Former NHL wingers weigh in on how Sharks rookie Smith can improve

• Editor's note: Sheng Peng is a regular contributor to NBC Sports California’s Sharks coverage. You can read more of his coverage on San Jose Hockey Now, listen to him on the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast, and follow him on Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.

Benching Will Smith is part of the process.

That’s how Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky looks at it.

On Saturday, in a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild, the top prospect was sat late in the second period.

William Eklund, Fabian Zetterlund, Henry Thrun and Shakir Mukhamadullin all have gone through the same thing.

“All of them have had development blocks and speed bumps and getting through that, and mentally getting through it, is a challenge,” Warsofsky said on Monday. “I'm sure [Smith will] look back on this, whether that's in 20 games or in 60 games, or whatever it might be, and probably be happy that he went through it, because it's a good learning moment.”

Not part of the process? Sending the No. 4 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft to the AHL.

“We haven't talked about that whatsoever,” Warsofsky said.

Instead, it’s a trial by fire in the NHL for Smith.

“You can look at his face and you can see it. He's got low confidence for the first time, probably, in his hockey life,” Warsofsky said of the NCAA and USNTDP star. “We're not just going to leave him on an island. We got to help him. We got to work with him.”

For what it’s worth, Smith has enjoyed clear highs this season and according to multiple NHL scouts, none with the Sharks, Smith is a better player than he was in October, so he is developing.

He’s just in a rut — which he has gotten out of before this season.

Smith had zero points in his first eight games. Then, he went on an 11-points-in-14-games run. But, over his last 15, he’s put up just three points.

Mikael Granlund, the No. 9 pick in the 2010 Draft, went through similar struggles when he came over from Finland as a much-hyped 20-year-old in 2012-13, saying of his fellow playmaker, “He's already grown a lot throughout the season. He's only gonna get better.”

So Smith is trying to keep his eyes on the prize, which isn’t the funk that he’s experiencing now: “Stick with it. Best league in the world, there's going to be ups and downs. I'm 19, so I think I'll be fine.”

What are some of the learning moments from Smith’s benching? Two former NHL wingers and a current NHL scout chimed in.

All video clips are courtesy of SportContract.

Keep in mind, Smith is playing wing, a position that the career center has never played at a high level on a regular basis.

“We're not asking him to play wing at Boston College, we're asking him to play wing in the National Hockey League against [Marcus] Foligno, who's 6-foot-3 and 215, whatever he is, it's a tough matchup for a young kid that's going through what he's going through,” Warsofsky said.

Playing wing instead of center, in theory, frees Smith up from as many defensive responsibilities. But, the position has its own challenges too.

“We talked this morning, just getting back to the basics here, play with the puck, play towards his strengths. So he went out there early, worked with him just on wall plays and picking pucks up off the yellow and playing with the puck and skating,” Warsofsky said.

Roughly, centers need to pay more attention to the middle of the ice, the most critical area defensively, while wingers need to be strong along the walls. That’s not a rule, obviously there’s a ton of cross-over, but it’s a basic illustration of where Smith is trying to learn on the fly. By “the yellow”, Warsofsky means the yellow kick boards that wrap around the rink. Pucks are constantly around there, so being able to play the puck by the yellow is essential for any winger.

Here's a play that went against Smith on Saturday.

Jake Walman (96) tries to hit Smith (2) with a pass, but the unforced turnover leads to a Matt Boldy (12) goal.

In fairness to Smith, Marco Rossi (23) slightly redirected Walman’s pass. Also, Smith had the right intentions, whether it was to deflect the pass into the offensive zone or to his skate so he could control it.

The scout and the wingers both agreed that this wasn’t an egregious mistake, by any means, from Smith.

“I wouldn’t look too deep into missing that first pass, looks like it took a bounce,” the scout said.

But all three agreed that’s a play that a regular NHL winger should make, whether it’s corralling the puck or getting it in deep.

Most importantly, you can’t turn it over toward the middle of the ice. Warsofsky has a lot of sympathy for the new-to-the-position winger.

“Setting your body up positionally-wise for pucks when they come up the wall, whether that puck is rimmed, whether that puck is direct, whether that puck’s in your feet, how do you protect it from the middle of the ice?” Ryan Warsofsky asked rhetorically after the game.

“There's so many different reads that nothing against our average fan, but they don't understand that. There's a lot of reads that he has to make in a split-second,” he added. “I can't make them. I have a space bar on my computer that can stop and pause it. So there's a lot of detail when it comes to that.”

There’s no disagreement from Smith: “Got to be better on the walls. Make better plays. Just limit the mistakes.”

Keep in mind, Smith did not get benched for simply a bad touch of the puck here, which happens to everybody, just more likely to an inexperienced winger.

Here’s Smith’s last shift of the game on Saturday, about 15 minutes into the second period.

Smith, along the far wall, misses both Jan Rutta (84) and Luke Kunin (11) with the backhand pass, Boldy takes the gift, and the Wild get three Grade-A scoring chances.

“It’s hard to know for sure who he’s passing too, but looks to me like that’s for Rutta,” the scout said.

If so, that’s a mistake of execution but not intention from Smith; the pass is too hard for Rutta. But that’s probably not what got Smith benched.

“Bigger problem is how he came back in the zone,” the scout said.

At first, Smith defends Boldy along the wall, which is the right thing to do, but he doesn’t adjust when Boldy gives up the puck.

This is where the boards and the middle of the ice cross over. Boldy is without the puck in a less dangerous area, it’s incumbent on Smith to recognize that the Sharks don’t have anybody defending the middle of the ice, which is the high-danger area. Declan Chisholm (47) walks in for a too-easy scoring chance.

“Arguably, he is man-to-man with Boldy and Kunin should be covering the trailer,” the scout said, “but the d-man got beat, so Kunin had to overcompensate and Smith didn’t slide to the middle.”

Mats Zuccarello (36) has a step on Rutta, which Kunin recognizes and reacts to. Smith must recognize that Kunin now needs help on Chisholm.

“I want to see a guy, if he does turn a puck over, does he track as hard as he can back? Is their effort there?” Warsofsky said.

“Not focused” is how one of the ex-NHL wingers termed Smith’s defensive effort here, saying the turnover that led to the Boldy goal was exacerbated by the multitude of mistakes here.

So benching Smith wasn’t really about one error, or even, his offense drying up. It’s a matter of trust, which is built up or lost over time.

“It's one of the hardest things to do for a forward, you see it a lot in the American League, where guys just struggle playing on the walls. And for coaches, players that are really good in the walls, we play him more, because we have trust there,” Warsofsky said. “Because you just can't turn over pucks inside the blueline, it usually leads to offense.”

For any coach, dialing in on the details should lead to offense, as opposed to skipping the details to get to offense, which is a common young player’s mistake.

“It's a tough league. There's not a lot of guys who can be productive right from the start, but those are few guys and there's a lot of learning curve,” Granlund said. “Just getting faster, stronger, bigger that's going to help. It's not about only Will, it's a lot of players around league. It's normal.”

“You gotta be ready to go every night. Just because you have one bad game doesn't mean it's gonna ruin everything,” Smith said. “So put it behind you and get ready for the next one.”

“You can't do anything else, but just put your head down and keep working,” Granlund said, “and good things will happen.”

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