Brendan Smith remembers Ted Lindsay as ‘magnificent man’

Brendan Smith has great memories of the time he spent as a Red Wing with the legendary Ted Lindsay, the eight-time, first-team NHL All-Star, four-time Cup winner and father of the NHLPA who died Monday in his Michigan home at the age of 93.

“A magnificent man,” said Smith, who spent the first seven years of his pro career in the Detroit organization. “He was around the team a lot when I was there, he had a charity golf tournament, he would tell these incredible stories about his teams and talk about how the game had evolved over the years. But he was also current on what was happening with us. … He’d go through the room and it would be a, ‘Hey, there young Mr. Smith, let’s talk about that game the other night’ and he’d sit down next to you and talk. He had so much charisma, guys would just gravitate to him. And he was just so modest. He didn’t talk about what he did, he wanted to talk about everybody else.”

Lindsay was considered one of the game’s best left wings. So good, the Hockey Hall of Fame waived its three-year waiting period when it inducted Lindsay in 1966.

The story is portrayed in the classic book, “Net Worth,” which was turned into a movie of the same name that may be the greatest film ever made about hockey.

Lindsay was among the few who dared ownership and lobbied to create a union in the mid-’50s. The leaders of the movement risked their careers. As punishment, Lindsay was exiled to the Blackhawks, known at the time as the worst franchise in the NHL.

“Can you imagine the [courage] it took for him and all those guys?” Smith asked rhetorically. “My dad and my grandfather were huge fans of his, so I’d known about him as I was growing up but I didn’t realize his impact until later. For me to actually get to know him and have that kind of relationship with him was unbelievable.”