Shawn Horcoff doesn’t get to see his son play in person very often.
As the general manager of the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins, Shawn’s frequently on the road with the team. But the No. 2 Michigan hockey team’s series against Notre Dame presented the perfect opportunity. He’d get to see both his son, Wolverines sophomore forward Will Horcoff, and his oldest daughter, Jade, who is a junior studying biology in South Bend.
Shawn was only able to watch Michigan’s first game before he needed to rejoin the Griffins in Rockford, Ill., so he didn’t get to see Will’s overtime winner against the Fighting Irish. But he appreciates any chance he gets to watch his son play hockey for Michigan in person. Even if it is for his alma mater’s rival.
“Personally, I still cheer for Michigan State,” Shawn, who captained the Spartans during the 1999-2000 season, told The Michigan Daily. “I’m happy when they do well, obviously. Anytime that they’re not playing my son, I’m cheering for them and pulling for them, being an alumni there.”
There was some hope among Spartans fans that, especially given the program’s resurgence under coach Adam Nightingale, the younger Horcoff would commit there. But as much as Will’s life has been defined by his dad’s career and legacy in the NHL and beyond, it’s also defined by the choices he’s made on his own.
“He wanted to burn his own path,” Shawn said.
Will Horcoff chose the Wolverines. Now, as a first-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, he’s making a name for himself.
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Will’s life revolved around the NHL far before he ever contemplated entering the draft. Growing up with a father in the show, it’s hard to avoid it. Just three days after Will was born, Shawn had the primary assist on the Edmonton Oilers’ only goal of a 5-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks. He also took a two-minute minor for slashing in the third period.
Before he was 10 years old, Will had lived in four cities across two countries and attended eight different schools along the way. He spent the school year in whatever city his father played in and the summer in Detroit, where Shawn trained.
Most kids don’t spend their time running around NHL locker rooms. Will did. Most kids don’t get put into trash cans by young NHL stars because they played pranks on him. Will did.
“He’s really good now,” Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin, the victim of said pranks, told Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News. “He was one of those kids that was around all the time. I just enjoyed interacting with him.”
Will was on the ice at 4 years old and in elite hockey programs at Honeybaked and Little Caesars when he was 12. He played for the USNTDP and has a World Juniors bronze medal. You’d think his life has always been constrained by rink walls, ice sheets, sharpened skates and taped sticks.
But that’s not the case.
“There’s more to life than hockey,” Shawn said.
It’s an unusual statement from one of the 412 people in the world who have played over 1,000 games in the NHL. Shawn built a life and a career around hockey. He met his wife, Cindy, while playing hockey at Michigan State. After that, it was on to the Edmonton Oilers, who drafted him in the fourth round in 1998. He did nothing but play hockey until he retired in 2016, when he became director of player development for the Detroit Red Wings, continuing to pursue a career in hockey. He helped coach Will’s youth teams and was often a harsh critic of his son’s performance. Shawn is a hockey player, through and through, and so is Will. And yet Shawn has always believed his son should do more than merely the sport he’s known his entire life.
“If you are fortunate enough to make the NHL and play a long time, there’s still hopefully a lot longer left in your life with many other things to accomplish,” Shawn said. “As parents, you’re just trying to give your kids as many tools as possible to be successful in whatever they want to do in life. … He’s obviously working hard on the hockey tools, and hopefully he can make a career in that. But if that’s not the case, (there’s) hopefully other areas that he can find success in as well.”
A strikingly pragmatic view, but one that has been driven into Will from a young age. His parents encouraged Will to pursue things outside the bubble of hockey. Will played both tennis and travel lacrosse into high school. He also has a well-documented love of pickleball. Eventually he had to quit lacrosse to focus on hockey full-time, but the experience of playing other sports at higher levels was one that he valued.
“I think that’s really important, playing multiple sports, just to build athleticism,” Will told The Daily. “It’s always nice to play something else, as well. I’m a competitive person. I like all types of games, not just hockey.”
Perhaps more importantly than the variety of athletics, though, was the emphasis Shawn and Cindy placed on academics. Both graduated from Michigan State with degrees in finance; Will is following in their footsteps as he plans to major in economics.
For Will, this focus on education proved to be a boon to his hockey career. He did not commit to college as soon as he was eligible, weighing his options for most of his junior year. Academically, he could have gone anywhere. Near the end of the school year, he’d narrowed it down to a few schools, including Harvard, Michigan and Michigan State. Harvard was a good fit academically. Michigan State was his father’s legacy. But Michigan was where Will saw his future.
“(My dad) wanted me to go where I felt was best and where I wanted to go deep in my heart,” Will said. “And that was Michigan at the end of day.”
