blue murder

It says a lot that during his time at the NTDP, he’d often be bumped up to U18 games when most of his usual roster played U17. He was just that good. 

He’d been compared to the likes of Zegras and JT Miller for months before the draft, and is most often referred to as a "tactician”, “great vision” and an “ankle breaker”. 

Ankle breaker: a deceptive deke, sharp turn, or sudden change of direction that leaves a defender so off-balance they stumble, fall, or lose their footing. It relies on superior edge work and acceleration to force defenders into awkward positions

As said in this article (2023): 

“He has a ton of deception built into his game, and is capable of faking opponents with his head, eyes, shoulders, and skates. It’s very difficult for defenders to predict where he’ll go next, and as soon as they commit one way he zips off in another.”

Essentially reaffirming what we already see in the NHL today:

The Weaknesses

Defense

Puck battles + physicality 

Forcing plays

Skating

Will’s biggest weakness has always been (and remains) his defense. 

There's a lot to cover here because "defense" is an incredibly broad term, but the first thing I want to tackle is how he tends to give up on the backcheck

Basically, if he doesn’t actively have the puck on his stick, if he has to sprint after it, he kinda doesn’t care about it.

The best examples of his NTDP years I’ve found are in this video. Especially these clips: 

He's wearing number 2. Blue jersey in the first gif, white jersey in the second

Will is great when he already has the puck or he's applying offensive pressure (there’s a reason many referred to him as an ‘offensive dynamo’), but not if he has to fight for it. 

We'll come back to cover other aspects of his defensive play later on.

In depth.

As for forcing plays, this can sometimes be an issue with players with a really high Hockey IQ.

They read the ice in a way that can’t often be matched by their teammates (at least not in junior leagues).

This became less of a problem once the Gabe-Will-Leno line was formed.

They understood each other perfectly, which was amazing for the team, but not awesome for Will in the long run.

Here's a video with a ton of highlights from their USNTDP days.

We see this kind of hockey when he plays alongside Mack too. Will reads other players like open books, thinks of plays few could anticipate, and Mack reads Will.

He comes up with very complicated plays, and a center like Mack has the skill to finish them off successfully and truly understand what Will's going for

Those interviews where they say "He wasn't asking for the puck, I just knew he'd be there" or "I wasn't asking, he just found me" perfectly encapsulate this dynamic on the ice.

Thing is, having a higher hockey IQ proves to be a double edged sword. Will, individually, is a marvellous player, but he starts showing signs of struggling to adapt to players "beneath" his level of skill around this time.

Just before his draft, an article said this (2023):

“He is a skilled player with the puck on his stick, but when the puck isn’t on it is when things get dicey. He has a tendency to try the high-risk pass instead of the more readily available one, and it doesn’t always pay off. When it doesn’t, the play quickly leaves the offensive zone, and Smith’s defensive efforts, namely in terms of backchecking, are lacking more often than not. It’s not that he can’t read plays defensively, it just appears that the effort isn’t expended to actually do so in some cases.”

And here (2023): 

Smith’s decision making can be a little bit suspect at times as well, often passing up on safe/easy plays in favor of the flashier and more dangerous plays. While that has worked pretty well for him this year, he will likely need to reign in those decisions a little bit as he heads to the NCAA and eventually the NHL. 

This is an example of what I mean:

Here, Will gets the puck and tosses it left, deeper into the offensive zone, where there's no one to receive it despite having a teammate right beside him. Passing to the guy on his right would've been the safer play. It would've dragged the puck back to the Neutral Zone, but at least they wouldn't have lost possession.

This is also a perfect example of why he works as well as he does with Mack. 

Mack would've been there. Not just because he knows Will enough to anticipate that kind of move, but because Mack himself also goes for the high-risk high-reward option more often than not (though he knows when to stick to the less eye-catching plays and keep it safe). They're on the same wavelength in that regard.

As for physicality, I don’t think anyone would be surprised if I said Will has always avoided contact.

As said in this article (2023): 

“The other major drawback is that he has an aversion to making physical plays in most circumstances. He doesn’t look to shield the puck and leverage opposing defences, often surrendering a chance to gain an inside edge in favour of avoiding the contact. While incredibly agile, he will need to learn how to protect the puck at the next level or will risk being a perimeter player only in the professional ranks.”

