The Asheville Smoke were a professional ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 team in the United Hockey League

United Hockey League

The United Hockey League was a low-level professional ice hockey league , with teams in the United States...

. They played in Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...

 from 1998 to 2002. The Smoke were coached by Keith Gretzky

Keith Gretzky

Keith Edward Gretzky is one of the brothers of famous ice hockey player, Wayne Gretzky. Keith was promoted to Director of Amateur Scouting for the Phoenix Coyotes on July 12, 2006, after serving the previous five seasons as an amateur scout for both the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and...

 from 1998 to 2000. Prior to 1998, the team was known as the Brantford Smoke

Brantford Smoke

The Brantford Smoke were a professional ice hockey team in the Colonial Hockey League, later the United Hockey League, now known as the International Hockey League. They played in Brantford, Ontario from 1991-92 until 1997-98, playing home games at the Brantford Civic Centre.They won the Colonial...

. The closest rival of Asheville were the Knoxville Speed

Knoxville Speed

The Knoxville Speed was a UHL team which played from 1999-2002 in Knoxville, Tennessee with home ice at the James White Civic Coliseum. They were formerly the Madison Monsters, and in April 1999 team owner Andrew Wilhelm announced that the franchise would relocate to Knoxville due to low attendance...

. Original employees to the team were President Dan Wilhelm and Assistant General Manager Jeff Young.