The last time Troy Smith was on Vancouver Island, he left with a gold medal.
Back in 2009, Smith was behind the bench as an assistant coach for Canada Ontario at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, which was co-hosted across the Island.
His team beat Canada Pacific 5-1 in the gold medal game at the Alberni Valley Multiplex, capping a tournament that featured future NHL stars and one memorable snowstorm that nearly stranded teams trying to leave the region.
Troy Smith (far right) was the assistant coach for Team Ontario’s 2009 under-17 roster, which was loaded with future NHL talent, including Tyler Seguin, Tyler Toffoli, Jeff Skinner and Erik Gudbranson. (Photo courtesy of Hockey Canada/Website)
Now, nearly two decades later, Smith is back on the Island with a different mission.
The longtime junior hockey coach and former pro is leading Hockey Canada’s new Development Hub pilot in Victoria, a program designed to bring national-level training to young players while testing a model that could eventually expand across the country.
“Our main goal is to develop more Canadian players,” Smith told Victoria News.
“At the end of the day, when you look at the top of the pyramid, it’s about developing players for our national teams. But there’s also a goal of providing world-class training at a grassroots level.”
The program, run in partnership with the Victoria Royals and BC Hockey, will offer on- and off-ice training for players in the U9, U11 and U13 age groups, along with emerging high-performance U15 and U18 athletes.
Sessions will run twice a week from March 31 to May 28 at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, with additional programming planned for the summer.
Each group will be limited to 25 players to keep the instruction focused and hands-on.
Smith brings decades of experience in the game to the role.
As a player, he spent four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1995 to 1999 before moving into professional hockey.
His pro career included a season with the infamous Danbury Trashers, the short-lived United Hockey League franchise that existed for just two seasons in the early 2000s but became one of the sport’s most colourful stories.
Troy Smith played one season with the Danbury Trashers, in 2005-06. He posted six goals and 13 assists for 19 points, with a +26 rating. (Photo courtesy of HockeyIq.ca/TroySmith)
After hanging up the skates, Smith moved behind the bench, building a lengthy coaching resume that includes head coaching stints with both the Kitchener Rangers and the Saginaw Spirit in the OHL.
Smith has also served as a coach with eight different Hockey Canada affiliated teams.
Now, he is tasked with bringing that high performance standard to the grassroots level.
The concept behind the hub is to give young players exposure to a training environment that mirrors the structure of the elite levels of Hockey Canada camps.
“It’s going to look a lot like a World Junior or under-17 camp,” Smith said.
The program will revolve around three main pillars: video instruction, on-ice development and off-ice training.
Each element is designed to build on the other, helping players understand concepts before applying them in real-time situations on the ice.
Much of the on-ice work will focus on play-based training.
“A lot of hockey in Canada has moved toward rigid drills. We want to challenge players to think and react in real situations. Every kid can skate, shoot and stick handle now,” Smith said. “Where we think there’s room to grow is in how they read the game and anticipate what’s happening next.”
To help build that hockey sense, the hub will rely heavily on small-area games and structured scenarios that force players to make quick decisions.
“Hockey’s too fast to give players a road map for every situation,” Smith said. “What we want is players reacting to what they see, not overthinking it.”
If the Victoria pilot proves successful, Hockey Canada hopes the model could eventually expand to other CHL markets across the country.
“In an ideal world, there would be 35 or 40 of these across Canada,” Smith said. “That would give players everywhere access to the same kind of streamlined, world-class training.”
For now, though, Smith’s focus is firmly on Victoria.
“Victoria has my full attention right now. We’re going to learn a lot here.”
The development hub will begin on March 31.
READ MORE: Hockey Canada taps Victoria to pilot new player development hub