Doug Smith

Doug Smith was a highly thought of junior player. So highly thought of that the Los Angeles Kings selected Smith 2nd overall in the 1981 Entry Draft. Drafted ahead of American whiz kid Bob Carpenter and future superstar Ron Francis, Smith, who played for the Ottawa 67's, had the unenviable task of being picked 2nd to perhaps the greatest 1st overall pick ever - Dale Hawerchuk.

While Hawerchuk went on to achieve superstar status and Carpenter and Francis enjoyed fine careers as well, Smith struggled and was never able to establish himself as a top offensive player. Although he became a good role player and defensive specialist by the end of his career, he was never able to shake the lofty expectations placed on him.

Part of the problem was Doug wasn't mature enough to handle the pressure at such a young age.

"I look back when I was drafted, at the time I was so young having just turned 18 in May of 1981, my draft year," recalled Smith. "I was cocky and outspoken I had gone from being the best player in junior to just another player in the NHL. Maybe I didn't show the proper respect. I realize now that then I didn't know what the NHL was all about. The NHL is a tight family and it's like you are adopted. I got frustrated and lost confidence. I suffered from it for a long time."

"I look back now at age 34 after 600 career games and a career ending injury and appreciate, and consider it was an honor to play in the NHL."

Smith played in four and a half seasons with the Kings beginning with the 1981-82 campaign. His
rookie year at age 18 saw him appear in 80 games picking up 16 goals ands 30 points. His best season as a King was 84-85 when he totaled 41 points including 21 goals (career highs). Played a total of 304 games as a King scoring 72 goals, 74 assists for 146 points.

Smith was traded to Buffalo, January 30, 1996, with Brian Engblom for Larry Playfair, Sean McKenna and Ken Baumgartner. He played 3 seasons in Buffalo before moving on to stints in Edmonton, Vancouver and Pittsburgh. In total Smith had 115 goals and 138 assists for 253 points in 535 NHL games. He added another 4 goals and 6 points in 18 playoff contests.

Smith was an incredible skater, with explosive speed and tremendous agility..

"I lot of people told me I was going to break my neck while I was playing in the NHL. I always played full out with reckless abandoned always wanted to win. One of my favorite plays was running the defensemen and really getting in on the forecheck and stirring things up."

Ironically Smith did end his career by breaking his neck, but it wasn't in the NHL. While playing Austria, Smith was chasing the puck into the corner with a defender. As Doug cut through the goal crease to chase the defender, he hit a rut in the ice and fell head first into the boards.

"I broke my neck in 200 places shattering two of my vertebrae, C5 and C6, it resulted in being paralysed from the neck down but I'm one of the fortunate few that have had an opportunity to learn how to walk again. I tried skating in 1996 but like a child learning to walk before he can skate I became frustrated after about five minutes and took my skates off."

Jim Fox

Despite being considered too small to play in the National Hockey League, the Los Angeles Kings thought better of Jimmy Fox. They were rewarded for their insight with a productive though largely unnoticed career on Hockey's Californian coast.

Fox stood just 5'8" though was built solidly at 185lbs. Despite his lack of size the Kings drafted the right winger 10th overall in the 1980 Entry Draft following 3 straight 100 plus point seasons in the OHA. In his final year with the Ottawa 67s, he led the entire league with 101 assists and 166 points plus 65 goals in just 52 games! There was no doubt that Fox knew what to do with the puck.

Fox turned pro in 1980-81 and had a respectable rookie season - scoring 18 times and picking up 43 points. Over the following 4 years he became a consistent 30 goal threat and 70 point scorer. He topped out in 1984-85 when he had a career high 53 assists and 83 points.

Following that season injuries and an infusion of younger talent like Jimmy Carson and Luc Robitaille began to slow Fox's production. He dipped to the 50-60 point plateau, and never scored 20 goals in a season again, coming close in 86-87 with 19.

Fox blew out his knee which cost him the entire 1988-89 season, which was unfortunate. That was Wayne Gretzky's first year in La-La-Land, and with Fox's speed he may have been a good match on The Great One's right side.

That knee injury eventually forced Fox to retire for good. He played in 11 games in 1989-90 but had to hang up the blades after that failed comeback attempt.

Fox was a very good skater, blessed with speed and a low center of gravity. That made him hard to knock off the puck despite his size. In fact, his size never really hampered Fox. He was pretty effective in the corners and along the boards despite being half a foot smaller than his opponents. And his great finesse skills made him even more valuable, as once he retrieved the loose puck he was able to do something with it in order to create a scoring chance.

Offensively Fox saw the ice very well, although he probably passed the puck a bit too much for his coaches liking. He was also pretty predictable in that he would cross the blue line and then pull up while his teammates jumped ahead of him into the offensive zone. As for goal scoring, Fox possessed a deadly wrist shot, but most of his goals came from in close.

Defensively Fox was pretty good too. He was very conscious of his defensive duties and used his above average anticipation skills to his advantage. He was used more and more as a defensive forward as his career wound down.

All in all, Jim Fox was a nice player. Its too bad his knee injury cut his career short just as better days were ahead in Los Angeles.