Michigan was somewhere he could build his own legacy. Will liked the academics, particularly the opportunities in business. He also liked the development plan Wolverines coach Brandon Naurato laid out for him, and he liked the number of players Naurato has helped reach the NHL in his four years at the helm. On April 25, 2024, he announced his commitment to Michigan.
That doesn’t mean that Shawn is wearing Michigan gear now, though.
“He’s gotta win a national championship for me to put a piece of that on,” Shawn said.
For his senior year of high school, he went back to the NTDP, moving up to the U18 team. Despite playing limited minutes in a fourth-line role, he always planned on finishing the year with the team, going through the draft process and joining the Wolverines in the fall.
Then, Naurato picked up the phone.
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In November 2024, Michigan graduate defenseman Tim Lovell signed with Jukurit of the Finnish Liiga, and shortly thereafter, Wolverines forward Christian Humphreys signed with the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL. Already struggling with injuries, Michigan was left very shorthanded. Naurato desperately needed another body.
It wasn’t easy to find one. The player needed to be academically eligible to play for Michigan and able to join the Wolverines mid-year. Will had graduated early and was already accepted for the following year, so he was eligible to enroll a semester early. Naurato has known Will for more than seven years, having worked under Shawn while he was with the Red Wings, and was convinced Will could handle the transition even as a 17-year-old.
“The biggest thing with him was, academically, we felt like he could handle it,” Naurato told The Daily. “I think he (was) as mature as you can be for a 17-year-old. … And I knew the opportunities that we (could) put him in.”
For Will, it was a perfect chance. He was playing limited minutes on a struggling NTDP team, and Naurato wanted to try him in former forward Dylan Duke’s left-side net-front spot on the power play. Even though he’d be the youngest player in college hockey if he joined, he bet on himself and his abilities and made the leap. In front of 25,709 people at Wrigley Field, Will made his collegiate debut, scoring a goal and an assist.
“I just remember playing free,” Will said. “That’s the best thing about coach Naur. I came in, youngest guy in college hockey, halfway through the year to a team that’s already been together, and he was just like, ‘Go be you and go play free.’ I thought I was able to do that out there.”
That freedom provided a boost to both himself and the Wolverines. Michigan’s power play improved after his arrival and he rocketed up in mock drafts from a third or fourth rounder to a potential first-rounder as he accumulated points. In a matter of months, he had surpassed his father’s draft position. His stock rose further with an outstanding showing of athleticism at the NHL Draft Combine, where he set a combine record in the horizontal jump and placed highly in several other categories.
He also went through interviews with every team. One team he spoke with twice was the Pittsburgh Penguins. He doesn’t remember much about the conversations with the Penguins — “I had 31 in four days,” Will said — but he remembers how he felt after.
“I just remember coming out and feeling happy,” Will said. “I honestly just remember coming down being like, that’s the place I want to be.”
In June, he got his wish. The Penguins traded up to select Will 24th overall. Shawn had a bit of a heads-up about the pick, but Will was unaware.
“I didn’t know for sure,” Will said, laughing. “There were a couple of family members in between my dad (and I), … but I heard some muttering over there. So I knew there might’ve been a chance, but I didn’t know for sure until my name was called.”
And as “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers played — Will’s chosen draft song — he climbed up the steps of the stage and put on a Penguins jersey. As the youngest player in college hockey, he’d elevated himself all the way to a first-round selection.
The whirlwind didn’t stop. Immediately, he got a call from Penguins general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas, a FaceTime from sophomore forward Michael Hage and a call from former Michigan forward and current Penguin Rutger McGroarty — all while he was still doing media. His favorite message, though, was a text from Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who Will watched growing up.
“Just a shock,” Will said. “Growing up watching him, he was one of my favorite players, and obviously how dominant and how big of a leader he was, always a role model for me growing up. So to get a text from someone like that, super special.”
At development camp, he got to connect with Pittsburgh’s staff, including Penguins director of player development Tom Kostopoulos. Kostopoulos often checks in with Will and came to see him in person against Western Michigan.
“Great kid,” Kostopoulos told The Daily. “Really good kid with a good head on his shoulders. Confident, but also understands there’s work to do, and wants to dive into how he can get better as a hockey player. He knows there’s work to do to get to the next level, and he wants to talk about it. He wants to work to keep improving his game.”
His game has taken a noticeable step this year; Will has 18 points in just 14 games to start the year with Michigan. He took skating lessons over the summer — something his dad did while in the NHL — and is working on his defensive play. Will knows he’s only got so many years with the Wolverines, and he is dead-set on making them count. He has to make his dad wear the maize and blue.
“Big Ten, playoffs, national championship — that’s the ultimate goal for me,” Will said. “There’s nothing more I want.”
Will’s path will always be entwined with his dad’s, but he’s forged his own way in hockey and isn’t planning on stopping any time soon.
