Tweedle

Will Smith met Ryan Leonard when they were both about 7-8 years old. They both grew up playing hockey in Massachusets, both come from Catholic families, and seem to have maintained a good friendship. Gabe Perreault is from Illinois so I don't know exactly how they met, but it seems like they were about 16 years old.

The three of them are quite close, but it does seem like Gabe and Will were closer with each other than they were with Leno. They shared a dorm together in their freshman year, and based on some comments from one of their teammates at the Worlds Jrs, Leno was kind of a third wheel in this friendship.

The closeness of Will's relationship with Gabe really mirrors how close he is to Mack nowadays- though, in my opinion, Mack is more similar to Leno. Do with that what you will.

Now, I don't see this mentioned a lot, but Gabe and Mack have known each other for years. Presumably they met when Mack was playing for Chicago Steel (2022-23, so they were 15-16), which is in Illinois. There's the picture of them below, + Gabe consistently commenting on Mack's instagram posts up until a couple years ago. I'm not sure how close they are/were, but Gabe did make this Malkin Celebrini comment that drives me up the fucking wall.

Also, Mack and Will played against each other at least once in 2020, when Mack was 13 and Will was 14. And we do know for a fact that they remember this.

American College + Student Athletes

idk about schools in the UK, but American colleges and universities take their athletics very seriously. Playing in college is often a gateway to playing in actual, professional leagues. So for student athletes, the school that you choose is very important. Colleges specifically scout kids in high school for their sports, and if you're good enough you can get all kinds of scholarships.

Will is what's called a legacy at BC, meaning he has family that has attended and graduated from the school (usually legacies have an easier time getting into a school). They also have a really good hockey program. Plus, it's a Catholic school, and both Will and Leno are Catholic. The two of them sort of peer pressured Gabe into committing to BC with them. I'm not sure if Gabe is Catholic but I haven't seen anything to suggest that he is.

All three of them were communications majors and took all of the same classes (except for one; Gabe took French which he already speaks becuase his family is from Quebec). This was just a stepping stone for them, but from what I can tell, they were all planning to play at BC for two years. This deeply awkward video shows them all on campus together.

Macklin's Age

So yes, Mack and Will were playing college hockey against each other at the same time (the 2023-24 school year. You can see them on the rosters at Boston University and Boston College respectively for those years). And yes, Mack was 17 when he went to college. It's not unheard of to graduate American high school at 17. Plus, athletes at Mack's level do sometimes advance through high school courses so they can get to college quicker- and knowing what we know about Rick, that seems likely. Mack and his older brother Aiden were playing at BU at the same time.

What's Up With The NHL Draft

So "draft" is kind of a loaded word that doesn't accurately describe what it actually is. It works more like a lottery. It's intended to give teams who are not doing so well the chance to get better players. You have to be aged 18-21 to be eligible, which is why Mack and Will were not drafted in the same year.

Getting drafted by a team just gives that team the rights to sign a player. It does not mean that you start playing for them right away. Sometimes a team's roster is full, so they get put in the American Hockey League for a while (which is what's happening to Gabe Perreault right now). Sometimes a player wants to keep doing college hockey or just has another commitment, so they wait a few years to sign (for example: Aiden Celebrini was drafted by the Canucks in 23 and is still in college as far as i know).

Anyways. in 2023, Will gets drafted by the San Jose Sharks. But he doesn't sign the contract right away. He, Leno, and Gabe have already committed to playing hockey at Boston College at this point, and he wants to play hockey with his buddies.

BU versus BC

Boston College and Boston University have a long-established rivalry, as we can see in this video ft. all of our guys! Will, Leno, and Gabe were on a line together, and they did really fucking good. They were widely considered the best line in college hockey (the jack hughes in that article is not the one you're thinking of), and saw similar success when they played together at World Juniors.

Now, BU may not have the best line in college hockey, but they do have their prodigy Macklin Celebrini. I can't stress just how good of a player Mack is. That makes him a real pain in the ass for BC. Mack has said that during college, he didn't like Will. It doesn't seem like they interacted much off ice, but the rivalry was strong.

Summer 2024

So the San Jose Sharks won first pick at the 2024 draft, which basically means they won Mack. A few days before the actual draft ceremony, Will signs his contract with the Sharks for the 24-25 season. Why did he do this? Well, we don't know for sure. Obviously in RPF world it's most fun to think that he wanted to play with Mack, or that his weird throuple situationship blew up in his face and he just wanted to start over. But I have not seen him give a definitive real-world explanation as to why he signed when he did.

