Billy Smith: 100 Greatest NHL ... from center ice before a 1975 playoff ... NHL Draft and assigned to Springfield of the American Hockey League. As a first-year pro, Smith helped lead Springfield ...

Islanders icon Billy Smith was a superb goalie and four-time Stanley Cup winner. But he was also a fantastic interview. And in this story Smith wrote for THN, he was in peak form.

"They liked him well enough to draft Billy," said Bill Libby, who had been the Kings correspondent for The Hockey News. "Of course, it was too soon to tell how good he could be; but there were ...