What will Will Smith’s next contract look like?

With the growing financial footprint across the NHL, there are a number of players who could be on their way to a significant pay raise.

For the San Jose Sharks, a rising team in the Western Conference, there’s a lot of optimism surrounding the young core. Along with names like Macklin Celebrini and Yaroslav Askarov in their arsenal, one player that everyone is waiting to have a breakout year is Will Smith.

For Smith, this is a big season. He’s heading into the final year of his entry-level contract, and, if he performs well, he can move his way into the eight figures next summer.

On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, JD Young of Locked on Sharks joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to discuss what Smith’s next contract could look like and when the deal might get done.

JD Young: I think the we we kind of gotten the contract [comparables] as of recently, right? I think the Fantilli one, and I think the Cutter Gauthier one are two great comps for him. Cutter Gauthier, of course, 40 goals…Will Smith has yet to crack 30, but if Will Smith is healthy this season, I think he’s going to be very much in line to hit 35 goals this year.

You look at a lot of their analytics; they’re very similar between Will Smith and Cutter Gauthier. So, I think he’s going to, next offseason, land somewhere in that kind of $13 million range, probably five or six years. $13 million would be my guess. I think both Smith and the Sharks are comfortable just kind of letting this thing play out a little bit this season. Kind of see how Smith’s game continues to grow. For Will Smith, you want more of these kind of contract points…and your agent to be like, ‘Well if this guy got paid this much, I think I’m more just as much, not more than that type of player.’ I think this is one of those deals where it gets done in the offseason, but before free agency.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…