
Barry Smith is aware some folks think he would prefer to still be working for the Vancouver Canucks, that he only began chasing the Kamloops Blazers' head-coaching position after being fired May 22 as an assistant coach by the NHL team.
Those folks, he said, are wrong. Dead wrong.
"Even if I was still hired in Vancouver, I would have left to take this job. I really wanted to do this," said Smith, 47, on Thursday after he was introduced as the 14th head coach in franchise history at the Interior Savings Centre's Sports Action Lounge.
"I am thrilled," Smith continued. "This is what I've been looking to do for the last few years. To be able to come here and do it here, this is great for me."
Smith, a native of Stambaugh, Mich., replaces interim head coach Greg Hawgood, who was hired Nov. 8 after GM/head coach Dean Clark was fired by the Blazers' new ownership group.
Smith agreed to a three-year contract with a club option for a fourth year -- a term that general manager Craig Bonner and Blazers majority owner Tom Gaglardi each said spoke volumes of Smith's commitment to Kamloops.
On Thursday, Smith didn't hide the fact that his ultimate goal is to return to the NHL as a head coach. However, that's a giant leap, he said, and it's time for him to take some baby steps.
That means starting in the WHL.
"I don't consider this a step back, but I knew I had to go to a different level to be a head coach," said Smith, who makes his home in Whitefish, Mont., with wife Carolyn and sons Maxl, 14, Gage, 12, and Hutton, 8.
Smith said he couldn't have been happier to win the job in Kamloops, a place for which he already had a feel through two Canucks training camps and then, last summer, as a workshop leader at the Kamloops Minor Hockey Association's coaching symposium -- a role he'll resume at this year's event on July 18-20.
"This is perfect for me. Couldn't be any better," said Smith, his eyes dancing with excitement. "Seriously, when people mention you're coming to Kamloops as your first job, it's like guys talking about going to Montreal to be a head coach."
The rest of the Blazers' coaching staff has yet to be determined.
It may include Hawgood, who has one year left on his contract, but Bonner said it's crucial that Smith have some input on whom he works alongside.
Getting those people in place is next on the agenda -- Smith said he would like to have it done within the week.
It's a far speedier timeline than Bonner took in hiring Smith -- and, although the coach said it was a long, hard wait, Bonner made no apologies for that Thursday.
This is Bonner's first big decision as the Blazers' rookie GM and, as such, he said there was some pressure to get it right. That's why he beat the bushes for candidates, and then vetted each and every one.
And that's why he's certain he found the right man for the job.
"It always seemed to come back to Barry. He kind of was the full package," Bonner said. "He hasn't been a head coach in a long time, but when you talked to the people who called and referred him to us, I know the organization's better today than it was before."
Those people who called? Well, said Bonner, it isn't every day he hears a guy like Anaheim Ducks general manager and former Canucks GM Brian Burke on the other end of the line.
"Brian Burke and Alain Vigneault and Marc Crawford . . .," Bonner said, adding the current and former Canucks head coaches, respectively, to the list. "And then I also talked to (Columbus Blue Jackets head coach) Ken Hitchcock about it. I have a lot of respect for (Vancouver Giants head
coach) Don Hay and I talked to him about it. Not one of them had a bad thing to say."
Bonner is certain Smith will have the Blazers prepared to play, night in and night out. That speaks to his experience, Bonner said.
Smith, a former defenceman, spent his pro playing days in the Atlantic Coast league and British Hockey League before retiring to begin a full-time coaching career in 1992-93 with the ECHL's Erie Panthers. He spent the last of four seasons in Erie as head coach.
Smith also was an assistant coach for three seasons with the ECHL's Baton Rouge Kingfish before joining the Canucks' system on Aug. 23, 1999. He spent one season each as an assistant with three AHL teams -- the Syracruse Crunch, Kansas City Blades and Manitoba Moose -- before joining the Canucks as an assistant coach in 2003-04.
Between his years in Erie and Baton Rouge, Smith spent the 1996-97 campaign as GM/head coach of the USHL's Waterloo, Iowa, Blackhawks, a junior A team. It's the only experience he has had coaching in junior hockey. And, although he'll have the assistance of Bonner, a 12-year WHL coaching veteran, teenagers still are a different breed than that which Smith has become
accustomed in the NHL.
"You know what? They're kids just making two million dollars. They really are," Smith insisted. "I think there's more hands-on in junior -- you have to teach a lot more to the younger players -- and different off-ice issues. But, teaching the game, coaching the game, it's a lot the same. I'm very comfortable with it."
Teaching will be key this season.
Smith inherits a team that finished eighth in the Western Conference with a 27-41-2-2 record. The Blazers won just once in their last 15 regular-season games, and then were swept from the first round of the playoffs by the Tri-City Americans. Kamloops now has lost in the first round in its last eight playoff appearances.
"I like that challenge," Smith responded. "I want to be pushed to be good. I want to have to push players to be good. I am looking forward to that pressure.
"I want to be able to walk down the street and have people say, 'Hey, what's your power play doing?' I want a town that's passionate about it. I've coached in some places, Kansas City and that in the minors, where it's like, 'Oh, we have a hockey team?' That isn't what I want. This is what I want."
Smith said there will be changes with the Blazers, particularly in the club's philosophy.
He intends to ice a team that plays with "smart grit" -- a team that plays much like Blazers part-owners Mark Recchi, Shane Doan, Darryl Sydor and Jarome Iginla, in fact.
"I've coached against them, and if there's four guys you want on your team, you'd say those four guys -- how they play hard in the hard times, how they play in the gritty areas and get greasy and go to the net," Smith said. "I want to play a hard style, where we're working hard. Playing hard in the hard areas.
"I think it's going to change the culture, and when you change the culture and guys buy in, you're going to be successful."
