SAN JOSE – Perhaps no one inside the San Jose Sharks organization is more eager to play a hockey game right now than top prospect Macklin Celebrini.
After a seemingly endless but memorable offseason filled with travel and various obligations, including ones just in the last week in both Arlington, Va. and Las Vegas, Celebrini was back in San Jose on Wednesday, joining other Sharks roster hopefuls for an up-tempo practice ahead of the upcoming Rookie Faceoff event in Southern California.
“There’s been so much buildup to the season, and I’m just excited to play my first game,” Celebrini, the 2024 first-overall draft pick, said afterward, “and finally put the jersey on and actually start to play.”
The Sharks are clearly looking forward to that as well.
General manager Mike Grier and several other Sharks’ front office members intently watched Wednesday’s hour-long skate, eager to see Celebrini, the 2023-24 Hobey Baker Award winner, mesh with his teammates on the ice and effectively start his pro career.
Celebrini’s first actual competitive game since May, when he and Team Canada played Austria in a pre-World Championships exhibition, will likely be Friday at the Toyota Performance Center in El Segundo. The Sharks prospects open the event that day against Utah at 1 p.m., followed by games against Anaheim on Sunday and Colorado on Monday.
Even in an event filled with gifted young players, all eyes figure to be on Celebrini, who is expected to become the first 18-year-old to make the Sharks’ opening-day roster since Patrick Marleau joined the team in 1997, just months after he was taken second overall.
Wednesday, he displayed the skating, passing and shooting traits that made him the top player in the draft.
“There’s huge excitement,” said Barracuda coach John McCarthy, San Jose’s bench boss for the event. “We didn’t do a whole lot today, but you can see the talent, and you can also see the work ethic. He doesn’t want to get off the ice. He’s kind of hungry that way.
“It’s a really exciting time for the organization.”
Following all of the hoopla leading up to the NHL Draft, Celebrini got a chance to enjoy some downtime earlier this summer after he signed his entry-level contract with the Sharks in early July.
Celebrini would be back in the public eye soon enough, as he and fellow prospects Will Smith and Shakir Mukhamadullin began this month in Arlington, Va., doing interviews and posing for their first hockey cards as part of the NHL Players’ Association’s Rookie Showcase.
Earlier this week, Celebrini was in Las Vegas, where he spoke briefly and posed for a photo with Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby and fulfilled more media obligations with American and Canadian reporters.
It might be the tip of the iceberg for Celebrini, who begins his rookie season as the new face of the Sharks franchise.
Along with playing an 82-game schedule and the attention he’ll receive locally, Celebrini will no doubt have more demands on his time when the Sharks begin the regular season and travel to hockey-mad markets in Canada and the U.S.
Even for a mature-beyond-his-years teenager like Celebrini, it’s a lot to digest as a first-year professional. But Connor Bedard, the No. 1 overall pick in 2023, had some advice for CelebrinI for the start of his pro career.
“Just play the game, have fun. That’s kind of the main thing,” Bedard told reporters in San Jose in March when asked about Celebrini. “There’s so much that goes on outside that’s great, but honestly, some of it isn’t that much fun.
“When you actually get on the ice and you’re just doing what you love, that’s the best part of your day. That’s kind of how I approached it.”
Celebrini is surrounding himself with the right people to help him with the transition to pro hockey. He announced at the NHLPA event that he’ll be living this season with Sharks icon Joe Thornton.
Thornton, who Grier jokingly referred to as the Sharks’ “director of vibes,” was picked first overall by the Boston Bruins in 1997.
“Living with him, I think it’s the perfect situation for me coming into this year, because he pretty much dealt with the same thing a little while back,” Celebrini said Monday in Las Vegas. “Just to learn from his advice, his lessons and his wisdom is super important for me.”
Celebrini’s parents also live in the East Bay, and the Sharks have people in place to help all NHL players with their daily lives. Celebrini mentioned Rosemary Tebaldi, the Sharks’ vice president, hockey administration, as someone invaluable to him.
“I have so many people around me that kind of have helped me with travel, schedule-wise,” Celebrini said. “So I’m very lucky, or else I’d be lost.”
With Celebrini set to move in with Thornton soon, Smith, 19, will be living with Marleau this year.
“None of us have been the number one overall pick. We don’t know what it’s like,” McCarthy said. “So for those guys who know what it’s like and to have gone through it is a huge resource for those kids.”
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After the Rookie Faceoff, the Sharks will begin main camp on Sept. 19 and play their first preseason game on Sept. 22 at home against the Vegas Golden Knights. Their regular-season opener is on Oct. 10 at home against the St. Louis Blues.
But for Celebrini, the excitement starts this weekend.
“I haven’t played a game in three and a half months,” Celebrini said. “So probably just try to play another game, have some fun, kind of build relationships with my new teammates, and just enjoy going to L.A. for a couple games.”