Will Smith Enjoys NHL Olympic Break at Home, with Family and Friends

Make no mistake about it, Will Smith is enjoying life in California’s Bay Area while firing home goals for the San Jose Sharks.

And as the NHL’s 18-day Olympic break began after the Sharks’ Feb. 4 loss in Colorado to the Avalanche, an enticing opportunity awaited Smith in Santa Clara, near San Jose.

Smith, who turns 21 March 17, is indeed an avid fan of the Patriots (and one who had childhood thoughts of developing as a quarterback), and New England was heading to the Bay Area. It’s not often in life when a Super Bowl comes to you.

“I had the chance with (Sharks teammate) Tyler Toffoli to attend an ESPN pregame party, meet some of the fans there, with tickets to the game,” Smith said, grateful for the opportunity.

But Lexington’s finest right-hand shot took the first flight he could out of Denver Feb. 5. He was even talking to the Lexington Times the next afternoon at the Smiths’ kitchen table.

“I love Boston, and I’ll always love Lexington, that’s the first thing,” said Smith, who skated one glorious season for Boston College before heading to the Sharks, having been drafted No. 4 overall in 2023. “I would rather spend time with my friends to watch (the Super Bowl), and I wasn’t crazy about taking a 6-hour flight the next day.”

Because the night after the Super Bowl, Boston College was facing Boston University at TD Garden in the Beanpot Tournament final. Of the talented freshman class that advanced to the 2024 NCAA final, seven were on the Garden ice that night, and the other four in the NHL, including Smith, were rooting in the stands.

“I wanted to make sure I was here for the Beanpot,” he said.

Unlike the Patriots, BC was a winner, upending BU, 6-2, for the Beanpot title.

Like father, like son … almost

Bill Smith, Will’s dad, grew up with older sisters Meg and Carrie (both LHS and BC grads) on Forest Street, where just about all that’s fun in Lexington is within walking distance.

So while at Muzzey Junior High before it closed, then Clarke, Bill would be on the Hayden Recreation Centre basketball court at about 6 each night, after wolfing down a quick dinner, working on his jumper before enough players were on hand for a pickup game.

The occasional exception would be when Bill would accompany his dad, Bill, for a ride to Chestnut Hill for a BC basketball or hockey game, which Bill of course did with Will since the latter could walk. Will was the 14th in his family to enroll at BC.

Like his dad, Will enjoyed taking a few jumpers at the Hayden gym, but early on, his craft was developing at the Hayden building at the foot of the hill, the arena on the corner of Lincoln and Worthen.

He first laced on a pair of skates there at age 4 and later took hockey instructional sessions at The Edge in Bedford, under the tutelage of Scott Fusco, the Burlington native who won the 1986 Hobey Baker Award while leading Harvard to an NCAA title.

Pat Hunt, a Lexington High classmate of Bill, noticed Will’s ability as a 5-year-old at Hayden, where skaters no younger than 6 could play in the rink’s house league. Hunt found a way for the exception so Will could join his team, and the point production began for all teams to follow.

Will Smith wasn’t going to be sticking corner jumpers like his dad did off the bench at LHS, but Bill sure didn’t mind. “He was so competitive and had so much energy,” Bill said.

Of course, Will is quick to point out he was a clutch hitter in baseball, a sport Bill played at Lexington High and Worcester Academy. On Father’s Day as a 12-year-old Little Leaguer, Will hit a walk-off grand slam at Center Field 4 (the one with the fence) to end his baseball career, giving the Cubs the Major League title. “I could’ve gotten to MLB, I swear.”

After attending Bowman School early, Will transferred to the Fessenden School in West Newton before enrolling at St. Sebastian’s School in Needham. He played three years of junior hockey with the Boston Junior Eagles.

At St. Sebastian’s, football classmates tried to lure Smith into playing quarterback, after an injury sidelined the Arrows’ starter. When he was younger playing in a Lexington flag football league, Smith’s primary receiver was CJ Cox, currently a two-year basketball starting guard at nationally ranked Purdue.

In 2021, Smith entered the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in Plymouth, Michigan, and immediately made an impact with the under-17 squad, collecting 37 points in 35 games.

