The San Jose Sharks have no intention to demote former fourth overall pick Will Smith to the American Hockey League despite the slow start to his rookie season (as per Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News). Smith joined his teammates today as they boarded a charter flight to Detroit to kick off a five-game road trip against the Red Wings.
It’s been a tale of three wildly different seasons for the 19-year-old after he started the year with no points in his first eight games, then he turned the corner and posted 11 points over a run of 14 games, but then he slumped again, adding just three points in his last 15 games. Smith’s up-and-down offensive contributions have followed a very similar pattern to San Jose’s win/loss record. The Sharks were winless in their first nine games, then went on to win 10 of their next 19 contests before slumping to a 3-13-1 record in their last 17 games.
While the fate of an entire team can’t be attributed to a single rookie, the correlation is stunning. Smith’s bumpy rookie season is not uncommon for highly touted rookies, and every team uses different tactics to assist the player. San Jose has used “development days” throughout the first half of the year as a means of managing Smith’s workload so he has time to work on improving his game. The Sharks also have Smith living with Sharks legend Patrick Marleau, which should also aid in his development.
Smith is in the unenvious position of trying to become a two-way professional hockey player on a team that is likely to be at the bottom of the NHL standings at the end of this season. Another difficult transition for Smith has been in board battles where the 6’0” 181lb forward has had to engage in battles with NHL forwards who outweigh him by a considerable amount.
Smith is up to get fans back in the stands. Celibrini and Smith plus a new coach makes the Sharks watchable at least again
Fear The Fin did an excellent write-up this week covering the advanced metrics of each of the Sharks forwards, and they had some interesting notes on Will Smith.
Even though it’s not reflected on the score sheet, his game has been steadily improving over the course of the season. They also note that his development curve is not abnormal for an NHL rookie, and that he really only looks bad if you compare him to Celebrini, who has absolutely hit the ground running.
And if you wanna see some truly abysmal stats, have a look at Barclay Goodrow… Yikes. If he can’t turn things around, he is looking like a prime buyout candidate. Even on the Sharks.