Meet the trio of linemates leading a fantastic USNTDP class into Nashville

It was the rare time the Team USA line of Ryan Leonard, Will Smith and Gabe Perreault could not be together. Overtime in the gold medal game of the Under-18 World Championship began with Smith in the penalty box and Sweden hoping to net the golden goal on an abbreviated 4-on-3 power play that carried over from the third period.

As the time on Smith’s penalty ticked down to the final 10 seconds, Sweden’s Theo Lindstein wired a puck toward the goal from the high slot. His attempt, though, was blocked by Leonard, who had dropped to one knee just above the hashmarks. Initially, Leonard popped right up to tear after the loose puck, creating a good scoring chance for himself at the other end of the ice as Smith stepped back on the ice. However, as play halted before the next faceoff and the full effect of Lindstein’s shot sunk in, he writhed on the American bench.

Leonard was still squirming as Smith and Perrault — two of the deadliest players in the tournament — jumped on the ice, the former nearly ending the contest with a shot that went just over the crossbar. By the time both teams changed on the fly, Leonard — pain or no — was hopping back on the ice. He had a full head of steam going when Cole Hutson swished a little feed up to him just before the Swedish blue line. At the top of the left circle, Leonard darted to the middle of the ice and released a shot that squeezed through goalie Noah Erliden for the 3-2 American victory.

Moments later, he was ripping off his helmet and getting mobbed by teammates. And a little more than a month after that April 30 contest in Switzerland, he was at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo, still grinning, sounding like a guy who knows he’s going to do this type of thing again. “My leg was a little banged up, but it’s a gold medal game, it’s overtime,” he said. “Your adrenaline takes over. I was not feeling anything. I told [the team] I was fine to go, [my] name got called and then, yeah: Game.”

Leonard’s name is going to get called again very soon, this time by a team at the NHL Draft in Nashville next week. There’s a good chance the right winger will be selected just after his centre, Smith, and maybe not that long before the port-sider on their line, Perreault, gets snapped up, too. The trio was part of a fantastic U.S. National Team Development Program squad that could well place a half-dozen players in the first 40 picks in Tennessee. There’s a lot of focus on Smith, Leonard and Perrault, though, not just because it’s natural to group the linemates together, but also because of the unique package each kid brings. Somewhere down the road these guys will all be on different teams. For now, though, the chemistry will carry over to next fall, with Perrault following the Massachusetts boys Smith and Leonard to Boston College in the NCAA. Life together was just too much fun to stop now.

Whether from NHL executives or people in the media, prospects get asked all kinds of questions during their week at the combine. It’s safe to assume, though, no players were probed as consistently about their linemates as Smith, Leonard and Perreault. The answers were, more or less, adorable.

“Aw Gabe, where to start?” Leonard gushed when asked about Perreault.

“He’s always sticking up for me and I’ve always got his back, too,” Smith said of Leonard, the guy he’s lived with for two years and been pals with since they were playing summer hockey tournaments together pre-puberty.

“I think Will was asking me pretty much every day if I was going to come,” Perreault said of Smith (and Leonard) leaning on him to pick Boston College.

Opponents may be a little less sentimental about the trio, but there’s still plenty of reverence. Brandon Svoboda is a six-foot-three centre who saw plenty of the NTDP’s top line while facing them as a member of the Youngstown Phantoms in the United States Hockey League. “They’re all really high-end guys,” says Svoboda, himself a likely fourth- or fifth-round selection this year. “You have to know where they are. They love making the extra pass to each other, they have high-end vision.”

Smith and Perreault actually played a fair bit together last season, as well, when all three guys were members of the U-17 squad. Dan Muse coached that club and when everybody, including the bench boss, jumped up to the U-18 team this year, there was a feeling Leonard might be a nice fit with the two. “It was something we wanted to try, and I think the guys liked the idea of playing together and they showed it on the ice,” Muse says. “All three of them think the game well, they read off each other well, they’re all really competitive. Everybody has different degrees of the things they bring and also the way they bring it.”

Yes, each player has can’t-miss attributes, while also possessing more subtle elements to his portfolio. Mind you, there’s nothing understated about the 132 points Perreault put up in 63 games this year, a number that established a new record for the development program. “He’s done some things I haven’t seen anyone else do,” Smith says.

The son of former Toronto Maple Leaf and Montreal Canadien centre Yanic Perreault, Gabe was coached by his dad at the AAA level growing up in Illinois and his older brother, Jacob, was picked 27^th overall by the Anaheim Ducks in 2020. “His family is really tight,” Muse says. “He’s got a great family, great people, obviously great hockey background there and experiences and people to learn from.”

