5/28- Canada vs USA quarterfinal match @ 10:20am EDT
5/30- Canada vs Finland semifinal match @ 2pm EDT
5/31- Canada vs Norway bronze medal game @ 9:30am EDT
5/31- Will at MayeDay celebrity softball game @ 6pm EDT
6/1-6/6- Draft Combine
6/8- Will at Stanley Pup š¶ @ 8pm EDT
6/13- Macklin Celebrini's 20th Birthday š
6/25- (?) NHL Awards
6/26- NHL Draft, 1st round
6/27- NHL Draft, 2nd-7th rounds
7/1- Official start of the new fiscal season. Opening day of free agency/trading for the 26/27 season. Mack & Will contract extensions expected to be signed at this point
7/1-7/2 Mack hosting soccer camp for Airbnb in Toronto
7/7- Mack at World Cup ā½ļø match in Vancouver
(I'll pin this for reference. Please lmk if there are any other important dates I'm forgetting)
omg your blog is really incredible! I love all your hockey analysis (especially your takes on wsh omg)
I was wondering if you had any thoughts about the draft coming up, do you think that Grier will go for Sternberg or Reid ?
Thank you so much! It's been so nice to chat about hockey (and willmack) with fellow fans, because everyone in my real life is sick of my bullshit lol
I have SO MANY thoughts on the upcoming draft. I posted my initial thoughts right after the lottery here, with more detailed thoughts on how Stenberg would slot into the Sharks here & specific talk about Chase Reid here & here and then back to me going on about Stenberg here.
(More after the cut)
Sooooo it's pretty obvious I love Stenberg lol. And like I GET IT, it's smart to pick a potentially top-pairing RH defenseman, I know they're like unicorns & they have financial value & it's a really smart move.
I just... really want Stenberg. I'm impatient & I can envision him in that locker room with the Sharks next season, I can envision him on Misa's wing, I can envision him getting time on Willmack's line. And selfishly, I don't want another team to get him.
As for what Mike Grier will do, this is a mystery. I personally think he's a brilliant GM, who plays chess not checkers, who makes creative moves & thinks longterm. He knows he's got a fabulous opportunity here. Reid is a smart, relatively safe bet. But Stenberg is fun to watch, will slot in so beautifully with our team, will generate points season after season, and will put butts in seats. That has value too. (There's a reason 2 out of the top 10 IIHF highlights featured Stenberg.)
I want to wait until Combine results to make my final pick, but despite what SO MANY analysts are saying right now... I still say Stenberg.
āThe 2027 NHL All-Star Skills will spotlight 10 young stars ages 25 or younger competing across eight events, jointly selected by the NHL and NHLPA.ā
Who do you think the 10 will be? I can see this becoming a battle between Mack and Connor since no one can shut up about how Connor is better, regardless of how they perform.
Yup yup, my first thought too! I mentioned in my last post, it's unclear if the players competing in the tournament are allowed to do both, or if they're keeping this separate. (Also, who chooses the 25 & under players?) I feel like they'd want Mack to play in the tournament part, for obvious reasons. But if players can do both:
Off the top of my head, I'm thinking Mack, Will, Connor, McKenna, Zegras, Schaefer, StĆ¼tzle, Lane Hutson, Boldy, Demidov, Logan Cooley, Leo Carlsson, Cole Caulfield, Jack (and maybe Luke) Hughes.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some obvious ones. What does everyone else think?
Thanks for the ask! š
Edited to add: Cutter Gauthier, Wyatt Johnston, Gabe Perreault (from the comments), possibly Michael Misa & Oliver Moore because they're so damned fast?
Hiyaaaa! I don't know many people I can ask this question to except you and perseus but what are your thoughts about the recent 2027 All Star rules? The fact that it's determined by fan voting and etc. Also any predictions on who the goalie is gonna be for team Canada? Knowing that this is 25 and under really changes a lot of things.
Knowing the very dire goalie situation in Canada, is there a chance that our boy burger (albeit very young) will be picked up for team canada?
Alsoo early predictions, I think the "international team" will absolutely dominate this game, just cuz of the fact that there are Russian players plus Czech goalies oml-
Hey! Thanks for thinking of me for this one š
All-Star games are always gimmicky & this one is particularly so, in my opinion.
(More after the cut)
Is this All-Star format silly?
yes
no
nobody watches the all-star game
Remaining time: 7 hours 56 minutes
So for people who don't know, they're going to have 5 international teams: Canada, Sweden, Finland, USA & a "World" team (mix of players from every other country).
The NHL & the Player's Association will choose 30 players for each team. Those 30 will get whittled down to 8, decided by online fan voting, but then the NHL/NHLPA will add on one additional forward, defenseman & goalie to fill out the roster to 11. Sounds ok so far, right?
Here's the silly part. They're going to play 3v3 š. And not just 3v3, but the games are only 4 minutes long. š There's no OT or shootout if it's tied, since it'll be a points system (2pt for W, 1pt for T, 0pt for L). They're going to do it round robin style so each team will have 4 matches. The winners will advance to a 10 minute final game.
Sooooo this format is kind of absurd lol. I mean 3v3 is pretty unpopular for a reason, and with 4 minute long matches this is extremely luck-based. It could mmmaybe be fun to watch? Will depend a lot on who's on each roster. The NHL/NHLPA will have to do a good job picking those initial 30 players so fans can feel like they have good options.
I think odds are pretty high we see some faves though! Mack will absolutely be there, if he agrees (plus, see below). Will is less certain but I feel pretty confident the NHL knows the potential here.
Ok, so the 25 & under skills competition is separate from the above tournament. This is 10 people competing in 6 events (Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, Passing Challenge, One Timers, Stick Handling and Accuracy Shooting). Each player will compete in 4 out of 6 of these. (After that things get crazy, finalists have to do a shootout & an obstacle course??)
