On Will’s Future with the Sharks: New Draft Picks, Developmental Hurdles, Trade Rumours, and the Willmack Factor
I got a very thoughtful ask about Will’s fate with the Sharks after drafting yet another 2OA: his game, the areas he still needs to develop, the looming Misa/Stenberg situation, trade rumours, and, of course, the whole Willmack of it all. So I thought I’d make a proper long post about it. This is purely my opinion, and I absolutely welcome different perspectives if anyone disagrees. Buckle up, this is gonna be a long and hopefully enjoyable ride.
Does being a 4OA centre moved to wing make Will less valuable than two 2OAs?
Not necessarily. Draft position and player quality aren’t the same thing. Will going 4OA doesn’t mean there were automatically three players better than him; it means three players were picked before him. Teams draft based on need, projection, risk, and what they value at the time. Years later, development can completely flip those rankings. That’s why the Misa situation is complicated, but not catastrophic. The org can believe Misa is the best centre available now and still believe Will is an elite NHL player. And if Will ultimately develops into the better overall player, it would hardly be the first time a 4OA pick outperformed players taken ahead of him.
Was Will being moved to wing actually a demotion, especially after the Misa pick?
I don’t see it that way. I think the Misa pick probably stung, because of course it did. Will was supposed to develop as a centre, and then the Sharks drafted another high-end centre. That had to make the writing on the wall feel a little bolder. But instead of spiraling, Will adapted. He leaned into right wing, and started carving out a different kind of indispensability. That was the smartest thing he could have done. Up until very recently, Will’s been saying he can play wherever the team needs him, but he knows where the opportunity is. He knows Mack wants him there. He knows their chemistry gives him the best chance to produce, stay visible, and remain central to the rebuild. So he finally decided to—very loudly and proudly if I may add—announce himself as a right wing. Clearly he’s embracing his new role.
Is Will only benefiting from Mack, or does Mack benefit from Will too?
That is the part people miss: Will isn’t just being elevated by Mack. He elevates Mack too. Will’s a scorer and creator. His game runs on instinct, timing, and opportunism in the best sense. The quick passes, the no-look plays, the way he finds soft ice — all of that becomes more dangerous because Mack can actually keep up with him. When Will is not there, Mack sometimes looks like he is passing to ghosts. It even took him a minute with Sidney Crosby, which is insane because he’s literally Captain Canada and arguably the face of hockey itself. But Mack’s so used to Will being in those exact spaces at those exact moments that even elite chemistry elsewhere does not look quite as automatic.
Would Mack really choose winning over Will?
This is where I strongly disagree with the idea that Mack would simply choose winning over Will. Yes, Mack cares about winning more than almost anything. That is his life’s purpose, his operating system. But the part people keep missing is that Mack does not seem to experience Will as separate from winning. He experiences Will as part of the answer. A lot of people frame it as a clean choice: personal attachment on one side, competitive success on the other. But that only works if Mack draws a hard line between the two, and from everything we have seen, he doesn’t. The relationship seems more integrated than that. Elite players are always looking for someone who sees the game the same way they do, someone who instinctively understands the timing, the risks, and the possibilities other people miss. Those partnerships are not obstacles to success. They become the foundation of it.
How do we know Mack sees Will as necessary?
I think there is a real argument that Mack has repeatedly chosen Will over every other version of winning available to him: over his own goals, over the easy play, over the play that would make the bench happy, and over the play that would make every hockey bro screaming about “the right hockey decision” happy.
Because when Mack looks at the ice, he does not seem to see a choice between Will and winning. He sees Will as the thing that makes winning possible. Will is hockey to him, in a literal, practical, visceral sense. He is woven into the way Mack understands the game, imagines success, and wants hockey to feel. And this translates off the ice too. Mack has stood in front of reporters for the nth time and talked about how special Will is, how smart he is, and how he just needs guys who can play with him. Do you know how crazy that is to say about your own teammates? That is not how you talk about just some guy.
Necessary is really the word here. Mack does not talk about Will like an option. He talks about him like a requirement, like something is missing from the equation when Will is not there. And for someone as singularly obsessed with winning as Mack is, that says everything. If winning were truly the only thing that mattered, then anyone could fill the role as long as the results came. But Mack keeps returning to Will specifically. Keeps looking for him. Keeps trusting him. Keeps building him up. Keeps insisting, over and over again, that people understand what he sees.
That’s because when Mack chooses Will, he chooses hockey.
Why does Mack’s belief in Will matter so much?
I think it matters to Will more than people realize. Will is proud, stubborn, and competitive in that “held his breath until he passed out because he refused to lose and had his family pelt him with balls to keep his reflexes sharp” kind of way. He’a not naturally built to be anyone’s sidekick. He wants to be the best, and if he cannot be the best, he at least needs to know he is seen as extraordinary by the one person whose opinion seems to matter most.
That is why Mack’s belief in him is so important. Mack never made Will feel small. He fell for Will’s hockey first. Before they were friends, before they were teammates, before whatever the hell this became, Mack already saw the world in him. He respected him. He hated him a little bit because of how good he thought he was. He put him on that pedestal and, frankly, has shown very little interest in letting him climb down.
So Will can be second to Mack without it turning poisonous. He can play on his wing without feeling like he has been diminished. He can love Mack’s greatness without needing to compete with it every second, because Mack has never treated him like less than an equal. Mack looks at Will like the ice is crooked, the refs are bribed, the coach is blind, and the whole world is wrong before Will Smith could ever just be having a bad game. That kind of blind devotion is insane. But it is also exactly why Will can breathe there.
So where does Stenberg actually fit into all of this?
The question isn’t “can Will beat Misa or Stenberg at their jobs?” The question is “can anyone else do Will’s job on Mack’s line?” Right now, I don’t think the answer is yes. Will has been Mack’s most stable, natural linemate. Their production together speaks for itself, but so does the eye test. The organization markets them together, talks about them together, and treats them as the emotional centre of the rebuild. Will isn’t some random chess piece. He’s the second face of the franchise. Furthermore, Stenberg shoots left. Will shoots right. If anything, Stenberg complicates the left-wing picture more than Will’s spot. The more obvious pressure point is Cherny, or the structure of Misa’s line. Stenberg could help deepen the lineup, give Misa a more dynamic winger, and reduce the burden on Mack’s line. That’s not the same thing as replacing Will. Line blending will happen. Stenberg might get looks with Mack. That’s normal. But Will being permanently displaced from Mack’s wing? I don’t buy it.
Does Will still have things to prove?
Absolutely. He needs to get stronger, be harder on the boards, become more reliable away from the puck, and trust his shoulder enough to go into dirty areas without hesitation. But he knows that. He is not stupid. If anything, this new wave of competition probably lights a fire under him. He is too proud, too calculating, and too aware of the stakes with the playoffs push next season not to come back sharper.
Would the Sharks seriously trade Will?
No chance. Grier clearly values Will. The team clearly values Will. The Sharks have cap space, organizational investment, marketing incentive, on-ice chemistry, and their franchise player’s very obvious attachment all pointing in the same direction. And Mack would absolutely raise hell if the organization seriously considered moving him.
So what is the bottom line?
Unless the sky turns purple and Will wakes up having forgotten how to play hockey, I think he is fine. He and Mack are on solid ground. Stenberg is not replacing him. The Sharks are not trading him. And if Will uses this offseason the way I think he will — bulking up, rehabbing the shoulder, getting nastier on the boards, and coming back playoff-ready — then the noise is going to look very silly very quickly.
