San Jose Sharks

Sharks Locker Room: Smith Still Smith?

Published

4 weeks ago

January 19, 2025

Sheng Peng

ELMONT, N.Y. — Mid-season heat check: Will Smith is still Will Smith.

He’s still making plays that only Will Smith can make, a good sign halfway through a decidedly up-and-down campaign for the 19-year-old rookie.

This play was a bright spot in the San Jose Sharks’ 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders.

“It was delayed penalty, so I kind of knew I could make a play,” Smith said. “Just a little spin-o-rama, try to find him on the back end.”

What makes this missed connection so significant?

Just last Saturday, Smith was benched, in the middle of a season where the 2023 fourth-overall pick is simply surviving.

Which is understandable: Smith is 19, in the best league in the world.

What you worry about?

That Smith, trying to survive this season, loses too much of the playmaker who led the NCAA with 71 points in 41 games last year.

It’s a delicate balance — the benching was justified, as Smith has a lot to learn about being an everyday two-way NHL player — but as San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky likes to say, “You don’t want to take the stick out of his hand.”

So in this pass to Mikael Granlund that just missed? That’s the flair, the creativity, the vision, the skill, and the daring which makes Smith special.

There are reasons why the Sharks selected Smith as high as they did. You want him to mature as a player, but you also want Will to be Will.

So you’re looking for, I think, two things from Smith the rest of this season.

You need to see demonstrable improvements in the “little things” — defensive details, better battles — the habits that make up winning hockey.

Just an example of that: Per Stathletes, Smith has won a subpar 39 percent of his 5-on-5 Puck Battles this season. That’s third-worst among San Jose Sharks forwards. In comparison, Granlund, also a smaller skill forward, has won 50.6 of his battles.

But you also want to see flashes of greatness too, and the confidence behind that.

It’s been a challenging season for Smith, but important thing, we’re still seeing both.

“Trying to be better every game, and just trying to create as much offense as I can and also be reliable [defensively],” Smith said, about the message from the coaching staff after his benching. “Just confidence and move my feet.”

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on the Brock Nelson goal that gave New York the 2-1 lead:

We get caught on the outside. Come off our bench, lose our F3. Something we talked exactly about in between periods and it goes in the back of our net.

Warsofsky says Toffoli suffered a lower-body injury during morning skate, tested it during warm-ups, wasn't up to par. Day-to-day.

FWIW did see Tyler post-game with no obvious injury, so day-to-day might hold true.

Liljegren is sick, RW has no idea yet if he'll be OK for…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 19, 2025

Warsofsky, on Collin Graf:

I thought he was trying to compete for pucks. He was trying to do the right things.

His shifts can be inconsistent at times. He’s finding that it’s a big boy’s game and you’re going to have to be able to compete for pucks, win pucks. If you want to create offense, you got to win some 50-50 pucks. It’s not just him, it’s our whole team, we just don’t win enough 50-50 pucks.

Warsofsky, on Will Smith:

He was solid again, trying to make more plays.

Obviously got to continue to improve certain areas in his game, playing with pace and playing with the puck a little bit more. But I think he was trying to do the right things that we’ve talked about it.

While Warsofsky was not happy with #SJSharks game, said there were a couple "bonehead" mistakes, does give his sick team a lot of credit for gutting it out.

Said Vlasic, in particular, was very sick and played through it. Other Sharks also played through some degree of illness,…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 19, 2025

Warsofsky, on Georgiev’s bounceback:

The kid’s put a lot of work into it. Speersy’s worked hard with him.

He’s a good goalie. He’s going through a little bit tough stretch in his career. I think every player, every goaltender probably goes through those types of things. Credit to him for digging himself out of it.

Will Smith

Smith, on what he’s improved recently:

Trying to be better every game, and just trying to create as much offense as I can and also be reliable [defensively].

Just confidence and move my feet. When I do that, I create more chances. To be honest, they’re gonna start going in. It’s just a matter of time.

Smith, on his spin-o-rama pass to Mikael Granlund:

I mean, I think it was delayed penalty, so I kind of knew I could make a play. Just a little spin-o-rama, try to find him on the back end.

Smith, on plays like that giving him confidence:

I think it’s kind of the player I am that I could try to create some offense in different type of ways. That was one instance of it, and almost worked.

Smith, on Georgiev:

We got to help him out more. He’s giving it his all.

He’s getting peppered back there.