i'm dropping my take on will smith hockey contract to see whether i should call myself a genius or an idiot whenever it pans out.
obviously, he either bets on himself and waits a year or he signs right now.
if he signs this year i expect it to happen within a week from now. with graf + mack contracts secured, there's no sharks-based reason to wait anymore. however, i can also see him waiting to see how fantilli's contract goes as that would be a good benchmark for his contract.
if he signs now, i expect a contract of ~$10-12mil, based on comparable contracts signed recently (even though half of them cough demidov cough carlsson are skewed contracts). $11mil would be cute for the numerology of it all.
so, do i think he sounds now or waits? well, this is pure delulu speaking, but i think he signs now. a 5yr contract now is long, but also short enough that it allows him to get more of what he deserves when his contract expires with more cap space. the main thing, though, is that i truly think he wants to believe in the team and to hit the ground running next season, no distractions (recent events™ have not helped my perception on whether or not he signs rn lmao).
i think most people agree that waiting to sign is the most logical decision. and i agree about that too, i was more leaning on the side of him waiting earlier (i will not be surprised if i am wrong about him signing now). but i don't think i can ignore the emotional reasons for signing now. remember, will decommitmed from northeastern to stay with his very codependent, very legendary, very record-breaking line at bc. and while he did decide to leave that very same codependent, legendary, record-breaking line a year early to play for the sharks, that was him making a player-development move. waiting a year on his contract is mostly a financial move, not one that affects his development as much. so, while him leaving bc a year early could very much be the reason he waits to sign, i think him switching from neu to bc is the reason why he signs now, so he can once again cement his position by the side of another record-breaking hockey player he loves. which may be rpfing too close to the sun, but again, recent events™.