Many players have said over time that getting close to the net can be rather scary when you’ve got 3 defencemen tailing you, but it’s a fear you learn to overcome the more you do it. 

In Wil’s case, he’s always been agile and deceptive enough (ankle breaker and all that) to sidestep the D, so he could get away with defending the puck without being roughed up or boarded. 

He wasn't exactly quicker, per se, but smarter.

In the NHL, though, that's not happening. He's facing guys with more experience and better reflexes. Will knows this, and that's one of the reasons why he abandons scoring chances and/or passes the puck to someone else so often -- he can't outsmart NHLers as easily as he could fool junior, USHL or NCAA rivals, and if there's a chance of being flattened by a 7ft defenceman? He's out.

I'll show you a couple gifs later, but even when Will does finish a check, it's… a bit goofy. He doesn't pack much strength into it and looks like he regrets every single choice that led him to that moment.

He has not confronted that fear yet, and now that he’s in the League, where men are bigger and rougher, it’s easy to understand why he’d be hesitant to start.

I mean, look at the Pittsburgh game. Will was checked clean and legally, and was out for 13 games. I'd be shitting my pants too if a legal hit landed me in the fucking hospital.

Mack, for example, doesn’t have this issue. He’s willing to check and get checked if it gets him the puck

This has a lot to do with Mack playing as a Defenceman for years (from ages 7 to 12, before making the change when he started playing at Northshore, I believe). He learned to read the ice from behind the play — seeing how things develop. 

In this same interview, Mack is told his game has always been impressive because “he doesn’t cheat” and Mack replies he’s “always been taught how to play the right way”. 

In contrast, I find it interesting what Will’s Jr. Eagles coach had to say about his cheating: 

“He was so gifted offensively, but he would cheat a lot.  I remember bringing the group in after the period and saying, “I just want to make sure I understand, are we going to wait until Will gets his two or three points before he’s going to start helping our team play hockey, or is this just going to be the Will Smith show for three periods? Because if that’s it, that’s not what I signed up for.” “In competitive youth sports, when somebody is so talented, people just let him cheat all over the ice because it probably benefits the team to let him cheat.”

Knowing this, many things click into place real fast.

Of course he's shit at defence, he was a fucking prodigy from the very start. His teammates would mainly focus on getting the puck back to the o-zone and letting Will work his magic afterward.

Will didn't need to chase the puck, he had 4 other guys who'd do that for him. And by the time he had a coach willing to break that habit, it'd already become an intrinsic part of his game.

Don't get me wrong, Kent Hughes did wonders for Will's team spirit, but it's incredibly hard to change that kind of foundation.

Nowadays, even if he no longer cheats like he's alone on the ice, he still expects others to get pucks for him. Again, more on this later

There's another layer of nuance to Will's character as an athlete: being so cerebral, so logical and offensively single-minded shaped him into a player that can, sometimes, lose hope early.

By this I mean that when things don't go his way — shots aren't finding the back of the net, passes don't connect or get blocked, the defencemen shadow him a bit too close or make it hard for him to load up… — he can get easily frustrated.

This still happens today. It's one reason why Warso (as much as I disagree with his coaching style) benches him so often; and why Will benches HIMSELF now and then. Turns out benching has long since been a tactic to reset Will's mindset when he's too frustrated to think clearly

This is what Kent Hughes said about it:

I can say, sometimes when he wasn’t going, I would get on him saying “That’s not good enough, let’s go wake up,” or I’d sit him a shift. I can remember, even in state championships, he’d turned around and scored two goals in his next shifts. The guy I used to coach with just said, “That’s his way of him saying, Go screw yourself.”

And also this, which shows he's always had an issue with locking back in if he’s having a bad game. 

Will wasn’t having a good game with all the eyes on him, they were losing to Finland. I said, “Sometimes you may end up like this with Will, but he also can turn it around in a second if he scores.”  Sure enough, in the second half of the game, I think he had two goals and two assists, and they won the game, and I was like, “That’s what I’m talking about.”

