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Top 100 21 and Under: 2. Macklin Celebrini - Nov. 4, 2024 - Vol. 78, Issue 04 – Michael Traikos
CALL IT A FLUKE. Or a fortunate bounce. But as far as first impressions were concerned, what Macklin Celebrini did in his NHL debut was a good indicator of why the 18-year-old was selected first overall in the 2024 draft.
On just his third shift in the league, the San Jose Sharks rookie carried the puck into the offensive zone and then – with a defenseman blocking his path – slammed on the brakes and fired a spinning backhand pass for William Eklund that ended up ricocheting off a defenseman’s skate and into the back of the net.
It might not have been exactly what Celebrini had planned, but the creativity he showed in making something out of nothing is why the Sharks – whose cupboard is overflowing with top-end prospects – just might be the most exciting team that misses the playoffs this season. “It was awesome,” said Celebrini after scoring his first NHL goal in a 5-4 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues. “It’s everything I thought it would be for my first game. It was an amazing experience, and I’ll cherish it for the rest of my life.”
So this is what all the hype was about. This is why fans were chanting “Celly-brini” throughout the night. For the first time in a long time, the Sharks are a team worth watching. They might not win a whole lot more than they did last year, when they finished with a league-worst 19 victories. But in Celebrini, fellow rookie Will Smith and a growing cast of college-aged youngsters, there is potential that could bring San Jose back to its glory years when Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski led the team to the 2016 Stanley Cup final.
To that end, Celebrini is living at Thornton’s house this year – a situation he described as “very entertaining.”
“I feel like it was right for me to have someone there who was a former first-overallpick who’s been through it all and who is one of the best players to ever play,” Celebrini said. “He is someone who I can learn from and who has experienced a lot of the things I’m going through.”
Thornton isn’t the only one who is mentoring Celebrini. Last year’s Calder Trophy winner, Connor Bedard, is a close friend, and the pair, who are both from the Vancouver area, call and text each other frequently. Sometimes, it’s to brag about how quickly they made the infamous hike up the Grouse Grind Trail. (Celebrini recently completed the 2.9-kilometer uphill climb in 35 minutes. Days later, Bedard announced he had done it in 34 minutes.) Other times, it’s to get some advice on handling all the extracurricular attention that comes with being a No. 1 overall pick.
While Celebrini hasn’t received quite the same level of hype as Bedard, the lessons learned from how Bedard navigated what could have been a nightmare first season were not lost on the Sharks. Sure, Bedard led rookies in scoring. But he did so in a year where he had his jaw broken, lost a linemate to a season-ending injury and saw another teammate booted off the roster for off-ice reasons. “Watching him go through all that, his injury and the attention and the success he had as well, just seeing how he handled it, seeing how he played through it,” Celebrini said. “I talked to him a little bit about what he did away from the game, or recovery or off-day stuff, and just to see him kind of go through that was helpful.”
One of the things the pair talked about was whether Celebrini would be better off in the NHL or returning to college this year. Based on his first game, it looks like Celebrini is obviously ready for the NHL. But the lure of trying to win a national championship with Boston University wasn’t lost on Celebrini. “A lot of people came up to me after and kind of questioned whether I was actually going to go back,” he said. “And funny enough, I was talking with my dad the other day, and what people don’t realize is I love BU, and I loved my time there. It’s a pretty historic program with a lot of great names coming out of it. And also, part of the thing was we didn’t win anything last year with the team we had. So getting an opportunity to go back and maybe win something after a couple of missed opportunities would have been great.”
In San Jose, he won’t get to live in a frat house or play for a national championship. But at least he’ll get to hang out with kids his own age. Those kids might not make the playoffs this year, but as Celebrini has already shown, the future looks bright.
“Our young core, the players in our system, we have a really good foundation,” Celebrini said. “I’m excited. Anything can happen between trades and injuries, but I’m looking forward to the next couple of years.”