After months and months of speculation, only made stronger by exceptional play by the 19-year-old, Team Canada’s brain trust made it official this morning by naming young Sharks’ center Macklin Celebrini to the Olympic roster. Celebrini will join the best of the best on the world stage in Milan in February, and he could very well play a top-six role for Team Canada; he’s had that good a season with the Sharks. For Team Canada General Manager Doug Armstrong, picking Celebrini was a process that started pretty early in the young center’s career.
“I had the opportunity to meet him, it might have been his fifth or sixth NHL game. It’s a story I think I’ve shared with some of you that they were playing in St. Louis. I went down before the game and introduced myself and said, ‘You’re not on the radar likely for the 4 Nations, but the Olympics are coming up, and we’re going to watch you. And he proceeded to have, I think, four points that night,” Armstrong told NHL.com. “Since then, he’s really taken off. He’s gone to the Worlds. He fit in very well, socially with the top players in the game, and his product on the ice speaks for itself. So he worked his way on. His resume is shorter, but it’s extremely filled for his age.”
Making history for Team Canada and the San Jose Sharks
At 19, Celebrini will become the youngest player ever to play for Team Canada’s men’s team at the Olympic Games. He’s one of only two players on Canada’s roster who were born in the year 2000 or later, and he’s nearly five years younger than the other player on the list, Thomas Harley.
Here are the 2⃣5⃣ players who will wear the 🍁 at #MilanoCortina2026! 🇨🇦
— Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada) December 31, 2025
Voici les 2⃣5⃣ joueurs qui porteront la 🍁 à Milan-Cortina! 🇨🇦
ROSTER: https://t.co/5I8Uz2Psfa
FORMATION : https://t.co/zbOWuEgdPQ@TeamCanada | @Equipe_Canada pic.twitter.com/dTc1YKengx
As for Sharks’ records, well, Celebrini is just the seventh Sharks player to compete for Canada at the Olympics.
Celebrini is one of only two players on Canada's roster born in the year 2000 or later, the youngest on the roster by nearly five full years.
— San Jose Sharks PR (@SanJoseSharksPR) December 31, 2025
He can become the seventh Shark to compete for Canada at the Olympics, joining Owen Nolan (2002), Joe Thornton (2006 and 2010), Dany… https://t.co/M03aUvovWF
Owen Nolan did it first in 2002. Joe Thornton did it in 2006. There was the classic year in 2010, when Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatly and Dan Boyle all won gold together. Then, in 2014, Marleau and Marc-Edouard Vlasic represented Canada in Sochi where Canada won gold again.
Other Sharks players could be headed to the Olympics
While Celebrini is the first Sharks’ player to find out whether he’s headed to Milan to represent his home country, he might not be the last. Alex Wennberg, John Klingberg and William Eklund could be asked to play for Team Sweden. Philipp Kurashev could represent Switzerland. Pavol Regenda could play for Slovakia.
