Draft Profile: Will Smith, a Future Flyer?
Will Smith? A future Flyer?
They say you can’t teach skill. That’s wrong. You can hone an athlete’s skill level and refine their reads on the ice. Usually, you can do those things far easier than you can make someone more explosive or stronger.
Genetics determine your athletic ability. But your skill level? That’s determined by practice.
You can teach skill, but here’s what you can’t teach… the skill of Will Smith.
Will Smith is a master manipulator on the ice. He reads the feet and sticks of defenders with the ease of reading a Dr. Seuss book. It’s that manipulation, that everpresent deception, which defines his game.
It’s that raw skill level that has led to 113 points in 55 games with the National Team Development Program.
Will Smith is not the first of his kind. It might be most appropriate to say he’s just the next in line of master manipulators to emerge from the NTDP.
First, it was Clayton Keller who has emerged as a bonafide star and finds a way to score over a point per game with the Arizona Coyotes. Then, there’s Trevor Zegras. Zegras is a 70-point center already, but he’s still so early in his development cycle that the 90-100 point season seems inevitable.
Now there’s Will Smith. And he’s no less electrifying than his predecessors.
His 1-on-1 skill is surpassed in this draft class by nobody except Bedard. He might even give Connor Bedard a run for his money in the way his hands and body language deceive defenders.
He can make sharp turns, which he uses to spin off his check and dangle effortlessly past the defender who was supposed to be the help.
That play didn’t connect. It was an inch off. It’s a show of how often he makes these kinds of plays that he still put up multiple points in that very game.
When Will Smith receives a pass, he does so with a shooting posture. His hands, his shoulders, and his eyes all simultaneously scream that a shot is coming. He invites a defender to block his lane, then he effortlessly steps around them.
That kind of process will translate to the NHL. It’s muscle memory for Smith. Stuff he does naturally. It would take years to build these habits into a prospect that showed an affinity for it, and even then, success isn’t guaranteed.
With Smith? It’s already included. Perhaps most intriguing, though, is his ability to make plays that look simpler.
Smith was the player who caught a rimmed puck along the wall in the NZ on his backhand. He took that puck off the wall and hit Ryan Leonard’s tape to get the puck in the middle of the ice.
That’s something only high-level wingers can do with any regularity in the NHL.
And make no mistake: Will Smith is almost certainly a winger at the NHL level.
You’d think I’m talking about a perfect hockey player by hearing me talk so far. Someone who will change a franchise. You’d wonder why he isn’t going second in this draft class.
That’s the dichotomy of Will Smith.
If you establish him in the offensive zone with control of the puck, only Connor Bedard, Matvei Michkov, and Adam Fantilli can match his lethality. But getting to that spot? It’s a struggle for Smith. He isn’t a play driver at this stage of his career.
He cherry-picks. He plays high in the defensive zone, sometimes even in the neutral zone, and waits casually for masterful outlet passes by one of his linemates.
His linemates are both extremely adept at delivering those passes. Ryan Leonard’s outlet passing and transition passing in general is one of the most underrated qualities of any player in this draft. We all know the point of accumulating the exploits of Gabe Perreault.
He’s in an environment where those decisions are acceptable. He won’t be forever. If you move him to the wing, you can mitigate some of the damage. You can let him play a bit higher up and focus on his offense.
He’ll still need to kick those habits, but he won’t have to completely rebuild his game.
Will Smith’s defensive shortcomings should not be chalked up to a lack of ability. His stickwork as a defender is immaculate, and his passing is equally useful as an exit tool as it is in the offensive zone.
The tools are there to become a play-driving wing who uses his skill level with the puck to drive the puck down the ice and control the run of play. It’s the willingness that’s currently not there.
It’s a lack of motor. His compete level is inconsistent. Sometimes, it seems like he’s hunting highlights rather than earnestly playing ice hockey.
Maybe he thinks this is the way he’s best suited to helping the team, and maybe his coaches view that as a low priority to work on in his development.
If so, that’s okay. He’s an 18-year-old kid. He doesn’t have to be a finished product. The problem comes if he thinks this is the right way to play, and refuses to change. At that rate, he becomes a problem.
Why would the Flyers want that potential problem?
If you haven’t noticed, the Flyers are an abysmal offensive team.
They were the 32nd-ranked power-play for the second year in a row. Their 15% conversion rate may feel like an improvement from the 12% rate last season. But it isn’t. The league’s conversion rate as a whole was higher.
The Flyers are the league’s worst power-play two years running. In a year where players are hitting 150 points, the Flyers cheer that their 2nd leading scorer only just missed… 50.
Will Smith will go a long way toward changing that as soon as he dons an orange and black jersey.
For Smith, the interview process will be crucial. I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes in the top 5. I wouldn’t be surprised if he fell out of the top 10.
NHL teams will ask hard questions about his maturity level and the style of his game. They will want to know if he’s someone they can work with and coach. I’m not saying he isn’t that person. Let me be clear on that. I’m saying that he will need to convince an NHL team that he is that person.
If he can convince you of that, then his offensive talent is undeniable. And it’s tantalizing.
His offensive instincts and skill level are, like I said, unmatched by any but the franchise talents right at the top. His intrinsic ability to manipulate is nearly impossible to teach to the extent that he uses it. If Smith rounds out his game, he’ll become an offensive engine at the NHL level.
Should Smith prove able to round out his game, he’ll be the superstar that Flyers fans are dying for.
Mandatory Credit: Rena Laverty, NTDP photographer
