SAN JOSE – No one can say for sure whether rookie centerman Macklin Celebrini will be matched up against fellow No. 1 overall draft pick Connor McDavid on Saturday afternoon when the San Jose Sharks face the Edmonton Oilers to begin a quick two-game road trip.
One thing Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky can confidently say about Celebrini, though, is that the 18-year-old isn’t afraid of competing against anyone, including a three-time Hart Memorial Trophy winner like McDavid.
“The one thing I’ve noticed with Mack is he doesn’t shy away from superstars in this league,” Warsofsky said Friday before the Sharks flew to Edmonton. “He doesn’t grip his stick too tight. He doesn’t get shy in his puck battles. He’s still competitive. He still gets in there and digs in.
“We’ve seen that here all year, so I wouldn’t expect anything different.”
Celebrini, who enters Saturday with 22 points in 23 games, has already competed against some of the best centermen in the NHL, including Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby, Florida’s Aleksander Barkov, and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon. This is the Sharks’ first game against the Oilers this season.
Celebrini hasn’t always been matched up against those players during 5-on-5 play, and didn’t see much of MacKinnon, the NHL’s leading scorer before Friday’s games with 52 points, on Thursday night. MacKinnon had two assists in the game as Colorado scored three times in the third period, erasing a one-goal deficit to hand the Sharks a 4-2 loss.
But there’s little doubt that Celebrini has been a focal point of opposing coaches almost all season.
“You have to plan for him a little bit,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said Thursday of Celebrini. “As you get more familiar with him, he spends more time in the league, same as any other top player; you’ve got to know where he’s at on the ice. You’ve got to know what his skill set is, what he likes to do, pick up on some tendencies.
“You’ve got to make sure your matchups are right as a coach; you’ve got the right guys are on the ice to take care of him.”
The Oilers will have the last change against the Sharks on Saturday, but whether fans are treated to a tantalizing matchup between an established superstar like McDavid, taken first overall by Edmonton in 2015, and one potentially in waiting like Celebrini, the top pick this past June, is unclear.
It could be fun to watch, though.
“Just the way both of them drive the play when they have the puck, they have all the skill in the world,” said defenseman Cody Ceci, who was McDavid’s teammate for three seasons before he was traded to the Sharks in August.
“But they also have the smarts and the vision to go along with it, and that’s what makes them special players. So I see a lot of similarities between the two, and just the way they can drive a game.”
Besides winning the Hart Trophy three times as the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team, McDavid has also won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer five times and the Ted Lindsay Award four times as the league’s most valuable player as voted on by members of the NHL Players’ Association.
McDavid has 45 points in 29 games this season and a remarkable 1,027 points in 674 career games.
“He’s probably one of the best in the world at going through defenses and being able to manipulate what they do, and kind of seeing guys that no one else sees,” Celebrini said of McDavid.
The Oilers could also use Leon Draisaitl’s line against Celebrini and present linemates Tyler Toffoli and Nikolai Kovalenko — or use one centered by veteran Adam Henrique.
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Nothing will be easy. Draisaitl was second in the NHL in scoring before Friday’s games, scoring 50 points in 32 games.
“I don’t think I try to do anything that they do,” Celebrini said Friday. “I think it’s just you learn from them, and you see what they do, but also try to play your game and do the things that may have made you successful.
“I don’t think I’m going to be trying to do what Connor McDavid does. I don’t think anyone else can do that.”
Right now, Celebrini and the Sharks just want to win a game. While the Oilers have won nine of their last 11 games to move into third place in the Pacific Division with 40 points, the Sharks (11-19-5) have lost six of seven to fall back into 29th place in the 32-team NHL.
One thing is clear: Celebrini won’t be intimidated by the challenge or the environment.
“He’s a competitive kid, and that’s what we’d want, right? Is someone that’s ultra-competitive, that wants to ball in the last minute of the game,” Warsofsky said. “That’s what every coach wishes for. They have a quiet confidence about themselves. They know they can get the job done, and that’s really what Mack is all about.”