To maintain the hometown feel for Will, Arlington’s Will Vote and Amherst’s Ryan Leonard in the Midwest, the Smiths purchased a townhouse in Michigan, where his mom Colleen and Vote’s mom Deb alternated housekeeping there two weeks at a time. The boys completed their high school requirements through online courses.

Smith’s development continued to blossom the following year leading up to the 2023 draft, racking up more than two points per game while centering the first line, between future BC linemates Leonard and Gabe Perreault.

While representing the USA, Smith played in arenas all over the world — in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, just to name a few. He has a collection of golf medals from the World U18 Championship, World Junior Championship and last year in the World Championship, when he recorded seven assists in 10 games to help Team USA to its first title since 1933.

Closer to home

The somewhat natural progression from the development program brought Will Smith to Boston College in ‘23, and the center worked whatever he could to bring USA teammates with him to The Heights. He helped Perreault and goalie Jacob Fowler commit to BC and second-year coach Greg Brown, who graduated from BC in 1990 with Bill Smith, the two sharing a theology class on campus.

“During Will’s last year at USA, he came home for a break, so we went over to a (BC) game, and there were only about 2,000 people, and it was kind of dull,” Bill Smith said. “And he says to me, ‘Next year, we’re going to sell this place out every game, and we’re going to go to a national championship game.’

“I told him not to get a little bit above himself. Sure enough, they sold out every game and went to the national championship game. He called it.”

Making the year even more rewarding was that older sister Grace was a senior at BC.

“It was so exciting to have her there with all her friends,” Colleen Smith said. “It was the most exciting year ever.”

“It was so much fun,” said Grace Smith, a medical assistant at Brigham & Women’s Hospital who will start graduate school at BC in the fall. “We hadn’t gone to school together since Will was in second grade. We’d run into other in the dining halls and the library, and we shared the same car.

“We got to know each other’s friends, and to know the families of the hockey players made it much more exciting,” she added. “It was definitely the best year of my college experience.”

During that school year, Will roomed with Perreault, Leonard and Vote, whose home straddles the Lexington-Arlington line (listed as Arlington on the current BC roster). Vote’s parents are both Lexington High grads.

For most of that 2023-24 season, BC and BU alternated with the nation’s No. 1 ranking, all the way to the Frozen Four. Denver, however, blocked both teams’ hopes for the national title, taking down the Terriers in the semifinals and Eagles in the title game.

“After we lost in the Beanpot, we didn’t lose until the national championship game,” Smith said. “Still think about (the 2-0 loss to Denver) every day. If we played them nine more times, we’d beat then nine times in a row.”

Smith set a BC freshman and NCAA record for 18-year-olds with 71 points while earning Hockey East and All-America accolades. His four goals in the Hockey East Tournament final boosted the Eagles past BU, netting tourney Most Outstanding Player honors.

The thirst was there to keep the gang together for the 2024-25 season, but NHL teams were calling for their talented draftees. Leonard joined the Washington Capitals soon after BC’s gallant run ended, and Sharks general manager Mike Grier, who also prepped at St. Sebastian’s, eyed the possibility of Smith and BU rival Macklin Celebrini, the presumptive No. 1 overall choice of the Sharks, heading to San Jose together.

On May 28, 2024, Smith signed his entry-level contract with the Sharks, and he has continued pursuing his BC degree by taking offseason courses while in Lexington.

On his way to San Jose

The Sharks organization rolled out the red carpet on draft night in 2023, yet there was a notable Lexington presence in Nashville that night.

Sal Frelick, a former LHS star center who was patrolling the outfield for the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate in Nashville, attended Smith’s draft party — he had worked with Smith’s hitting during youth clinics in Lexington.

And Mark Leach, an All-Scholastic defenseman at LHS in the late 1970s, was there as a scout with the Dallas Stars.

“Will’s got high skill and high hockey IQ,” said Leach, brother of the last previous Lexingtonian to skate in the NHL, Steve Leach, and currently director of amateur scouting for the Toronto Maple Leafs. “He has good vision, and he creates plays. He’s done a heck of a job so far, and they’re coming along as a team.”

As a kid, Smith’s first taste of the Sharks wasn’t so hot.

“When he was at Fessenden in second grade, his best friend was Will Vote, who was obsessed with the Sharks,” Bill Smith said. “He would show up every day to carpool with Sharks gear.”

Vote came through for the Eagles in this month’s Beanpot final with two goals, including one in the second period to put BC ahead to stay.