Side note: This man confused two games. He said this happened in the U18 2023 Switzerland championship, but at no point during that game was USA losing. I'm pretty sure he's referencing the 2024 Sweden Juniors… so that's what I'm going with

What's interesting is Will was on the ice for both goals against. That's the thing.

That's what Hughes was talking about. Will gets too in his head to play well when things aren't working out for him.

He had less TOI than his linemates because at some point during that awful first period, Will was benched.

He has the ability to understand how the game moves in such an intrinsic way, that sitting out a couple shifts allows him to study his linemates and how the opponents react to them in real time. So when he jumps back in, he knows exactly where to position himself.

But this also makes him a less reliable player.

If he jumps in after being benched and things still don't get better, he starts slowing down — as if it's not worth the effort because "they've already lost anyway".

For instance, had it been Mack getting injured during the Pittsburgh game, there would've been no comeback at all. I think Will is too much of a "realist" for it. If they're behind by 4 goals in the third, there's no use in exhausting himself. It's whatever. You win some you lose some. They'll do better next time.

That's why that quote at the start is so important. Will IS a very competitive guy. In a cerebral way. He's not hot-headed or impulsive. He won't be needlessly chasing pucks and "wasting energy".

It's the same pattern I mentioned with the backchecks.

Those gifs where you clearly see him giving up ahead of time even though he could've prevented that goal if he'd put in the energy to defend his net and skate a little faster.

4th of July 2024 Prospect Scrimmage - once again, no speed or effort to be seen defensively if he doesn't think it matters

Will's team was winning, up by 3 goals. So who cares, right? Except team white then scored two more times and tied the game, taking it to a shootout.

DURING NCAA

IN MY OPINION, college is where we start noticing a certain pattern with Will. 

He knows he’s good. He learned at a very young age exactly how to exploit the best aspects of his game, and it made him stand out. I think this became an issue when, despite very obvious weaknesses, he remained the star player of any team he played on. 

I mean, out of 41 games he played with BC, he registered at least 1 point in 36 of them. (graph)

So, none of it mattered.

He could afford overdoing plays, not contributing to backchecks, cruising instead of chasing after pucks, because the second someone got the puck to his stick, the moment the puck entered the o-zone, he's unstoppable. 

He was never put in the position of having to improve the weaker aspects of his game, because his offence made up for it tenfold. 

So, during his time at BC, we see him improve things he was already incredible at, work on a couple skills he wasn’t great at, and almost dismiss the weakest bits.

To break it down:

What stayed great: playmaking + passing + deking + insane hockey IQ

What improved:  Shooting: His one-timer got better, which was something he’d long since wanted to work on (as he said here) Faceoffs - (which got immediately worse again in the NHL, but we’ll address that later)

Sometimes better: Speed: he’s fast if he puts in the effort, but he didn’t (and still doesn't) seem to think it necessary as often as he should’ve (see the scrimmage gif I just used above) He would wait for the puck to find its way back to him (noticing a pattern yet?), or for the play to slow down to steal it without chasing or battling

The Bad: Defense (*gasp*): As is customary, there’s basically no defense. His tendency to 'cheat' came back with a vengeance — he drove most breakaways / breakouts mostly by hovering near the neutral zone, waiting for the puck to find him. Sometimes, he’d even completely pass up on net-front opportunities if he considered that keeping the puck would get him hit. Physicality: Non-existent (act shocked). No blocked shots, few real scrums, still avoiding the boards… Sometimes he even delegated to Gabe and Leno the task of retrieving the puck if games got snippy while he stayed behind, posed to lead the breakout, so he never really exercised the skill of battling for it until you win -- no matter the zone or circumstance. He's more brain than brawn, essentially. Which, again, a double edged sword. I'd go as far as saying it's one of the reasons he struggled in the NHL – he was used to "you do your job, I do mine", so he ended up just… being there, waiting to be useful again. It’s also a reason he works well with Mack — regardless of position, if things get ugly, Mack’s there. If they lose the puck, he gets it back. Mack studies the play, and if he considers the defense needs help, he skates over and never lets it become a 3 on 2; meanwhile, Will's stuck in the “it’s not my job” mentality, likely fueled by his fear of getting hurt fighting for possession

All in all, I would say he’s a great player who, ironically enough, succeeded too much for too long, and it ended up breeding weaknesses because he got comfortable. The good parts of his game were good enough to eclipse the bad, so there was no need to focus on it. 

