After failing to land a new NHL contract, unrestricted free agent Derek Smith is off to Switzerland.
The 200-pound defenceman from Belleville, Ont., has inked a one-year contract with the ZSC Lions, also the club team of fellow Canadian and former NHLer Guillaume Latendresse.
The 29-year-old Smith played 94 career NHL games with the Ottawa Senators and the Calgary Flames, putting up 14 points (two goals, 12 assists) as he saw sporadic action from 2009-10 through 2013-14. Smith’s two-year, one-way contract with the Flames organization expired on July 1.
He spent a majority of his professional career in the American Hockey League, scoring 168 points (41 goals, 127 assists) in 311 games for the Binghamton Senators and the Abbotsford Heat. As a member of the AHL Senators, Smith won the Calder Cup in 2011.
Smith’s NHL run peaked in 2011-12, when he played a career-high 47 games and scored a career-best 11 points for the Flames.
The Zurich-based Lions will defend their National League A championship in 2014-15.