oh my god this is so embarrassing but tanlines can you pls explain the lore behind ryan leonard x will smith x gabe perrault? very new hrpf!!!!
Hi anon, sorry it took me like a full two days to answer this!
The TL;DR is that they all used to play for the same team, but actual details are under the cut! I'm assuming you're asking in a general sense as well as an RPF one, so apologies if you just wanted ficcy stuff
pre college
Will and Leno grow up knowing each other, as both played for the Junior Bruins + Boston Junior Eagles together, as well as on a few other 'temp' competition teams. This was from age 8ish onwards.
All three guys get accepted into the NTDP (National Team Development Program), which essentially trains them to one day represent the USA for hockey. The NTDP is a whole other kettle of fish that will leave you thinking 'why the fuck would anyone ever let their 16 year old do this'. Alums of the program include some very storied names - see this page. While in the NTDP, Will lives with Leno and Will Vote - another childhood friend who he carpooled with in grade school. Also a noted supporter of the Sharks, which Will has previously said used to piss him off. The three of them live in a one week on/one week off situation with Will S and Will V's moms in Plymouth, Michigan; Leno's parents stay in Mass working. This leads to an interesting dynamic in which Will's mom Colleen refers to Leno (+ Will Vote and a few other of Will's friends) as her bonus children - they call her 'mom' and everything.
Gabe is also in the NTDP, but doesn't live with the Will2/Leno collective. He does, however, play on the same line as them. Will centers this line, Leno and Gabe are his wingers. This line becomes one of the most productive in NTDP history, and the guys are essentially never separated as a result (which probably stunted their on-ice development a little). Will and Leno compete as part of the 2022 U18 IIHF championship, with Gabe joining them the following year - they win gold here.
The nature of the NTDP means that these guys are sharing a space 24/7 - school is online in a single room ringed with computers. They practice for hours every day, then workout for another few hours. They're encouraged to spy on each other and report back anything the program decides is 'misconduct' (we're talking about, like, speaking with girls, not following the meal plan, etc). This leads to some interesting stories, like Will and Zeev Buium sneaking off to Red Lobster (iirc) and eating an absurd amount of food. They're all incredibly isolated, despite being on the outskirts of a major metro city.
At some point, Will decides to decommit from Northeastern University in favor of Boston College - a school that he is something like the 13th member of his family to go to. A whole bunch of his NTDP teammates also commit to BC, including Gabe and Leno.
In the summer before college, all three guys get drafted in the first round - Will obviously goes 4OA to the Sharks. Leno goes to the Caps, Gabe goes to the NY Rangers. Will Vote notably goes undrafted.
college
At BC, Will shares a room with Gabe and Leno shares with Jacob Fowler, current rookie goalie for the Montreal Canadiens. They continue to play on the same line, and remain one of the most productive lines in college hockey. Film a lot of content together for various social platforms.
They also win gold playing on a line together at the 2024 World Juniors, combining for some gorgeous goals (check out the individual game center links here). Both Will and Leno make top 10 for Hobey Baker nominations (best player in college hockey), and lose out to Macklin. Gabe continues to be an underrated gem despite being a point farming beast (also note our undrafted baby goat Collin Graf in that pic).
Will signs his ELC with the Sharks over the summer, Leno and Gabe remain at BC to play another year and attempt to win the Frozen Four (NCAA Championship). Their new line is now centered by James Hagens of Bauer Hockey social media fame (and I guess Bruins fame. But that is way less important to me personally).
RPF
Many things to explore here through an RPF lens - the weird culty brotherhood crafted by the NTDP, the stapling themselves to each others sides for three very formative years of their lives, the achieving their goals of representing the USA and winning out alongside each other every time. They also took all of their college classes together - every single one, bar Gabe's French course (which, like, who let the native speaker into that bro), ate together, painted trees in Theatre together, partied together, played together ... the list goes on.
From an angst perspective, Will leaving 'early' is where the juice can really be squeezed. The guys made a pact to win a championship together - Gabe and Leno stuck this out, Will did not. Many reasons why he might have done this, but there seems to be a shift in Will's online interactions with Leno after he left BC. Will looks back wistfully at college (see: him saying he and Mack should be in college right now/he had a great time in college/he misses being just a dude on campus), and this is probably more than a little tied to his closeness with Gabe and Leno.
There's also a lot of juice with the perceived animosity between Leno and Mack (weird online interactions, etc) that doesn't exist between Mack and Gabe. In fact, Mack and Gabe knew each other years before Mack and Will did - they did a hockey camp together in LA in 2022. Will, Gabe, and Mack go out to dinner together in Boston in the 2026 offseason at the infamous Strega, home of Big Dave, while Leno goes full 'get me to god's country' and jets back to Washington seemingly without reason in the immediate aftermath of MarMon. What did he see in that kitchen? We may never know.
Will, Leno, and Gabe typically spend the fourth of July at Will's family's vacation house in Cape Cod, along with a bunch of other BC guys. Gabe and Will have also notably spent Christmas together (2025), and their families seem to go to dinner whenever they're in the same city. The guys all go out to dinner with each other when their teams play, and they run in the same friend groups. The RPF opportunities are truly endless.
Anyway, if there's anything in particular that you want to know that I haven't covered here, feel free to ask!
i would care more about the world cup if there were less players on the pitch and the pitch was smaller and made of ice adn the players wore skates on their feet and the goal net was way smaller and they all had stiicks and if the ball was a puck and also they could fist fight
