5 random players you forgot were on the Philadelphia Flyers

4. Jason Smith

Jason Smith was a mainstay on the Edmonton Oilers blueline in the early 2000s and helped captain them to a Stanley Cup in 2006.  A true “defensive defenseman,” Smith carved out a long career in the NHL, playing over 1,000 games over the course of 15 seasons. Apparently 77 of those games were played for the Philadelphia Flyers. Who knew?

In the summer of 2007, the Flyers traded Joni Pitkanen, Geoff Sanderson and a third round pick in the 2009 for Smith and Joffrey Lupul. The team then almost immediately decided to name him captain, for… reasons.

In his lone season with the Flyers, Smith pocketed a goal and nine assists playing 18 minutes a night in the regular season, and added two assists in the playoffs. Not the most spectacular season for your newly anointed captain.

In theory though, it makes sense. The 2006-07 Flyers were an absolute joke, finishing with just 56 points during the regular season. Heading into 2007-08, the Flyers were an extremely young team, so the team wanting a battle-tested, tried-and-true veteran to be the captain makes sense.

And to be fair, Smith seemingly added the leadership the club was looking for, as the 07-08 team made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals before falling to Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

However, the team still had a group of quite talented “older” players like Kimmo Timonen, Danny Briere, Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble who all could have taken up the mantle to potentially greater success. Not to mention in the long list of prominent Flyers captains like Bobby Clarke, Dave Poulin, Eric Lindros, Keith Primeau, Mike Richards, Chris Pronger and Claude Giroux, Smith just feels out of place.

Also, Smith found himself in legal trouble in 2010 after being faced with domestic assault and confinement charges, so this is just one of those tenures that we’d like to forget in more ways than one.