C Will Smith - San Jose Sharks , NHL(2023, 4th, SJS)

[Pavel Buchnevich]

No World Juniors I guess. Too bad.

 

[Stewie Griffin]

Scored a nice wrister in his hometown game. Apparently has 150-175 family/friends in attendance.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Seems to be having an okay rookie season, all things considered. Other than Michkov, who many teams screwed up not taking, it's at least looking like they got the right guy, otherwise.

He's no Celebrini, so he's gotten overshadowed this season, but should be a good 2C, and possibly better.

 

[coooldude]

When he has space and time, he can be very dangerous. Very quick release - most of his goals are snipes, but he also has a few goals where he's charging to the blue paint, so good on him for that. And he has set up his teammates for a lot of SOG's, often HDCF.

The major improvement areas are related to his age: 1) he's still immature and forces hollywood passes through multiple players leading to turnovers, or misses critical but simple breakout chips etc. as a winger 2) He needs to be stronger, he loses most puck battles and gets knocked down constantly... and maybe most of all, 3) needs to be faster. EDGE data has him as <50%ile in all skating metrics. He may never be a burner but he's gotta get more speed. If he's never going to have speed, then he needs to get a lot stronger and learn how to play e.g. Pavelski by always being in the right spot despite being slow and short-ish.

 

[CaptainShark]

Great game, he has been trending up lately.

In addition to what @cooldude said, there seems to be another area he has to improve a lot and that is stamina. He is looking for a quick change on most of his shifts and first i thought that was mostly a confidence thing, trying to get off the ice quickly before something bad happens (which happens a lot when he is out there defending). But lately i have gotten the impression, that he just doesn’t have the stamina to keep up on longer shifts. He sometimes just looks like he has nothing left in his legs.

Maybe that is related to point 2) from cooldude as the wall-battles and physical-contact may be even more taxing for him because of his lack of muscle and trying to compensate.

Overall his season has gone as expected. Clearly not ready in a lot of areas, but showing immense skill and upside here and there.

 

[sigx15]

Great game, he has been trending up lately.

In addition to what @cooldude said, there seems to be another area he has to improve a lot and that is stamina. He is looking for a quick change on most of his shifts and first i thought that was mostly a confidence thing, trying to get off the ice quickly before something bad happens (which happens a lot when he is out there defending). But lately i have gotten the impression, that he just doesn’t have the stamina to keep up on longer shifts. He sometimes just looks like he has nothing left in his legs.

Maybe that is related to point 2) from cooldude as the wall-battles and physical-contact may be even more taxing for him because of his lack of muscle and trying to compensate.

Overall his season has gone as expected. Clearly not ready in a lot of areas, but showing immense skill and upside here and there.

Ya this was pretty much everyone's sentiment who watched him a lot last year at BC. It was never a matter of whether his skill level was enough to make the jump. It was always a matter of had he developed enough strength, stanima and speed to make the jump, all 3 of which are pretty much tied together. The other question was whether another year at BC would help him develop defensively and at the faceoff dot. Every kid physically matures at different rates no matter how much off ice work, conditioning and diet they put into it. Smith just seemed like a kid who would take longer to physically mature. As long as he stays healthy, by all reports he has the work ethic, just a matter of his body catching up in my mind

 

[majormajor]

Great game, he has been trending up lately.

In addition to what @cooldude said, there seems to be another area he has to improve a lot and that is stamina. He is looking for a quick change on most of his shifts and first i thought that was mostly a confidence thing, trying to get off the ice quickly before something bad happens (which happens a lot when he is out there defending). But lately i have gotten the impression, that he just doesn’t have the stamina to keep up on longer shifts. He sometimes just looks like he has nothing left in his legs.

Maybe that is related to point 2) from cooldude as the wall-battles and physical-contact may be even more taxing for him because of his lack of muscle and trying to compensate.

Overall his season has gone as expected. Clearly not ready in a lot of areas, but showing immense skill and upside here and there.

Ya this was pretty much everyone's sentiment who watched him a lot last year at BC. It was never a matter of whether his skill level was enough to make the jump. It was always a matter of had he developed enough strength, stanima and speed to make the jump, all 3 of which are pretty much tied together. The other question was whether another year at BC would help him develop defensively and at the faceoff dot. Every kid physically matures at different rates no matter how much off ice work, conditioning and diet they put into it. Smith just seemed like a kid who would take longer to physically mature. As long as he stays healthy, by all reports he has the work ethic, just a matter of his body catching up in my mind

The stamina issue has been widely talked about going back to his draft year, and maybe even further back than that. Kid gets tired and it shows.

 

[mphmiles]

I was thinking about bumping this thread as I have a couple thoughts on his game after watching a good amount of him at the NHL level.

-I'm more confident about his ability to be a top line player after watching his play this year.
-I'm less confident about his ability to stick at C.

I don't really see the speed or skating that will allow him to develop into a high-level puck carrier, he doesn't have great size, and I think his compete is good-not-great. On the positive side, the vision and hockey sense are as-advertised and his shot is already good with the chance to get to high-end.

I see him as a player in the mold of Jason Robertson, as someone who is elite at connecting play and distributing in the offensive zone, but probably needs a little help driving a line. He might end up being the perfect Robin on a line with Celebrini.

JMO

 

[CaptainShark]

That pass

Granlund blasts in one-timer | NHL.com

Mikael Granlund finishes Will Smith's feed with a laser one-timer to extend the Sharks' lead

www.nhl.com

 

[Star Platinum]

I don't really see the speed or skating that will allow him to develop into a high-level puck carrier, he doesn't have great size, and I think his compete is good-not-great.

Regardless of what position he ultimately ends up playing, he will need to work on all of that. He needs a skating coach for sure, but even then, I don't think he'll ever be a very deceptive skater.

He's been competing for pucks better lately though. His plus skill by far is passing.