In honor of opening night, we held off on releasing our final Top 25 Under 25 player until now. That’s right, at the top of our list for the second season in a row is the centerpiece of the San Jose Sharks rebuild, the team’s alternate captain and likely the captain of the future, Macklin Celebrini. The now 19-year-old had an incredible coming-out party in the NHL. One that saw him make many NHL experts say, “Connor Bedard who?” While we really shouldn’t be comparing the two players because they’re both going to be explosive young superstars in the NHL for many years to come, there’s a depth to Celebrini’s game that even the best of scouts simply were not expecting.
Position: Center
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 190 pounds
Age: 19
Date of Birth: June 13, 2006
Draft Year: 2024 (1st overall pick by the San Jose Sharks)
Shoots: Left
2025-26 Team: San Jose Sharks
What we like
When Celebrini joined the NHL, everyone was fairly certain that he possessed the skills to excel offensively. And he did just that. Celebrini scored a goal and an assist in his first game of the season, and even though an injury knocked him out of the lineup for a bit, when he returned, he was as explosive as ever. By the end of the season, he had 63 points in 70 games, and 41 of those points came at even strength.
But that wasn’t a surprise. Most rookies of Celebrini’s caliber tend to do okay on the scoresheet during their first season. What impressed everyone, even the staunchest of NHL scouts, was what Celebrini did away from the puck. Celebrini came into the NHL and played the kind of two-way game that veterans three, four and five years into the league struggle with. At the age of 18, his breakouts, offensive zone entries with the puck and puck retrievals were comparable to some of the best forwards in the league.
In fact, Celebrini has been so impressive that at the age of 19, he’s already earning a spot on the Top 20 Centers in the NHL list, courtesy of NHL.com. He’s also caught the eye of Team Canada, which invited him to the World Championships last spring and placed him on a line with Sidney Crosby and Travis Konecny. Celebrini’s work paid off on Team Canada; he was also invited to Canada’s Olympic camp in the summer.
People are starting to take notice, which is impressive for a 19-year-old who has yet to officially start his second year of professional hockey.
Areas of improvement
All in all, Celebrini is well ahead of the curve in his development, but he’s not fully developed yet. There are still things that he needs to build on this season.
It starts with his health. Last season, he missed a handful of games because he was injured. He also missed a portion of training camp with an illness. Keeping him healthy so he can play all 82 games this season would be ideal.
He’ll also need to take that next step in production. If his trajectory continues, we’re looking at a superstar in the making. That means he’s a point-per-game player at the very least. Now we’re not saying that Celebrini is Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby or Auston Matthews, but we are looking for a jump in production. Even players like McDavid and Crosby and Matthews, who came out of the gate on fire were still able to build off that rookie season and get even better.
For example, Crosby went from 102 points in 81 games his first season to 120 points in 79 games in his second season, while McDavid went from 48 points in 45 games to 100 points in 82 games. Matthews had 69 points in 82 games his first season and 63 points in 62 games his second season. Celebrini will need to see a similar increase to his point production this season. We’re guessing he becomes at least a point-per-game player.
As far as we can tell, General Manager Mike Grier is doing what he can to support that endeavor. Over the summer, he added puck-moving defensemen in Dmitry Orlov, John Klingberg and Nick Leddy. So far, the team is keeping up Sam Dickinson as well. What’s more, forwards like Jeff Skinner, Philipp Kurashev and Michael Misa should give Celebrini even more options in terms of scoring threats. The team is better and that should make Celebrini better as well.
What’s next for Celebrini?
Celebrini will wear an “A” for the Sharks at all home games this season, which will give him good experience as he grows into a role as a leader of the Sharks. This is the transition period, and it could very well pave the way for handing Celebrini the captaincy as early as next season.
While the goal this season will be gettin guys like Misa and Dickinson going, everything still revolves around Celebrini and making him the most successful he can be. GMMG will still take his cues from his superstar. If Celebrini is happy, then so are the Sharks. Grier will make sure that the young forward has everything he needs to succeed this season. If that means trading for a defenseman or forward to jumpstart the offense in the middle of the season, then that’s what’s going to happen.
More than anything, though, the vibes must continue in San Jose. I cannot see Grier allowing the same thing to happen in San Jose that happened in Chicago last season. As long as Celebrini is happy, so is the rest of the Sharks organization.
Highlights
Instead of highlights, I thought I would leave it to some people who truly understand the game well to talk about what Celebrini does so well. Hockey Psychology did this breakdown of Celebrini’s game a bit ago, and it’s a good explanation of what makes him an exceptional hockey player and better than his peers at such a young age.
And while this is an older clip, if you have not seen this Film Club of the Hockey PDOCast’s Dimitri Filipovic breaking down tape of Celebrini’s game, it’s well worth the watch.
Previous Top 25 Under 25 Posts
2. Will Smith
3. Michael Misa
4. William Eklund
5. Yaroslav Askarov
6. Sam Dickinson
7. Shakir Mukhamadullin
8. Igor Chernyshov
9. Quentin Musty
10. Luca Cagnoni
11. Collin Graf
12. Filip Bystedt
13. Joshua Ravensbergen
14. Kasper Halttunen
15. Eric Pohlkamp
16. Cam Lund
17. Ethan Cardwell
18. Haoxi Wang
19. Leo Sahlin Wallenius
20. Jack Thompson
21. Cole McKinney
22. Zack Ostapchuk
23. Mattias Havelid
24. Egor Afanasyev
25. Carson Wetsch
Honorable Mentions: Joey Muldowney, Jake Furlong, Brandon Svoboda, Nate Misskey, Gabriel Carriere
