Smith, who has not recorded a point in the Blackhawks' last 19 games, was a healthy scratch on Friday, Chicago Tribune reports.Smith was a healthy scratch for the first time this year as he had skated in each of the Blackhawks' previous 55 games this season. Hawks' coach Joel Quenneville went with the two recent callups from Rockford, Kyle Cumiskey and Ryan Hartman against the Devils instead of Smith. While some of his stats likes hits and blocks have increased this season, his goals and assists are down after a big 2013-14 season where he had 14 goals and a dozen assists in 75 games. For this season Smith has five goals and four assists, but he last registered a point on Dec. 27 with an assist. Smith has not scored a goal since Dec. 20. He sign a two-year contract extension with the Blackhawks last summer.

Smith assisted on Jonathan Toews' second-period goal and potted an empty-netter in Tuesday's win over the Wild. A nice little game for Smith -- his second two-point effort in a week. But the net's a lot easier to score on when there's no goalie in the way, and Smith hasn't shown a great deal of scoring ability at the NHL level, so he can be ignored in the vast majority of fantasy formats.

Smith assisted on Klas Dahlbeck's first NHL goal and scored one of his own in Thursday's win over the Bruins. With just five points to show for 29 games this year, Smith hasn't been much of a fantasy asset, and there's no reason to think he's going to contribute much more offense than that unless he sees an increase in playing time.

Smith scored on his only shot of the night in a 3-2 loss to the Predators on Thursday. In his first full season, Smith netted 14 goals last year. It took him six games to record his first point this season, and skating mainly on the team's fourth line, he likely won't see a big spike in his numbers from a year ago.

Ben Smith has inked a two-year extension with the Chicago Blackhawks. Smith would have become a restricted free agent this summer. The defensive forward had 14 goals and 12 assists in 75 games in 2013-14.

The Chicago Blackhawks plan to enter into contract talks with Ben Smith in the coming weeks. Smith is scheduled to be a restricted free agent, so there's no urgency. Still, it's fair to assume that he'll get a meaningful raise from his 2013-14 salary of $575,000.

Ben Smith has netted two goals in his past two playoff games. He has three markers on nine shots in six contests versus Los Angeles during the Western Conference Final. Smith scored a nice bank shot off Jonathan Quick's pad during Game 6 on Friday night.

Ben Smith and Andrew Shaw received playing time as Chicago's second-line center in Game 3 when the team was trailing in the third period. Joel Quenneville didn't say who would be skating alongside Patrick Kane on Monday night, but he thought the talented winger looked "dangerous" in the match.

Ben Smith potted his second goal of the postseason in Game 2's 6-2 loss to Los Angeles. He ended a six-game pointless drought when he gave the Blackhawks a 2-0 lead early in the second period. Los Angeles stormed back with a late goal in the second and five in the third to win the contest. Smith has four points in 14 games this playoffs.

Ben Smith is projected to get a chance to play alongside Bryan Bickell and Jonathan Toews in Game 4 on Friday. Smith feels he has to get better and playing alongside Toews can't hurt in that regard. Smith has a goal and three points in nine games.