“I hated that he wore that stuff,” Will Smith said. “I remember he wore that beanie, I hated it.”

But he would enter BC with nothing with fondness for the Sharks. He beamed in Nashville with a custom-made suit. The inside of the jacket bore patterns of what meant so much to him — the Town of Lexington seal, logos of St. Sebastian’s and BC, and a picture of the Celtic Cross at his grandfather’s burial monument.

Grier, the Sharks’ GM, also helped work a situation that would make the transition for teenagers Smith and Celebrini much easier.

During the hockey season, Smith lives with former Sharks great Patrick Marleau and his family, while Celebrini is with Hall of Famer Joe Thornton, the former Bruin, and his family.

“It’s been pretty amazing,” he added. “Moving coast-to-coast at 19 can be tough for anyone, and I’m definitely a family person. If I had to live alone in an apartment, I don’t think I’d like that.”

Smith also has struck up a special friendship with Celebrini, the former BU rival who headed to Italy to skate for Team Canada at the Olympics.

“We were enemies,” Smith said with a smile. “We played each other about 10 times before we met and never said a word to each other. On a faceoff or anything. We were in the scoring race together freshman year.

“He got drafted, and in development camp, we kind of just hit it off, and now we’re best buds.”

The Smith family has thoroughly enjoyed Will’s journeys in the NHL, with Bill estimating he took in 40 Sharks game during the rookie season. Just before the break, Bill and Colleen traveled to Chicago, where Colleen grew up, to see the Sharks take on the Blackhawks Feb. 2.

“We couldn’t get over how many Sharks fans we’d see in Chicago,” Colleen said, “and you see these girls in Smith No. 2 jerseys, and it kind of takes you aback, is this real? It’s unbelievable.”

Except for his season at BC, (No. 6) Smith almost always wore No. 2, partially in tribute to Hall of Famer Brian Leetch, who for a year played at BC and was Bill Smith’s classmate.

Game is coming along

Will Smith appears to be settling in just nicely in his second year with the Sharks. He potted 18 goals as a rookie and already has 17 at the break this season, having netted five goals in a nine-game span after missing just over a month with an upper body injury.

“The level from top to bottom is better,” Smith said. “You do have top-10 picks that can barely make it in the NHL. Off the ice, the travel is pretty crazy, especially on a West Coast team. Last year, we had a trip of 15, 16 days. As a 19-year-old coming from college, it’s a little different than a bus ride to Providence.

“I’ve always had to work on my skating because you can never not get better at skating. And a lot of it is just maturing off the ice — doing what you need to do in a routine before the game so your body feels ready to go, and this year, I feel I’ve done a lot more to get better in that sense.”

The Sharks entered the Olympic break a few points off a playoff berth, but Leach notes it’s a young squad coming along, and San Jose has two first-round picks in this year’s NHL Entry Draft. Nine of the Sharks’ last 10 games before the break were on the road, but their first five after the hiatus are in San Jose.

The Sharks resume play Feb. 26 at home against the Calgary Flames. They face the Bruins in TD Garden March 12.

Fun to be home

It didn’t take long for Smith’s NHL-playing classmates to return to Massachusetts for the Olympic break, to watch the Super Bowl together, then to TD Garden for the Beanpot final. Will noted that Gabe Perreault, son of former NHLer Yanic Perreault, would be stopping by in 15 minutes.

Sure enough, there was a rap on the Smiths’ front door.

“He’s smart, skilled, he can do it all,” Perreault, now of the New York Rangers, said of Smith, after having played in Madison Square Garden the night before.

“He’s one of the smartest players I played with,” Smith said of Perreault. “If you watch any of our (BC) highlights, it was pretty fun to watch, just me, him and Ryan together fed off each other perfectly. There was something that was going to go on when we were on the ice.”

Leonard had returned to his hometown in Amherst, and Fowler, now tending goal for the Canadiens, was driving down from Montreal on the Saturday.

Smith and Perreault took in Boston College’s home game against Vermont Friday night, and before all took in Monday’s Beanpot final, they gathered for Super Sunday, Smith included.

But what if Harvard had beaten BC in the previous Monday’s Beanpot semifinal?

“Then I would’ve gone to the Super Bowl,” Smith said, “then come home for the rest of the break.”