Former Rangers defenseman says a lot more details about Wilson incident will come when he retires

Brendan Smith may no longer be a member of the New York Rangers after signing a one-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes this offseason, but the 32-year-old will be forever endeared by his former Rangers teammates after dropping the gloves with Washington Capitals power forward Tom Wilson at the end of last season.

Last May, as you'll recall, Wilson crossed the line twice against a Rangers team bereft of a physical, imposing presence in their lineup when he took liberties on both a downed Pavel Buchnevich and a much smaller Artemiy Panarin, throwing a helmet-less Panarin to the ice, injuring him in the process.

While Panarin was able to avoid the worst of it, the situation did not sit well in the Rangers locker room. It only got worse when the league's Department of Player Safety seemed to take less-than-appropriate action to deal with Wilson, leaving the Rangers to dispense their own justice.

A few nights later, during the rematch, another line-brawl ensued, with Smith - a much smaller man - squaring up with a 6'4 220lb Wilson. Smith handled himself well, given the circumstances, but it wasn't enough to prevent a massive front office overhaul that eventually saw Chris Drury take over as General Manager and Gerard Gallant brought in as the team's new head coach.

The next few months saw a once skill-based Rangers team become considerably more fearsome, with the offseason additions of Ryan Reaves and Barclay Goodrow. Was it a bit of an overreaction? Smith believes it wasn't. Smith says there was a lot going on behind the scenes that warranted the moves - things that he says he cannot yet reveal to the public.

«It was quite an interesting 48 hours or whatever it was,» Smith said. «I was definitely a little nervous. Tom's one of the toughest guys in the league. He's a heavyweight so that's an interesting task for myself as I wouldn't consider myself a heavyweight by any means. You just have to answer the bell.

«To be honest, once my career is over, there'll be more info that will come to fruition about the whole incident,» Smith added. «All I can say at the moment is that I personally wish the league handled it a little bit differently. I think that we had to take care of our superstars 100 percent and then it wouldn't have hit the fan like it did.»

Smith did not want to sell short the response of his Rangers teammates over the Buchnevich and Panarin incidents, but really believed that the league had dropped the ball in their handling of the whole situation, sort of forcing the Rangers' hands there.

«I was so impressed and it gave me chills to see what the players on the Rangers did. It speak volumes, not just for the New York Rangers, but the league itself. I also have to attest for a lot of the Washington players. It should not have been their fight or their battle, but that's why I love the game so much.»

«Like I said, in 15 years when my career is over, there will be more things that will come up,» Smith said on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. «As of right now, we try to keep it a little bit closer to home and I'll say how impressed I was about how everything was handled.»

The Rangers will open their 2021-22 season against - you guessed it - the Washington Capitals in DC on October 13th. Expect fireworks.

Source: Russian Machine Never Breaks

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