SAN JOSE — Like everyone else on the San Jose Sharks roster, Macklin Celebrini has grown sick and tired of losing so many games.
And as Celebrini makes his way through his rookie NHL season — and with the rebuilding Sharks on a seven-game skid — indications are the 18-year-old has been finding his voice on the team and has been less hesitant to communicate what’s on his mind.
“He’s been expressing his frustration on the bench. You can hear it quite a bit,” Sharks center Nico Sturm Monday said of Celebrini. “He’s a competitive kid, so he’s obviously learned pretty fast that a lot of the responsibility, whether you want it to or not, lays on the shoulders.”
Most NHL rookies, especially teenagers, are tentative to say too much inside a locker room filled with older, more experienced players. Their roles on the team are usually not big enough or they lack the clout or gravitas for their voices to carry much weight.
Celebrini is different. As the No. 1 overall pick from June’s NHL Draft, he’s already — in several ways — become the face of the Sharks franchise. And considering he’s never lost this many games in a row in his life, he’s bound to be upset.
“I just wasn’t in a place to (be vocal as a rookie), but he’s earned that right,” Sharks alternate captain and defenseman Mario Ferraro said of Celebrini. “He’s already a huge, huge impact for this team, and even when I hear him communicate on the bench, I look up to that. Guys look up to that because he’s such an impactful player. So he’s earned that already.”
“Obviously, I’ve kind of got to be myself, but also look to the vets to lead us at some points,” said Celebrini, who is second on the Sharks with 27 points in 27 games this season. “That’s not going to really change who I am or how I react to things or what I say. But we also have a bunch of great vets in this locker room that can speak up and lead.”
Sturm said Celebrini is not degrading when he talks but wants his Sharks teammates to “play with the puck more. He wants us to move pucks quicker, so that’s good.
“We all know he’s going to wear a letter here in the future, and obviously, the sooner he grows into his role, the better,” Sturm said. “Those times where rookies aren’t supposed to say anything, they’re supposed to shut up and just listen, I think those years are long gone, especially when you have that type of player.”
Celebrini was the youngest player in college hockey last season as he completed his freshman year at Boston University. He was a high-profile recruit, but at just 17 and surrounded by a new group of players — aside from his older brother Aiden — Celebrini wasn’t necessarily comfortable speaking his mind right away.
But as the season went on and it became clear that Celebrini was his team’s best player, he became more at ease using his voice. The same thing is happening in San Jose.
“Anytime you come into a new team, you’re not going to feel comfortable right away saying stuff whenever it may be – practice, games, getting on guys — you’re just not going to do that,” Celebrini said.
“Because you’ve got to understand the locker room and know the guys first. Obviously, the longer you spend with them, the more you can feel comfortable talking to them, and vice versa, them talking to you and kind of telling you what they see, just kind of figuring stuff out.”
Even though Celebrini is less than halfway through his rookie season, is he at that point now where he feels comfortable saying what’s on his mind?
“Yeah, a little bit,” he said. “I mean, there’s a lot of guys in here that played in this league – (Marc-Edouard Vlasic) has played in the league since I was born (in 2006). So we have a lot of guys that have been around the league for a long time, that we can look to to lead.”
Still, Celebrini figures to be one of those leaders before long, if he isn’t already.
“He has this in him. He’s a natural born leader, I would say,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “He’s a competitive kid. I’m not going to take that away from him. The more competitive people we have in there in the long run, the better we’re going to be.”
If Celebrini voices his displeasure, that’s fine, Warsofsky said.
“This is an extremely emotional sport, and I think that gets lost when a guy speaks up or voices his opinion,” Warsofsky said. “For me, it’s not frowned upon. I think it’s good. It’s good accountability with our whole group. It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it a lot of times. But it’s a good thing. We need that. We need accountability throughout our room.
“Mack’s obviously getting more and more comfortable the more he plays, and that’s what also makes him who he is. There’s a balance to it, but I think he’s been fine.”
Celebrini is second among all NHL rookies in scoring, two points back of winger Matvei Michkov of the Philadelphia Flyers, who visit SAP Center on Tuesday to close out the 2024 calendar year.
Celebrini and Michkov, along with goalie and Gilroy native Dustin Wolf of the Calgary Flames, have probably become the leading candidates to win the Calder Memorial Trophy this season as the NHL’s top rookie. Members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association vote on the award.
Celebrini, though, couldn’t care less about that right now. All he wants to do is taste winning again as the Sharks enter Tuesday on a 0-6-1 slide and in next-to-last place in the NHL’s overall standings.
What’s been incredibly frustrating for Celebrini and the Sharks (11-22-6) is that four losses have been by one goal, and five have come after San Jose held the lead in the third period.
“It’s cool for the outside people that kind of look at it and compare,” Celebrini said of him and Michkov. “But I just want to stop losing. (The Calder talk) doesn’t really affect anything I do.”
“A lot of other people see him as the face of the franchise, and he knows that. He wants to be that,” Sturm said of Celebrini. “He’s never tried to deflect from that. He embraces that role, and it’s so hard to do at that age. People grossly underestimate how that weighs you down when things aren’t going well, and how he’s handled that, I’ve great admiration for him.”