As the great Forrest Gump once said, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." In that regard, the NHL Draft is very similar to life, even with the first overall pick. Sometimes you get a Nail Yakupov, a dark chocolate orange cream that doesn't leave much of a lasting impact, or a Alexis Lafreniere, a milk chocolate peanut cluster that's serviceable but far from the best. Other times, you get the dark chocolate truffle, the Sidney Crosbys and Connor McDavids of the world that can change an organization, or in the case of chocolate: your taste buds, forever. It appears that the San Jose Sharks have found themselves a dark chocolate truffle in Macklin Celebrini.
Moving on from the comparisons to chocolate, at least for now, Macklin Celebrini was named the 11th full-time captain in San Jose Sharks history and the sixth youngest full-time captain in NHL history. He now joins the aforementioned Crosby and McDavid, both of whom were 19 years old when they received their captaincy, in that latter group. Following the official announcement of Celebrini's captaincy, he met with the media along with Sharks General Manager Mike Grier and head coach Ryan Warsofsky to reflect on this monumental moment.
While the Sharks could have likely named Celebrini captain earlier in his career with little objection, they felt now was the right time. "He's been driving our group as an 18 and 19 year old kid, but he's got a lot on his plate, and I think for me, a lot of it was trying to protect him a little bit [and] not overwhelm him with any more responsibilities," Grier said. "Watching him around training camp, we brought in some veteran guys who've been leaders before and have a lot of experience, and all those guys were naturally following Mack."
"One of the the big things that really sealed it for me was exit meetings with some of the players that we reassigned to Barracuda [Training] Camp, and they were all talking about how welcoming the group was and how they were made to feel comfortable and part of it," Grier continued. "[They also mentioned] how Mack reached out and made them feel like a part of the group. That's a pretty special characteristic to have for someone who's so young, to be inclusive to new players, younger players, and older players alike. Once we got that feedback, it just kind of cemented everything that was in my head."
"He leads our group on and off the ice [and] guys gravitate towards him," Warosfsky added. "He's the first guy on the ice, he's the first guy in line, he's a natural leader."
When asked what he was looking for in the Sharks' next captain, Grier laid out some pretty simple criteria. "If you're going to be someone who's going to lead a group, you've got to be a good person," he said. "You've got to do the right things. You got to show up to work every day...Mack has shown that he has those qualities."
Being the youngest captain in franchise history is always a hefty title to hold. There's a lot of responsibility on the 20-year-old's shoulders moving forward, but he embraces it."[It's a] huge honor," Celebrini said. "I think [it's] just something that I can't really take lightly. Obviously, there's responsibility that comes with that, but at the same time, I'm not really going to change who I am or what I do."
Not only is Macklin Celebrini a valuable piece of the Sharks organization on the ice, he's quickly embraced a leadership role during his short time in the NHL. While it's not always advisable to make a young superstar the captain of an NHL team, Celebrini has shown time and time again that he was the right guy for the job.
