SAN JOSE — Sharks center Macklin Celebrini was the youngest of the 42 men’s players invited to take part in Hockey Canada’s National Teams Orientation Camp in Calgary this summer, the first step for most toward gaining a precious spot on the country’s star-studded Olympic roster.
Four months later, after a historic start to the season, Celebrini’s place on what’s sure to be a stacked Canadian team appears all but assured.
Entering the Sharks’ game against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday, Celebrini, 19, is third in the NHL in scoring with 57 points in 38 games. He’s either scored or assisted on roughly half of the Sharks’ goals this season and has arguably been the biggest reason why the team began the day in a playoff spot.
Celebrini had 55 points before Christmas, tying an NHL record set by Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby in 2006-07 for the most points by a teenager before the holiday break.
In other words, with Canada’s 25-man roster set to be revealed Wednesday morning, what more could he have done?
“He’s an amazing young player,” said Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill, also one of the assistant GMs for Canada’s Olympic men’s team, of Celebrini. “He’s got a great future ahead of him.”
Still, there are plenty of reasons to believe Celebrini can help Canada win a gold medal now.
Nill and other members of Canada’s management group, or anyone else who has followed Celebrini throughout this season or during his burgeoning NHL career, know that his game is not all about offense. His 200-foot game, backchecking, and compete level make him a player who doesn’t necessarily have to score to be effective, making him a good fit for a Canadian team that will not lack offensive firepower.
“He’s becoming one of the top players in the league scoring-wise, but it’s the other intangibles that he does,” Nill told Bay Area News Group earlier this month. “He plays the game the right way, and that’s, for a young guy, you don’t see very many young guys who play like that.”
Celebrini, of course, didn’t just come out of nowhere in his bid to earn an Olympic roster spot. Although Celebrini was tied for second in rookie scoring last season with 63 points in 70 games, league scouts and executives had known for years that he was going to be a special player.
In 2022-23, Celebrini was the USHL’s leading scorer with 86 points in 50 games. Then, a few months before he was drafted No. 1 overall by the Sharks in June 2024, Celebrini won the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in men’s college hockey after an outstanding freshman season at Boston University.
Canadian general manager Doug Armstrong explicitly said in August that there wasn’t an age requirement to be named to the Olympic roster. Still, has Nill been surprised by what Celebrini has been able to do this season?
“It surprises you, but it’s not surprising,” Nill said. “I’ve seen him ever since he was a younger lad for the draft and stuff. He’s just got those intangibles. He plays the game the right way, does the right things on and off the ice.
“He’s in the mix. We’ve still got some tough decisions to make, but he’s definitely put himself in the mix, which is a compliment to him, for sure.”
Celebrini, of course, would be honored to represent his country in Milano-Cortina once the Olympic Games begin in February. But he’s tried to avoid thinking about the possibility too much, with his focus being on helping the Sharks win games.
“Throughout this process, I haven’t really thought about it because I can’t control what they’re going to do and the decisions they make,” Celebrini said on Hockey Night in Canada after the Sharks’ 6-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks. “All I can control is the way I kind of approach every day and trying to help my team win night in and night out.”