Perreault’s NHL genes are never more apparent than when he’s dishing in the offensive zone. His creativity and ability to find teammates that may not even realize he’s looking for them might be unparalleled in this draft class. “I always say, he makes plays you don’t even see on TV and in slow motion,” Leonard says. “The way his brain thinks is truly special, and to play with him, it makes my life pretty easy.”

Perreault was slotted 16^th in the most recent ranking by Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala. He’s been dinged for less-than-stellar skating and the fact that he tips the scales at just 165 pounds, despite having put on a little weight in the past year. Perreault, naturally, is doing all he can to address those concerns and Muse makes a point to stress this is not some one-way player whose presence is only felt when he has the puck on his stick. “For me, it’s not just in the offensive zone; it’s in all three zones,” he says. “That ability to read space and the ability to anticipate — I think it stands out the most when you’re watching him in the offensive zone, but I see it in all areas of his game. The way he can think [and] anticipate defensively.”

Perreault’s cerebral approach has made him a fantastic fit beside fellow brainy player Smith, who figures to be claimed by Columbus at No. 3 or San Jose one pick later, thanks in large part to his other-level hockey sense.

“It’s off the charts,” Muse says. “Great ability to read space, great anticipation. You combine that with an incredible skill set, a great shot. There’s a lot of deception in Will’s game. He’s a tough player to handle defensively for anybody who’s out there against him. You don’t ever really know where he’s going to go.”

Indeed, to hear Muse describe it, it’s almost as though Smith can Jedi mind trick opponents to slot them exactly where he’d prefer. “He can force defenders to kind of go the way he wants and then attack that space,” the coach says.

Had Smith’s overtime shot versus Sweden gone the way he desired, he would have not only won the gold medal about a minute earlier but also moved into a tie with Russia’s Nikita Kucherov for the most points ever at a U-18 worlds (21). As it stands, he still equaled Jack Hughes’ American record by posting 20 in seven games.

Understandably, Smith’s absurd skills have never been questioned. What has been raised in the past — as is the case with so many five-foot-11, 175-pound puck wizards — is how he’ll hold up in the other areas of the game. Muse emphasizes that what compete and tenacity look like for one player isn’t necessarily what it will look like for another. Smith is never going to be mistaken for a power forward, but he’s learning to track back and lift sticks and get good enough at those smaller things to allow the loud parts of his game to shine without caveats.  “Will has always been that skilled guy that everybody has had to circle around,” Leonard says. “But then in time, you have to learn how to become a hockey player. He’s done that, flat out. That’s why he’s a top prospect in this draft.”

So is Leonard, although unlike the other two, his appeal is built in no small part by things that don’t always show up on the scoresheet. While the right winger joins Perreault and Smith in the sub-six-foot club, he’s a sturdy 192 pounds. The combine runs concurrent with the Stanley Cup Final, so executives watching heavy bodies thrive on the biggest stage get extra infatuated with an all-out competitor like Leonard. “Ryan Leonard is playing playoff hockey all the time,” Muse says. “That’s all he knows.”

Just as he has a no-nonsense game on the ice, Leonard is direct off of it. He’s the good kind of confident, the natural type that just seems as though he’s never been anything else. Asked which NHLers he likes to watch, Leonard sort of flipped the question around. “Anybody who plays like me,” he said. “Makes the game fun out there, physical, competes their bag off night-to-night. I think it’s fun to watch those guys who bring energy and bang to the game.”

When the standard query about what he hopes to improve on was put to Leonard, he was pretty succinct: “I kind of like where I’m at, honestly.”

Most people do, though because the word “intangibles” is so entrenched in the conversation around him, Leonard is a flashpoint for the semi-nauseating headbutting between the “give me skill or give me death” camp and the old school “this is a guy you win with” crew — especially given that he legitimately seems to be in play at No. 5 overall for the Canadiens. Muse, however, may help put any debate to rest. He says he understands why power and aggression are always the headliners with Leonard. That’s how he starts any description of the winger, too. But you’re not a top-10 pick in 2023 without a boatload of skill, and Muse thinks Leonard’s tool kit sometimes gets glossed over. “He’s great on his edges, shot that can score from distance, can score in tight,” Muse says. “He’s really hard to play against. Just in terms of how he sees plays and makes plays. You saw the chemistry those three had, that’s 100-percent there with him as well. There are a lot of layers to his game.”

Muse figures to be a proud coach next week, with so many guys he guided poised to take the next step in their hockey journey. But the first three off the board, almost certainly, will be Smith, Leonard and Perreault, a troika of players who hit it off immediately and never stopped scoring.

“Just a little bit of everything,” Leonard says of the mix. “Three similar players [in some ways], but very much different in a lot [of ways], too.”

Perfect as a whole, equally appealing as parts.