LAS VEGAS — General manager Mike Grier and other San Jose Sharks front office members recently had dinner with Macklin Celebrini. Grier said the sit-down was overwhelmingly pleasant as Celebrini displayed maturity beyond his years.
It didn’t take long for everyone to note another element of the teenager’s personality.
“His parents did a really good job of raising him,” Grier said of Rick and Robyn Celebrini. “But when you sit down with him for two minutes, I think you really feel his drive, and his competitiveness kind of leaps out of him.”
When the Sharks select Celebrini first overall in the NHL Draft on Friday at Sphere in Las Vegas, they are not only getting their future No. 1 center, but also someone who drags his team into the fight.
Considering the Sharks are expected to have a young team next season, that trait should make Celebrini exceptionally valuable to the rebuilding franchise.
“It raises everyone’s level,” said Celebrini’s friend and fellow prospect Cole Eiserman on Wednesday. “In practice, if a guy’s really competitive and he’s beating up on you … it gets annoying, and you’ll want to get back at him. That gets other guys to be competitive, and it really brings a positive atmosphere in the rink and in the locker room. It makes everyone better.”
“He plays a real complete game on both ends of the ice, he cares, and I love his competitiveness,” Grier said of Celebrini after the Sharks won the draft lottery in May. “You watch him practice, and he works every drill and goes as hard as he can in every drill. He wants to win every puck battle.
“He’s a real unique player at this age.”
That competitive streak is always present, even when just having some fun.
On Wednesday, Celebrini and four other top prospects helped lead a clinic for boys and girls ages 5-10 at City National Arena on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The prospects and young kids did some fun drills before an informal game broke out.
It didn’t take Celebrini, Zeev Buium, Tij Iginla, and Zayne Parekh long to turn the intensity up a notch. Celebrini and Iginla were on one team, with Buium and Parekh on the other.
“I know we had a lot of fun out there,” Celebrini said. “I think we got a little competitive.”
Soon, some guys were going coast-to-coast before trying to set up one of the youngsters for a goal. There was the occasional hit along the boards, goal-mouth scrambles, and maybe a bit of trash talk among the future NHL stars.
“Macklin was a little bit upset that he was over there losing to me, again,” said Buium, a defenseman who played a key role in the University of Denver’s win over Celebrini’s Boston University Terriers in the semfinals of the NCAA’s Frozen Four in April.
Wednesday’s event was run in conjunction with the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, whose members helped run drills and more or less stayed off to the side while the informal games were going on.
“These guys come out here, the pressure’s off, and you could see their passion and love for the game and that competitiveness,” said former NHL goalie Al Montoya, a coalition member. “Me? My back’s up against the wall, so my legs don’t get taken out. These guys don’t care. They’re out here having fun, and (Celebrini’s) a heck of a player, and he’s going to be a heck of a player for a long time.”
For Celebrini, that desire to win, and just as importantly, that hatred of losing, is part of his DNA.
Not only were his parents terrific athletes in their own right, with Rick playing for the Canadian national soccer team and Robyn a standout soccer player for the University of British Columbia, but he regularly competed against his older brother, Aiden, and his friends while growing up in North Vancouver.
I asked Macklin Celebrini what his decision — to turn pro or return to school — will come down to pic.twitter.com/qrHtN8FdTC
— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) June 27, 2024
“I feel like when you’re a kid, you always want to win,” Celebrini said as he held court with reporters after Wednesday’s event. “I would always play against my brother and his older friends or my friends. You never want to lose, because then someone’s got something up on you. If it’s your friends, then they can chirp you about that.
“There was always that competition, and where I grew up, I feel like it’s just been something I’ve been raised in.”
Things got so competitive between Eiserman and Celebrini one day while they were teammates at Shattuck-St. Mary’s four years ago, they broke each other’s sticks.
“I actually still have his broken stick in my room,” Eiserman said. “I took it back from Shattuck and will always hold on to that one.”
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Celebrini still hasn’t officially said whether he’ll turn pro or return to Boston University for his sophomore season. The 2023-2024 Hobey Baker Award winner as college hockey’s top player said that decision will come after the draft, following more talks with the team that takes him, his parents, and his advisors, although it would be a surprise to see him return to school.
Once he does turn pro, the Sharks will get a special player, competitive streak, and all.
“Watching him play at Shattuck, skating with him, practicing with him, he’s unbelievable,” Buium said. “He’s got the shot, he’s got the skating, he’s got hands, IQ, he’s got it all. And if he’s not going to score. he’s probably going to run you over.
“So (the Sharks are) getting an all-around guy. A guy who’s going to help you win a Stanley Cup.”