The Minnesota Wild, parent club of the AHL’s Houston Aeros, have agreed to terms with center Nathan Smith and defenseman Ryan Lannon on one-year contracts
Smith (right) spent the 2008-09 season with the American Hockey League’s Lake Erie Monsters, affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche. Smith posted 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in 44 games.
Smith tallied a career-high 50 points (22g, 28a) in 68 games with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2007-08. He added 18 points (7g, 11a) in 22 playoff games as the Pens advanced to the Calder Cup Finals.
In 405 career AHL games over seven seasons with Lake Erie, Wilkes-Barre and Manitoba, Smith has registered 72 goals and 96 assists for 168 points.
The 6-foot-2, 190-pound native of Strathcona, Alta., has also played 17 regular-season NHL games with Vancouver and Pittsburgh, recording two penalty minutes. Smith also played four Stanley Cup playoff games with the Canucks in 2007.
Smith was Vancouver’s first-round pick (No. 23 overall) in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft.
Lannon, 26 (12/14/82), played 63 games with the American Hockey League’s San Antonio Rampage in 2008-09, recording five assists and 33 penalty minutes (PIM).
The 6-foot-2, 220-pound native of Grafton, Mass., has posted 47 points (5-42=47) and 198 PIM in 280 games spanning four AHL seasons with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and San Antonio.
Lannon helped Wilkes-Barre/Scranton advance to the 2008 Calder Cup finals, notching seven points (1-6=7) in 23 games, and was a teammate of Smith on that Penguins squad.
Lannon, who played collegiately at Harvard, was originally drafted by Pittsburgh in 2002.