During his time at the NTDP, NCAA, and Junior teams (as well as IIHF tournaments, tbh), criticism likely didn’t cut as deep as it does today, because he was, undeniably, a star — if not the best player on the team, at least a crucial element to its success. 

Criticism didn't really matter because he still broke records, led in points, won championships, was named MVP of international tournaments + best forward, got drafted 4th… 

Even in Dev Camp, Will was tearing it up.

His team won the Marchment Cup. He played a Rookie Faceoff game before being scratched alongside Mack to rest before the actual Training Camp a few days later, where he was also performing very well.

The NHL is the first time in his life he’s actually faced with hardship on the ice — he went from a 41 game season to 82 + continent-wide roadies + he wasn't the best on the team or even close to it + was buried in lines and healthy scratched + the other rookie scored on his debut while he could barely keep up…

It took him 9 games to log a single point in the NHL after essentially being a ‘point-per-game’ player his whole life. 

Alongside players his age, he was very obviously leagues ahead. But the moment he was placed next to NHLers, his weaknesses became a real issue and his confidence took a hit. And we already know much mood/confidence influences his game. He went from soaring to a bone-crushing fall in a matter of weeks. 

THE NHL

Just to help out with understanding all the numbers I'm throwing around, here's some visual representation.

We're starting off with rookie year and going from there.

At this level, he was lagging behind in terms of skating (quick on his feet, but lack of top speed) and physicality. 

Smith’s skating might limit him a little bit in the NHL, as it won’t look quite as great against professional competition. 

So he would rely a little too much on having a better than average vision and ability to read the ice, which became a problem because he didn’t understand the NHL yet.

Plays happened quicker and more violently, and he’d never analysed that style from the inside. He was in over his head, slower to react, and giving up plays the moment he was exposed to minimal pressure. 

Many thought he was too soft for the NHL and should’ve been sent to the Cuda instead, but management clearly saw the potential. 

The moment it finally clicked for Will and his vision adapted to understand NHL patterns and pace, we finally caught a glimpse of the Will Smith who’d dominated the NCAA. 

Here’s a graph where you can clearly see when things take a turn:

Sure, it helped that he scored twice in one night when he finally opened his tab, but in the next 11 games he only gets 2 assists, and just when it looks like he got a hang of it, he suddenly goes 20 games with only 4 points to prove for it. 

Mind you, these aren’t bad stats for a rookie with his skillset and development. We’ve seen superstars tank far worse their rookie seasons. But for a guy as competitive as Will, with Macklin Celebrini as a teammate? 4P in 20GP was simply not good enough, so he did something about it. 

It’s in January 2025, in Boston, that things truly change. From that game onward, he produces at least 1 point per game almost consistently. 

In the end, with Will, it often comes down to: 

Does he have the time to think? 

Does he have the space?

The not so great thing is that, if the answer to either of those is no, he usually made the wrong tactical decision, or gave up the puck altogether. 

This was reflected in his Giveaway & Takeaway. 

He got the puck stolen from him or lost it due to unforced error 73 times last year. He only managed to steal it from an opponent 13 times. This leaves us with a 0.18 ratio.

This is horrible.

Like, out of 495 players in the 24-25 season (with +60GP), he’s ranked 465th. 

(And it got worse this season, with 83GwA and 14TwA, which results in a 0.17 ratio. But we're talking rookie days rn so i digress)

I believe the reason why this kept happening, even after he’d somewhat adapted to the NHL, is what I mentioned earlier: avoidance of contact, lack of speed, over-complicated passes, and the fact that he never learned how to protect pucks properly. 

But, if all these issues have BEEN issues for so long, how come he hasn't improved them by now??

THIS is fucking why

He had a shit start, was buried in lines, had egregious stats in multiple categories, and yet. Most efficient rookie in terms of assists. He is ridiculous 

So, there's, technically, no need for the guy to fix anything when he's pulling this kind of shit regardless. Except that's not how teams WORK.

It doesn't matter how good your stats look individually if your team is not winning, and this is what we're getting into now.