This looks like the NHL capitalizing on the unusually-skilled group of younger players they currently have. What's unclear is how THESE players are chosen. And are these players excluded from the tournament roster? Is this them trying to give the vets a role in the tournament so it isn't just younger fans choosing younger players? If players can't compete in both & the NHL is choosing, there's a really good chance Willmack are in THIS group (along with Bedard, Zegras, Hutson, etc).
So looks like Canada won't be limited to 25 & under goalies for the tournament at least lol. As far as predictions, this format makes it really hard to predict. It's honestly kind of a free-for-all. Luck is going to play a big part. The "world" team should be stacked with talent, but maybe language/ cultural differences come into play.
It's definitely different, I'll say that. Guess we'll see what happens. Thanks for the ask!
I have never really perceived Matty outside of his uniform and tbh I was surprised by Matty being out legged by Will at all and definitely to the extent it ended up being. Truly made me wonder how he stays upright on skates
I'll be honest I had to go back & look because I wasn't exactly focused on, um, Matty B's legs in any of those pics lol. But yeah wow they are skinnier than expected. Someone's skipping leg day š
The harem sharing the 8-man apartment at BC second year lol. Willeno did so much gay stuff it makes WillMack look like brothers: http://xhslink.com/o/3sd62q4E15y / the fact the rest of the team used to give them time to celebrate their goals together before joining in.
I want to capture Willeno in a giant net and prod them with sticks and study them under a microscope for like 11 years to uncover the truth of it all
it's funny how on this day and age, people will measure your friendship with your ig likes and follow. in the outside perpective, these doomposters about mack not liking will's post sounds so ridiculous. chill. to your anons, not everyone is chronically online.
Yeah, I think it's time to put this one to bed.
On another note, only 6 days until we get Will at the Stanley Pup! š š¶š¾
I know everyoneās just doing a little doom posting (which is fine), but pretty social media in general is the last thing on Mackās mind right now after the last week, let alone liking a happy post even if itās for his bbf. Iād go into hermit mode, which is what Iām assuming he has š
And Toff hasnāt liked the post either, though Cat did so I guess liking through proxy?
No I fully agree. Without new content it's easy to slide into tension posting territory. But yeah, Mack is notoriously not huge on social media to begin with, is dealing with travel/ jet lag/ digesting a tough loss. I'm sure he just wants to decompress, maybe spend time with family & friends, maybe get wasted, heal his body, and move on with his summer.
I follow Cherny so I saw he had liked the post within 10 minutes acrually and found it very cute. I do find it slightly odd Mack hasnāt at least liked it (if heās even seen it) as itās not an Ad. Itās not that deep that he hasnāt but it is a little bit odd
That's adorable. I'm so fond of Cherny. I have really high hopes for the Cherny- Mack- Will line next season!
Idk I just don't think Mack not liking the post is that deep or concerning. After 2 seasons of people freaking out over imagined tension between them, only for them to answer with like THE most batshit insane codependent behavior ever, I just don't worry anymore. They fucking adore each other.
IF we are web weaving that these two are best boyfriends.... and I am Mack (ie), I would be annoyed/pissed off. On a pretty rough day in which the entirety of the internet says I am cursed, my BBF posts a THIRST TRAP of a post ( no denying it ). It includes a direct hit: a pic of him staring into the eyes of a man he is presumably living with, set to "Glory Days". IF they are BBF's, this is kind of bruts. Double bruts if they were already in a rough patch ( divorce rumors). We all know that WSH does nothing errantly; those pics were well thought out.
If they are friends/teammates, Mack likes this post in a day or two and moves on.
The first option has way more narrative potential.
IF we are indeed webweaving, I agree it's kind of brutal. Will of course can't help that his charity game happened to be on the same day Mack lost at Worlds, but did he have to look so damned golden tan & buff with perfectly-lengthed curls while he effortlessly won the home run derby & of COURSE the game too, while he brought continuous attention to his mouth by chewing gum, a sneaky little reminder of exactly what he can DO with that mouth, all smiles for his co-winning roomie, looking into his eyes intently, not unlike the way he looked into Mack's eyes in that photo on the ice in Mack's last photo dump where he commented "fella" and OOPS did he ACCIDENTALLY expose his perfectly-muscled back while he was taking off his jersey in view of an entire stadium with multiple cameras pointed in his direction? How careless of him. šæ
you canāt always see who liked something unless you follow that person on IG. Toff normally comments on Willās stuff. So does his billet brother. I did find it went that his teammates and Mack didnāt comment, though. He did so good!!!! His softball friends, roommate and BC teammates are probably around him more now so it makes sense theyāre in the comments. I thought the Will-Misa relationship was gonna be a tiff so itās nice itās not lol.
True, it's harder to tell if you don't follow them. Someone pointed out Cherny liked Will's post as well though, so that's 4 teammates already.
In my opinion it's not that big a deal about Mack. Will & Mack don't tend to like each other's posts when it's like spon con or charity stuff.
I'm super happy Will & Misa seem to get along! I want all the Sharks to be friends, no drama allowed
"The harem is so glad will is acting straight again" the harem he's had so many homoerotic interactions with? š¤Ø and were we watching the same Will at the softball game? He was literally so gay š and claiming the sharks didn't like the post when they did? I swear people want to create drama over nothing! Even RJ liked the post! Calm down people ffs
Maybe they didn't watch him run. (This is a JOKE, don't come at me lol.)
Well to be fair a lot of rpf is just creating drama from the tiny morsels we get, but I agree there are no issues between Will & Mack or Will & the rest of the team