Mack signs his contract pretty much immediately after getting drafted. That boy had one goal and it was to get to the NHL as soon as possible.

It does seem like Will and Leno had a bit of a falling out around this time. We don't know why exactly- possibly because Will went back on the plan to stay in Boston for two years? But neither of them have actually confirmed this; our main evidence is some instagram stories shenanigans.

Mack and Will meet properly at the Sharks training camp or whatever it's called, and they bond extremely quickly. In this pre-season video and also this video you can see they're already glued to each others' sides before the season even begins. They first became roommates during this time. They do not currently live together (though personally I give it two years before they find a nice little apartment).

2024-25 NHL Season

Once Will and mack are playing together, they only get closer. In their NHL debut video, they mention that Will drives them both everywhere because Mack doesn't have a license yet. Plus they spend all their time together, so why wouldn't Will drive them?

Obviously these are very skilled players, so they make their mark on the NHL rather quickly. But more importantly, we learn a bunch of new lore about their friendship:

They go on dinner dates together all the time, (not with the rest of the team! just them!) and keep a scrapbook of photos about it.

Will and Mack always room together when they're on the road. They do not need to do this. Also they once coerced Toff into having a sleepover with them, which is how we learned that Grown Ass Man Will Smith Hockey orders milk and cookies to his hotel room every night (for no reason at all).

Sometime in January they made a bet that when BC Beat BU, Mack would have to wear a BC jersey, and vice versa. In January, Mack walked into the SAP Center with a BC jersey. In March, Will wore a BU jersey.

In April they make a joint appearance on Never Offside, a podcast co-hosted by Toff's wife, Cat. This is where we first learn the windshield story. Basically Mack got impatient waiting for Will in the car and punched the windshield hard enough to break it. They both find this hilarious. Mack did not apologize, according to him, because he was going to pay for it anyways.

2025 Off-Season

Will and Leno seemingly make up? It's complicated.

Will showed Mack the movie American Pie at some point. If you don't know, American Pie is about a group of high school boys making a bet to try and lose their virginities. It's an interesting pick, to say the least. They are also known to enjoy rom-coms.

Mack and Will played against each other at Worlds, representing Canada and the US respectively.

2025-26 NHL Season

(This is what I know the most about because this is when I started watching)

Will changed his tiktok profile to be a joint account with both of their initials (William Charles Patrick Smith and Macklin Richard Celebrini).

They dressed up as Dumb and Dumber for the Sharks' Halloween party.

Will makes a goal and Mack spins him around and kisses him on the cheek. Which I guess could mean nothing.

So. There's a woman named Judi Jupiter who roams the streets of New York City and interviews "fashionable people" for her tiktok. She ran into Will, who then dragged in Mack, and filmed four videos with them. They are painful to watch but here's one of them. I do not have the heart to find the rest. Also Will initially lied and told her he was a college student.

In September we get perhaps the most important video ever. THEY DON'T KNOW THEY'RE BEING FILMED HERE!!! THEY'RE DOING ALL THAT FOR REAL!!!! AND EVERYONE AROUND THEM IS SO USED TO IT THAT THEY BARELY EVEN LOOK!!!! If you only take one thing away from this post it should be the balcony video. Genuinely what is wrong with them.

Whatever this is

At the Sharks thanksgiving party Will brought chocolate chip banana bread and Mack ate the vast majority of it. (also Will served it with a spoon???)

On December 3rd the Sharks played the Washington Capitals in San Jose. This is the first time that Will and Leno played against each other. We saw pretty limited interaction between them, though there is this video. The Capitals won 7-1 which I'm totally not still upset about. Leno scored two of those goals. Leno did also body-slam Mack at some point I think? It was a pretty important game so I imagine you'll see it referenced quite a bit in new fics.

On December 13, the San Jose Sharks played against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Will got hit by a player named Wortherspoon, hard enough that he was out for the rest of the game (and is still out as of December 17th). Mack immediately started wailing on the guy that hit Will and locked in so hard that the Sharks managed to come back from a four goal deficit. Like this game was historic and it only happened the way it did because of these two gay idiots.

In Conclusion

There's plenty of public dates they've gone on (often supervised by Delly or Toff) that I haven't mentioned because we would literally be here all day. I'm sure there's more I'm missing as well. Honestly I get a lot of my information from just trawling through the willmack tag on a regular basis. This is a good source for some cute stuff they've done this year. As new things come up I will undoubtedly be talking about them lol.

I must always recommend this masterlist because it's truly so helpful in terms of both lore and characterization, if you ever feel inclined to write willmack.