The Spartans’ prospect sure didn’t go easy on him.
PublishedAugust 13, 2025 2:39 PM EDT•UpdatedAugust 13, 2025 2:39 PM EDT
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We’ve hit the time of year when football teams at both the NFL and college levels are so ready to start playing, they just start goofing around at practice.
Because, on the same day that the Baltimore Ravens went for swimming lessons with Michael Phelps, Michigan State head football coach Jonathan Smith threw on a full set of goalie gear and took some shots from NHL prospect and Spartans forward Ryker Lee.
The 18-year-old Lee was selected by the Nashville Predators with the 26th-overall pick in this year’s NHL Draft. He’s an incoming freshman at Michigan State after playing last season in the USHL with the Madison Capitals, where the 6-foot winger posted 68 points (31G, 37A) in just 58 games.
He’s one of a handful of big additions to the Spartans this college hockey season, along with Philadelphia Flyers No. 6 overall pick Porter Martone. They’re expected to make them a team to watch in what should be a strong Big Ten conference (which will also shift to a new single-elimination tournament format to crown a champion).
So, with so much buzz around the puck program, it’s no surprise that the football team welcomed someone like Lee. What may not have been expected was for head football coach Jonathan Smith to throw on a set of pads and stand between a set of makeshift pipes (two tackling dummies) as Lee unloaded some shots.
And he didn’t take it easy. He rang Smith’s bell right off the bat by firing one right off the coach’s brain bucket.
I think Spartan fans are going to like what they saw. That second shot to the stick side was a beauty, and that off-speed shot five-hole? Cocky as hell.
Great stuff, and hats off to Smith for staying in there after the first shot.
I’d have excused myself to the quiet room to check for a concussion if that had happened to me.