By the way, I will keep mentioning stats but they honestly don’t mean shit in the long run. Joe Thorton logged 7 points in his first 55 games and we all know how that turned out 

2025-2026 season

His Hockey IQ has always been and will forever be a fucking sight to see. 

Here’s a video that a guy (@/hockeyfilmroom on TikTok) posted literally as I was making this post and made my life much easier

Just watch.

There's a dark side to this kind of talent though, and here is where we revisit what I mentioned with the Gabe-Will-Leno line.

This season, Will assisted 17 of Mack's 45 goals. Mack assisted 18 of Will's 24. And together they assisted some other player in 12.

That's 47 points they've racked up together as a duo.

Those numbers are awesome and great until we look deeper and we realise they reflect a couple things:

Mack is more adaptable and can shift aspects of his game to fit someone else's, even if they're not his usual linemates.

Will has the same issue he had as kid: he plays 5 steps ahead and assumes everyone else does too. He's less prone to unnecessary high-risk plays than he was in his youth, but he still averages 4 giveaways per game and no takeaways to make up for it, and more often than not, those occur when he's pressed by defense or if he's moved to a different line and attempts complicated passes to a teammate who hadn't expected it -- AKA failing to adapt to his new line. With Mack, he can afford to make quick, complicated decisions, but Will doesn't always take into account that other players aren't top 4 picks (or childhood friends) who can anticipate the move.

Essentially, Will doesn't know how to adapt to linemates who are less skilled than he is, whereas Mack will adapt to any situation.

This is obviously frustrating for everyone involved.

Because out of Will's 59 points, only 3 took place without Mack on the ice. THREE.

That's an issue.

It's a huge issue that if Will doesn't play with Mack, his lines usually don't produce at all, or they get scored on.

In fact, out of the 1254.38 minutes of TOI (almost 21 hours) Will had this season, he was part of Mack-less lines for just over 2 hours… and only part of lines that SCORED a goal for about 20 minutes.

Let me repeat that: Will only managed to play genuinely good hockey without Mack for TWENTY MINUTES this year.

From a coach's perspective, it's infuriating to have an elite player who only shines alongside other elites — it essentially renders him null.

We're looking at an outstanding player who accidentally handicapped himself by playing with the same group of guys since childhood. A guy who never had to learn how to adapt because his linemates/friends could read his mind, and was then paired with Macklin Celebrini — a guy who can make just about any line look cohesive.

Will has never had a reason to step outside his comfort zone.

He is a ridiculously skilled player who needs chemistry to play well but doesn't seem to have the patience to craft it. Either it's there from the start, or it's not happening at all.

This leaves us with an even bigger problem.

The Sharks are rebuilding, and if there's one thing they know for sure, it's that given enough time you can assign Mack almost any wingers and he'll make it work. Playing with Will comes easier, of course, but with hard work Mack can put up similar numbers with other linemates.

Will's time on IR proved that, to an extent.

But Mack can't always be on the ice, no matter how much Warso tries. He's just one guy.

The Sharks need reliability. They can't just have one (1) exceptional line and three good(ish) ones. They need Will's skillset when Mack's not on the ice.

That said, even if Will stays on Mack's wing until the end of time, he would still need to learn how to adapt. On more than one front.

Defense (again) -> the Sharks' defense is too flimsy to afford their forwards avoiding backchecks, hits, or blocks simply because it's technically not their job. He's made it this far being lucky enough to rely on good goaltending and defense in the past, but not even Asky and Ned can pull off miracles. Guys like Mack and Wenny understand that on a team like this, the moment you lose the puck you might as well be a defenceman. You put yourself in front of the net and stop shots with your face if needed, then chase them off the rebound even if it means getting bodyslammed six times in a row. The Sharks can't afford a forward who's standing by waiting for others to do their "job" so he can do his. Their defence sucks far too much for that. Will needs to shed that mentality and help turn over pucks within the D. Being solely an offensive threat is not good enough when he can only pull it off with one guy and is nowhere to be seen when the puck is close to his own net.

all clips of the vancouver game were found on @keelpay, the most incredible archivist of our time

They're in the offensive zone, they lose the puck, they're now in danger of being scored on, but he gives up immediately hoping the defence will do something about it

