28-year-old defenseman Jalen Smereck plays for the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye during the regular season, but this summer, he’s playing 3-on-3 hockey for the 3ICE hockey league. NHL.com’s William Douglas profiled Smereck for NHL.com on Monday:
Being a defenseman in the high-scoring, fast-paced 3ICE tournament is a seemingly impossible job, but Jalen Smereck doesn’t mind.
“When you can play hockey in South Florida in July and August, there’s not much to complain about,” the 28-year-old Detroit native said.
Smereck, who played for Toledo of the ECHL last season, is thriving as the lone defenseman on the roster for Tennessee in the eight-team, 3-on-3 professional tournament that began July 17 and concludes Aug. 14 with the Patrick Cup Championship at Baptist Health IcePlex, the Florida Panthers practice facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Smereck has four points (one goal, three assists) in four games for 3ICE Tennessee. Coach John LeClair said he leans on Smereck for his defensive prowess as much as his scoring touch in games where action is nearly nonstop with games consisting of two eight-minute halves and a running clock.
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Smereck said 3ICE fits his style of play. He led all Toledo defensemen with 46 points (eight goals, 38 assists) in 70 games last season and was the highest-scoring player at the position in the Kelly Cup Playoffs (14 points; three goals, 11 assists in 20 games). Toledo lost the best-of-7 league finals to Trois-Rivieres in five games.
“Being in those 3-on-3 situations in overtimes throughout my career and doing it in practice, I love it,” Smereck said. “I liked at the end of our first game he (LeClair) said, ‘Hey, I might need you to stay out there a little longer because you’re the only defenseman.’ That’s always been my game, getting extra ice whenever I can, staying out there to play defense to win a game or provide offense to win a game.”
Continued, with significant discussion of Smereck’s charitable endeavors back home in Metro Detroit…
