Reilly Smith thought it was a joke.

He texted William Karlsson, Keegan Kolesar and a few other Golden Knights players when he heard he was headed back to Las Vegas.

It seemed too good to be true.

“I wanted to make sure I wasn’t getting punked,” Smith said Friday. “I didn’t want to start sending a bunch of texts and phone calls and then have everything come back on me. I tried to play it cool for a little bit and let the dust settle.”

It’s settled, and the Original Misfit is elated to be back with the Knights after he was acquired Thursday from the New York Rangers for left wing Brendan Brisson and a 2025 third-round pick.

Smith, who played for the Knights in their first six seasons, was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins two weeks after helping Las Vegas win the Stanley Cup in June 2023.

The right wing was traded to New York on July 1 and played top-line minutes with the Rangers. But their acquisition of center J.T. Miller from the Vancouver Canucks and moving Mika Zibanejad to right wing made him expendable.

Smith left the Knights as one of their all-time leaders in goals (124), points (286) and games played (399). The 33-year-old will rejoin a team with plenty of familiar faces.

“When you get traded, there’s always so much new change. Not just the stuff on the ice, but everything around it,” Smith said. “To be able to come back here and have so much familiarity, it definitely feels like coming home a little bit. So that’s special.”

Smith and his wife, Melissa, spent the past week discussing all the possibilities of where he could have been moved.

The Knights were at the top of the list, but he didn’t fathom the possibility of returning to the place where his roots were settled — where he started a family and experienced the greatest on-ice success of his career.

“I think I was recognized more in the five minutes after I landed (at 1:30 a.m. Friday) than I have the last year and a half,” Smith said.

The Smiths never sold their Las Vegas home. Their renters, ironically, moved out two weeks ago.

Melissa and their two daughters, Isla and Navy, will return home when the Knights head east for a four-game road trip starting Tuesday.

Smith is in the final year of a three-year, $15 million extension he signed with the Knights in July 2022. He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Quiet at deadline

The Knights didn’t make any other moves before Friday’s noon deadline.

General manager Kelly McCrimmon said the Knights were in the market for another veteran forward. They checked one of those boxes when signing left wing Brandon Saad to a one-year deal Jan. 31.

They were looking at forwards who could help on the penalty kill. Right wing Brandon Tanev was a target, but he was traded to the Winnipeg Jets on Friday. Montreal Canadiens right wing Joel Armia was not moved before the deadline.

Adding Smith, outside of the familiarity, helps the Knights. He has been a consistent penalty killer and a reliable offensive player. He had 29 points in 58 games with the Rangers.

“The backstory is really neat, and I’m really happy for all those reasons. This was about our hockey team,” McCrimmon said. “That’s why we acquired him.”

McCrimmon said the Knights were never fully involved in bigger deals despite reports. He told the Review-Journal on Feb. 20 that he anticipated a quiet deadline for them.

Part of that was because of a lack of assets. The Knights don’t have a first-round pick the next two years because they were used to acquire defenseman Noah Hanifin and center Tomas Hertl at the 2024 deadline.

Another first-round pick gone

To get Smith, the Knights were willing to part with Brisson, the team’s first-round pick in 2020 who had 19 points in 45 games this season with the Silver Knights of the American Hockey League.

Brisson is the seventh first-round pick the Knights have traded in eight drafts. Forward Trevor Connelly, their 2025 first-round pick, is the last one remaining.

McCrimmon said Brisson is a talented offensive player who could benefit from a change. The Rangers assigned him to Hartford of the AHL.

“He’s had real growth in his game in terms of the things he needed to get better at,” McCrimmon said. “The things that he’s always been good at, he’s been snakebitten. Sometimes young players need a change, and I think it’ll help in New York.”

Contact Danny Webster at [email protected]. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.