SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks ahead Will Smith wore a coat over a sharp-looking burgundy go well with on Monday morning as he and his teammates received able to board a constitution flight to Detroit to start a five-game street journey.
In different phrases, Smith is a Shark, and the group plans to maintain the 19-year-old within the NHL and proceed to work with him as he experiences his share of adversity on the halfway level of his rookie season.
“He’s going to stay here,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky mentioned of Smith. “He’s going to play against Detroit, and we’re going to keep working with him.”
Two days after he was benched for the ultimate 25 minutes of San Jose’s 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild, Smith was on the ice very first thing Monday morning, working with the Sharks teaching workers to try to enhance his work alongside the boards as he continues to make the adjustment from heart to wing.
It hasn’t been straightforward. Not solely is Smith, listed at 181 kilos, making an attempt to battle fellow wingers at this stage who are sometimes 20-30 kilos heavier than him, however he’s additionally doing it in his first season as knowledgeable after he was drafted fourth total by the Sharks in 2023.
A pair of Smith’s miscues alongside the wall Saturday led to Wild scoring probabilities, with one leading to a purpose by ahead Matt Boldy that gave Minnesota a 2-1 lead within the second interval. Shortly afterward, Warsofsky benched Smith.
“Just got to be better on the walls and make better plays, to be honest,” Smith mentioned Monday of the message he acquired from the Sharks teaching workers. “Just limit the mistakes.”
“Just getting back to the basics here. Play with the puck, play towards his strengths,” Warsofsky mentioned. “So we went out there early, worked with him, just on wall plays, picking pucks up off the yellow (kickplate) and playing with the puck, and his skating.
“Just got some low confidence right now, so we’ve got to help him.”
Not solely is Smith adjusting to a brand new place, however he’s additionally making an attempt to enhance his two-way sport as a middle-six ahead.
Throughout his freshman season at Boston Faculty, Smith led all NCAA Division I gamers with 71 factors in 41 video games. However he’s going into Tuesday’s sport towards the Detroit Pink Wings with simply three factors in his final 15 video games whereas on a seven-game purpose drought. Smith has 14 factors in 38 video games this season.
“It’s obviously tough, but the pucks will eventually go in,” Smith mentioned. “Not too worried about it. It’s the best league in the world. They’re eventually going to go in.
“Sometimes (goals) come in waves. One goes in, you kind of get the confidence going, and more start going in. But once that one comes, it’d be good.”
Smith was given some what the Sharks termed as “development days” within the first half of the yr. The group sat him for choose video games — often on the second half of back-to-backs – to try to preserve him as wholesome as doable whereas additionally giving him further time to construct his energy and refine his expertise.
These appear to be a factor of the previous, as Smith has performed in 13 straight video games since coming back from an harm in mid-December. Nonetheless, Warosfsky wouldn’t specify whether or not Smith may once more be given a improvement day as he works via an up-and-down season.
“We have a plan. I’m not going to really delve into it,” Warsofsky mentioned. “We haven’t talked about (sending him to the AHL).
“He’ll bounce back. It’s a 19-year-old kid. He’s going through part of his development where a lot of times it happens when you’re in college, it happens when you’re in the American League. For whatever reason, it’s happened in the National Hockey League, and it’s tough. It’s a tough league to play in.
“I’m sure he’ll look back on this, and whether that’s in 20 games, or in 60 games, or whenever it might be, and probably be happy that he kind of went through it in a sense because it’s such a good learning moment,” Warsofsky continued. “He’s going to go through it again. (Macklin Celebrini’s) going to go through it. All of our young guys … have had blocks and speed bumps and getting through that, and mentally getting through it, is a challenge.”
Because the Sharks deliberate for after signing him to an entry-level contract in Could 2024, Smith has assist round him, not solely along with his teammates and coaches but additionally away from the rink, as he continues to reside with Patrick Marleau’s household. Marleau, after all, was additionally a teen when he first started enjoying within the NHL.
“I talk to him all the time,” Smith mentioned of Marleau. “Just at family dinners and stuff like that, I’m always asking questions about his time in the NHL. Obviously, he’s a legend, and he worked out just fine.”
Smith, nonetheless two months away from his twentieth birthday, is studying loads about himself this yr and what it takes to play within the NHL.
“You’ve got be ready to go every night,” Smith mentioned. “So just because you have one bad game doesn’t mean it’s going to ruin everything. Got to put it behind you and get ready for the next one.”
Initially Revealed: January 13, 2025 at 12:14 PM PST