Shooting -> he has been shooting more often and we'll get into that in a second, but there's layers to this. His shot in itself is not an issue, it's the how and when. Sometimes, it seems as though he's too scared to even try. A few months ago I thought it had to do with being afraid to fail, therefore deeming it safer to pass and have someone else try. Now? Now I think he once fucking AGAIN got too comfortable. He's the wing. He makes plays happen. He's the one who preps the stage, fools the opponent, and sets Mack up for a one-timer. So, if Mack's not there? If there's no space to get Mack the puck? System crash. And in those two seconds he needs to process his next move, there's already an opponent on him. So he passes. (Plus, he's quick to hightail it out of net-front if he sees d-men coming his way, so he passes the puck and makes it someone else's problem)

Brief intermission to appreciate this gem

I'm more than happy to announce that William Smith Hockey finished a couple checks during the playoff push!

Insane, I know

It reminded me a little of this tomfoolery we saw during the 2025 IIHF

Look at him go… sweet summer child This is what I meant when I said he looks terrified and has horrid check form, but we'll come back to hits in a second

Faceoffs 

This boy sucks at faceoffs. He truly does. 

Last season (2024-25) his FOW% ended at 36.5%. Meaning, he took 178 faceoffs and lost 113 of them.

This season, it ended at 29.2%. Took 48, lost 34. 

Putting this into perspective, Mack has taken 1.285 faceoffs this year and won 626 of them (48,7%). Will is the second worst in San Jose currently. 

Once again, ✨the pattern✨

What goes into a faceoff? Proving you want the puck more than the other guy. What's needed for that more often than not? A good healthy shove and some close contact.

Plus fast reflexes, but that's not Will's issue. His reflexes are fine.

It's the 300lb sweaty man with multiple missing teeth panting 2 inches away from his face that throws him off. I know this because his FO% at BC was 44.29%. And at the 2024 World Juniors it was 65.12% (won 56 of 86).

Literally all that changed from one to another was the type of guy across from him. I think he's easily intimidated by the idea of being hit or hurt

And he's so unused to being shoved that he immediately crumbles.

For a guy whose strongest suit is deking, he's shockingly unstable.

But this isn't just one more isolated flaw, it's all related. It all connects

He's got impressive edge work and he's a great skater, even if not a particularly fast one, but he's got genuinely shit balance. Which is most likely also a reason why he avoids puck battles + hits. It doesn't make him look great

yes i know basically anyone wouldve fallen over in this situation but i cant be bothered to find another clip that shows a better example of what i mean. we both know they're out there tho

It’s also very telling how little blocked shots he’s got. 

I mean, even if we exclude Mack from the conversation (he blocked 53), other forwards are still showing up defensively when he’s very noticeably not. 

Wenny had 93, Eklund 51, Graf 48, Toff 31, and even Sherwood, who literally just got here and played 28 games, blocked 9 shots.

You might think “that’s not that much”. 

Will played 69 games. Guess how many shots he’s blocked. 12. TWELVE. 

He is dead last in anything defensive on the entire roster. 

Following this theme, in terms of hits, Will remains just the same. 

This season he hit someone 16 times and was hit 33. 

Misa, who only played 45 games and has significantly less TOI, has been hit 58. And as much as I don’t like bringing Mack up with every statistic because he messes with the averages, he’s hit other players 53, and has been hit 93. 

Again, Will is a very avoidant player in terms of contact, and this has been a running theme since he first put on skates, but we've covered this at length by now

At this point, I'd just recommend watching

✨THE VIDEO✨

I feel like I've been beating him down to Hell and back, but that's really not the case. He's an astonishingly good player, but in breaking down his style, all the backstory and weaknesses are necessary elements to discuss.

And all these stats aren't just random. He's not bad at a lot of unrelated things. It's one big issue that keeps branching out and showing up at every goddamn fucking turn.

Which is actually a good thing, honestly. He's got many strong areas in his game and one big, glaring weakness. Chances are, if he puts in the effort and he's coached right (*cough* not by Warso *cough*), he'll be a force to be reckoned with sooner rather than later.

And not just as Macklin Celebrini's sidekick.

It's not just about confidence when it comes to Will, it goes back years. It's an unhealthy dependence on chemistry, it's lack of defensive play, and it's simply being so fucking good as a forward that he was allowed to dismiss all of it because he kept winning games.

