{"id":474786,"date":"2026-09-25T01:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T01:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474786\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T01:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T01:24:21","slug":"san-jose-sharks-forward-will-smith-has-own-approach-to-contract-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474786\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks forward Will Smith has own approach to contract year"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 Macklin Celebrini<\/a> said last month that part of the reason he wanted to sign a long-term extension<\/a> with the San Jose Sharks before the regular season began was to avoid having the contract issue hanging over him\u00a0all year.<\/p>\n

Still without a deal in place f<\/a>or next season, fellow Sharks forward Will Smith doesn\u2019t seem to share the same concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t bother me at all, to be honest,\u201d Smith told Bay Area News Group on Thursday before the Sharks hosted the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> in their final home preseason game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just itching to (start) the regular season. I\u2019m under contract for the year, so there\u2019s nothing to be worried about except play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salaries for younger players coming out of their entry-level contracts rose dramatically after Anaheim center Leo Carlsson signed a five-year, $90 million offer sheet in July with the Philadelphia Flyers that the Ducks later matched.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Smith will not get that kind of contract, or anywhere close to it. Still, negotiations between the Sharks and Smith\u2019s camp over the promising young forward\u2019s next deal could be tricky.<\/p>\n

Since debuting in the NHL two years ago, Smith\u2019s overall statistics, from a points-per-game perspective, are similar to Anaheim\u2019s Cutter Gauthier and Columbus\u2019 Adam Fantilli. Gauthier signed a six-year, $81 million extension with the Ducks last week, and Fantilli and the Blue Jackets agreed to a six-year, $82.5 million<\/a> extension on Thursday.<\/p>\n

But Smith\u2019s next deal might not look quite the same. Gauthier seemed to receive a premium after a 41-goal season,<\/a> and Fantilli, drafted one spot ahead of Smith<\/a> in 2023, is the Blue Jackets\u2019 top centerman and best young player.<\/p>\n

Plus, Sharks general manager Mike Grier also knows that in the years ahead he\u2019ll need to keep ample salary cap space available<\/a> for extensions for goalie Yaroslav Askarov, forwards Michael Misa and Igor Chernyshov, and defenseman Sam Dickinson if all of those players have strong 2026-27 seasons.<\/p>\n

Grier, who was willing to do what it took to get Celebrini signed \u2014 including giving him more than the contract\u2019s $18.8 million average annual value if asked \u2014 also hoped to get a deal done with Smith this summer, and added last week that he, the winger, and his group have had good conversations. \u201cIt was just the way it worked out that there wasn\u2019t a deal done,\u201d Grier said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have all the respect in the world for players, and I want everyone to be fairly compensated and make as much money as they can during their career,\u201d Grier said last week. \u201cBut at the same time, everyone\u2019s got to slot into their place, and there\u2019s only so many pieces of the pie to go around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf too many people take too much of the pie, then someone\u2019s going to get left out, and we\u2019ll have to have some tough decisions to make, or someone\u2019s not going to be able to be re-signed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about Grier\u2019s \u201cpie\u201d analogy, Smith on Thursday said, \u201cThat\u2019s Mike\u2019s job to handle all that, and it\u2019s really up to my agent and him to kind of figure that out. I really didn\u2019t really look into it too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith, Celebrini and veteran Mason Marchment have been on the same line since training camp and were slated to play together in Thursday\u2019s preseason game at SAP Center. All three are making their preseason debuts.<\/p>\n

Marchment was familiar with Celebrini\u2019s game but has also been impressed by Smith, who has 42 goals and 62 assists in 143 career NHL games. A great year could put Smith in an advantageous position, contract-wise.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the best passers in the league,\u201d Marchment said of Smith. \u201cHe\u2019s always looking to dish, and you\u2019ve got to be ready for the puck at all times. I love playing with him. He\u2019s smart, skilled, hard on pucks, he likes to forecheck, and he\u2019s also a great human.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be fun. It might not happen right away, but I have no doubt that once we get rolling, it\u2019ll be a fun line to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks open the regular season on Oct. 1 against the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just worried about what I can control and just worried about this season,\u201d Smith said. \u201cCan\u2019t wait to get out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

SAMSONOV ARRIVES<\/p>\n

Goalie Ilya Samsonov, who signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Sharks on Sept. 8, arrived in San Jose on Wednesday and skated at the team\u2019s practice facility on Thursday afternoon. The Sharks said immigration issues were delaying his arrival.<\/p>\n

Samsonov, 29, was signed after goalie Kyle Keyser sustained an offseason upper-body injury and is expected to be out long-term. Samsonov, who played 200 NHL games from 2019 to 2025, played for Sochi in the KHL last season and is expected to start the year with the Barracuda.<\/p>\n

CARDWELL CLEARS<\/p>\n

Forwards Ethan Cardwell and Tye Felhaber and defenseman Libor Hajek all cleared waivers on Thursday and were assigned to the Barracuda.<\/p>\n

MORE PRESEASON DEBUTS\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other players expected to be on the Sharks\u2019 23-man roster who were making their preseason debuts Thursday were defensemen Darnell Nurse and Michael Kesselring and wingers Barclay Goodrow and Kiefer Sherwood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Macklin Celebrini said last month that part of the reason he wanted to sign a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[404,88,90,89,98,127],"class_list":["post-474786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}