How Lexington’s Will Smith became college hockey’s leading scorer 

Will Smith still won’t reveal where he found the “secret little pond,” other than that it’s nestled amongst the trees somewhere in Lexington.  

Though college hockey’s leading scorer hasn’t skated regularly on that pond or at The Old Reservoir, aka “the rez,” for years, the 18-year-old Boston College freshman dynamo still remembers the spot. 

Before Smith became arguably the best player in college hockey on the sport’s top ranked team, and an NHL first round pick, Smith honed his hockey skills on local ponds and in a shooting room in the basement of all of the three different Lexington homes his family lived in. “Where the dreams were being dreamt,” he says.

Smith started taking skating lessons at age four. He tried other sports growing up — soccer, flag football, baseball — but hockey always brought something different out of him. At age eight, Smith experienced playing against older kids for the first time, up to four years his senior, in the Lexington in-house league. Bill, his father, believes that’s where his son got hooked.

Smith, who attended Lexington Public Schools through third grade, dominated the local club circuit with the Boston Jr. Eagles youth hockey team, the program he stuck with through grade school and early in high school while attending Fessenden School in Newton and later St. Sebastian’s in Needham. At 14, Smith led the highly-regarded Quebec Youth Hockey Tournament in scoring, helping his team to the championship game. 

Dennis Burke, who coached Smith with the Jr. Eagles for five years, remembers when he first tried out at eight years old — an “eye-opening” performance. Burke assumed the competition would catch up at some point. It still hasn’t. 

“He was born with something and his skill level was off the charts at a young age,” Burke said. “The puck is like a magnet to him.”

Smith earned an invitation to train full-time with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in Plymouth, Michigan, the country’s best option for 16- and 17-year-old hockey standouts. 

The Smith family kept their Lexington house but moved to Michigan to be together. Bill Smith estimates approximately 70% of the USA Hockey National Development Program players live with host parents, but felt “it was important to be there at a critical stage in his life, and we had the ability to.” 

Smith saw few of his close connections during his years away. He missed the traditional rites of passage for American high schoolers: pep rallies, proms and graduation. Smith’s paternal grandparents moved to Lexington in 1964. Will’s three aunts all live in Lexington with their families, 10 cousins in total. His grandmother Polly, 87, hasn’t missed a BC home game this winter. 

“My friends and family couldn’t go to too many games in the midwest, so it’s nice having them here,” Smith said. “It’s been a dream ever since I was a little kid to play in front of them, so now that it’s actually happening? It’s pretty cool.” 

Smith initially committed to play college hockey at Northeastern, but flipped to Boston College two years later, the 14th member of his family to attend the school, including his father, grandfather, and older sister, Grace, a BC senior. They often meet for lunch on weekdays or attend Sunday Mass. Upwards of 40 people descend upon Conte Forum for each BC home hockey game to support him. 

“I feel like he’s been a big reason why my senior year has been great so far, and as a freshman he reminds me of the fun aspects of college,” Grace said. “I feel like I’ve helped him assimilate to college and get adjusted.

The highest NHL draft pick in school history, Smith registered 18 goals and 39 assists in the regular season for the Eagles (28-5-1, 20-3-1 Hockey East). He’s registered a point in all but three contests, and scored or assisted in 16 of 17 games since the turn of the calendar year. At BC, Smith centers what may be the country’s best line, flanked by two other top prospects, classmate Ryan Leonard, the eighth overall pick in the 2024 NHL draft, and sophomore Cutter Gauthier, a 2022 first round pick. 

“They’ve demonstrated that they have the chemistry to pull off a lot of plays where it doesn’t look like they know where each other are, but they do,” Boston College coach Greg Brown told the media after a 7-1 win over Vermont on Feb. 23 in which Smith compiled three assists. 

Smith also helped the US Junior National Team win Gold at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship in Sweden in early January. He broke out the year before as the leading scorer at the 2023 IIHF World U18 Championships, another USA gold. 

BC’s regular season ends March 9, but Smith hopes to help the Eagles to a Hockey East tournament title, and see just how far they can go in the NCAA Tournament, which culminates with The Frozen Four April 11 and 13 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“This is kind of the crunch time and we know we’ve got to bear down and win some trophies to make the season successful,” Smith said. 

The international tournaments,The Frozen Four, eventually, the NHL — the 6-foot, 181-pound center already knows his professional destination. Selected No. 4 overall in the 2023 NHL Draft by the San Jose Sharks, he’ll head west when he decides to end his college career.

He’ll continue playing on stages much larger than the mystery Lexington pond he holds so closely. No matter where he goes, Smith keeps Lexington on his mind, like at the NHL draft, when he included a Lexington-themed patch on the lining of his sport coat for all to see. 

“I’m very connected,” Smith said. “I’ve lived in three different houses in the town, and we almost moved, but we wanted to stay in Lexington to make sure I’m from there.”