Anyway, last point and we're done. I'm tired, you're tired, and the horse I'm kicking is long dead

Shooting

If you’ve ever found yourself screaming “SHOOT THE FUCKING PUCK” at him, you’re not alone.

What’s interesting though, is his S% — aka, how often his shots result in a goal. 

Last season, Mack had a whopping total of 236 SOG, but an efficiency of 10.6%, which placed him below average, and though Will only had 128 SOG, his S% was at 14.2%.  

This season, his efficiency is even better at 14.5% with 166 SOG 

But there’s a stat I like better for this kind of thing: the SAT (shot attempt), because it shows how many times players actually shoot. 

SOG only shows goals + shots stopped by the goalie, which is great to get a sense of how good a player's aim is, while SAT shows the ones blocked and missed too; so it works better for the point we’re making here. 

Rookie season: 277 attempts = 128 SOG + 90 blocked by a player + 59 he missed altogether 

This season: 320 attempts = 166 SOG + 80 blocked by player + 74 missed

Have in mind, he played 5 less games this season than he did his rookie year. So, not only is he shooting more per game, but his shots result in goals more often too.

You might think "well, duh, more shots = more goals", but not really.

Toff has a S% of 11.1 despite having more SOG than Will (171). On the other hand, Wenny has a 19.1 with only 94 SOG. This shows that if Wenny goes for a shot, scoring chances are higher. Whereas Toff is a less skilled shooter, but unrelenting. It might take him more tries to get there, but he will.

Will is right there in the middle. Less insistent about it, but skilled enough to make up for it.

IN MY OPINION, Will should prioritise shooting more instead of 'better' for as long as he's on Mack's wing.

It would also address the underlying issue of getting too frustrated to function when things go wrong. He'd greatly benefit from being more consistent, learning to adapt and develop some resilience. He's too valuable of a player to afford having to bench him for multiple shifts or for his mood to affect his play to such extent.

If he can learn how to fail and shake it off, the Sharks are golden.

I present to you these cute little diagrams to illustrate my next point. will's page / mack's page

See how Will avoids shooting from spots near the boards?

Guess why. Take a wild guess

See also how Mack has considerably more long-range shots and goals?

That's mostly due to 2 things:

Will's shooting isn't the greatest (i'll elaborate in a sec), so most shots taken from long-range areas completely missed the net and didn't count as a SOG

Mack is a better shooter and Will excels at deking, so the willmack strategy revolves around Will forechecking, clearing the way, and getting the puck to where Mack is waiting with a one-timer. Mack purposefully stands farther from the action during this type of play because Will doesn't need help keeping or stealing the puck in the o-zone. Mack is safe to hover just far enough from the action for the opponents to forget about him. Then, Will passes to Mack, and Mack tucks it in.

And before anyone comes at me saying "but people call him 'silky mitts' so how can he not be a good shooter??"

He has good hands, great vision, and a mean wrister. All of that makes his mitts very silky indeed.

He knows where everyone is at any given moment, which allows for the no-look passes willmack pull off game after game. He's also a very accurate shooter, which means his passes connect more often than not.

However, shooting on goal has different requirements.

Passes don't need to be fast because you're not trying to take a goalie with lightning-quick reflexes by surprise. Shots on goal, however, are usually around 90 km/h for a standard wrist shot and 135 km/h for one-timers.

In terms of accuracy, Will is great.

But slap shots need to be quick about it. No time to stop and aim. Your stick is up and ready to swing. It's designed to be a literal bullet. Mack is good at making sure his one-timers are fast AND accurate, but Will has to sacrifice one for the other.

If he wants a hard, fast shot, he's giving up on accuracy. And if he wants to aim, he's giving up power.

Anyway.

I'm done.

I could go on for ages, but this post is already egregiously long and I've lost track of what I've covered and what I've hallucinated

Thank you anon for assigning me this sidequest and I'm sorry it took seven decades to complete.

If there's any specifics I haven't covered or if you disagree with me, my inbox is closed but go nuts in the comments

As a final treat, I leave you with these player cards because I found them cool

And also with Mack's chart because I also found it cool.