Top pick Celebrini has goal, assist in Sharks debut
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Macklin Celebrini didn’t take long to make an impact for the San Jose Sharks.
The 18-year-old rookie scored San Jose’s first goal of the season and added an assist in his first period as a pro in Thursday night’s season-opening, 5-4 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues, signifying a brighter future ahead for a franchise that has been in the doldrums the past five years.
“It was awesome,” Celebrini said. “It’s everything I thought it would be for my first game. It was an amazing experience, and I’ll cherish it for the rest of my life.”
Celebrini’s first career goal came on his third shift and was a fortunate one. The former Boston University star came in on a rush and did a spin-o-rama near the boards before trying a centering pass to William Eklund that hit defenseman Matt Kessel‘s skate and went past Joel Hofer at the 7:01 mark.
“I just tried to fake up and then just throw one to the middle and see if he could get a stick on it,” Celebrini said. “Just a lucky bounce off the D-man’s skate.”
Celebrini didn’t even realize he got credit for the goal until teammate Eklund told him during the celebratory scrum.
The goal led to a loud ovation and chants of “Celebrini! Celebrini!” from a fan base that has been starved for success but is energized by a youth movement led by Celebrini, the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, and 2023 first-rounder Will Smith.
Celebrini wasn’t done, adding an assist later in the first period on a pass from behind the net to Tyler Toffoli.
“He did the same thing the first game in preseason we played together, too,” Toffoli said. “He’s incredible, an incredible talent, works extremely hard. At the end of the day, he wants to win games, too, and he’s going to do whatever it takes.”
Celebrini, at 18 years, 119 days, is the sixth-youngest player to score in his NHL debut and the youngest since Aleksander Barkov did it at 18 years, 31 days, on Oct. 3, 2013.
He joins Auston Matthews (two goals) as the only No. 1 picks to have multiple points in the first period of their NHL debuts. And he’s the third-youngest player to have a multipoint game in his debut, joining Nathan MacKinnon (18 years, 31 days) and Bobby Carpenter (18-86).
“It was cool to get the firsts for both in my career, but we lost so it sucks,” Celebrini said of having a goal and an assist.
The debuts for Celebrini and the 19-year-old Smith mark the first time in nearly 26 years that the Sharks had two teens in the lineup and the first time any team had two players picked in the top four of the draft make their debut in the same game since Matthews and Mitch Marner did it for Toronto in 2016.
The two got loud ovations when they came on the ice for warmups, and Celebrini got one of the loudest ovations during pregame introductions.
The Sharks were one of the most successful franchises in the NHL over a span of 15 seasons, making 14 playoff appearances, five trips to the Western Conference finals and a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2016.
Since getting to the conference finals in 2019, the Sharks have missed the playoffs for five straight seasons and bottomed out with a 19-win season in 2023-24 when they posted the worst goal differential in a season in 30 years.
The prize for that performance came when San Jose won the draft lottery and the right to draft Celebrini, who had 64 points in 38 games as a freshman at Boston University last season and won the Hobey Baker Award as the top college player.
The pick of Celebrini came a year after San Jose drafted Smith fourth, and he starred at Boston College last season before also joining the NHL.
While the team on the ice might still be a few years away from contending, the additions of Celebrini and Smith have provided hope to a Sharks fan base sorely in need of it after seeing stars from the previous generation, such as Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns, Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier and Erik Karlsson, move on in recent years.
Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.
