On July 6, first-overall 2024 draft pick, Macklin Celebrini, signed his entry-level contract to the San Jose Sharks. His three-year contract is valued at $13.425 million, with an average annual value of $4.475 million. This is the largest NHL rookie salary to date, beating Connor Bedard’s by $25,000.
Courtesy of Dean Tait - Hockey Shots
The 18-year-old forward is already quite well-known, especially in the Northeast where he played the last year at Boston University. His accolades from the past year span far and wide, both regionally and nationally. At 17, he was the youngest college hockey player in the NCAA this past season and became the youngest player ever to win the Hobey Baker Award. He won National Rookie of the Year, as well as Hockey East’s Player and Rookie of the Year. He was also ranked second in the nation for goals (32) and third for points (64). These huge accomplishments aren’t the only ones from this season either, with him winning Hockey East Player and Rookie of the Week and Month multiple times. The year before, when he played for the USHL Chicago Steel, Celebrini was the second player ever to be named the USHL Player, Forward, and Rookie of the Year, all in one season.
Celebrini was one of the top players at BU this last season, having the second-highest plus-minus rating (+24), the most goals, the second-most assists, and led the team in points. With him and other great players like Lane Hutson, Cade Webber, Case McCarthy, Dylan Peterson, and Luke Tuch leaving, it makes BU fans question how this next season will go. However, Boston will still have Tom Willander, Quinn Hutson, Jeremy Wilmer, Shane Lachance, goalie Mathieu Caron, and hopefully Ryan Greene, who hasn’t decided where he will be playing next season. BU will also be welcoming in some new players, including three who were drafted just last month. Cole Hutson, younger brother of Lane and Quinn Hutson, will be joining the Terriers this fall, as well as Kamil Bednarik and Jack Pridham. There is also the promise of players transferring in from other universities, just like Caron last year. It will be interesting to see how the Boston University Terriers fare without Celebrini and other star players, but knowing the school, they will be able to adapt and excel.
Courtesy of Richard T Gagnon - Getty Images
Since the top draft pick goes to the team with the worst record, Celebrini will be playing on a team that isn’t used to winning in recent years. The San Jose Sharks used to be a formidable team, making the playoffs almost every single year between 1999 and 2019, even making it to the Stanley Cup Final in 2016. But since then, the Sharks have rapidly declined in performance. Why?
Some think that the reason San Jose stopped performing as well as before began when Joe Pavelski, the team’s star forward, left for Dallas after the 2018-19 season. He left and joined the Dallas Stars after disagreeing with the Sharks about what his contract should be since they believed his performance was declining. This was somewhat true, considering the points he tallied in the 2018-19 season were lower than normal for him. Since moving to Dallas, Pavelski has excelled there, churning out an average of more than double the points he had in that last season with the Sharks.
In the years following Pavelski’s departure, San Jose got rid of other star players, such as Brent Burns, Timo Meier and Eric Karlsson. The Sharks’ hope with this move was to get rid of the older players and rebuild around young players. However, these younger players that the team was counting on either did not perform as expected or left.
This past season was the fifth in a row that the Sharks did not make it to the playoffs. The Sharks’ record was 19-54-9, leaving San Jose with a total of 47 points. This is the lowest point total since 2005-06 when the NHL started having 82-game seasons, where one point was awarded to teams who lose in overtime. Like any other team, the Sharks will want to win the Stanley Cup next year, which is likely not possible. However, a reasonable goal would be to climb the rankings, or at a minimum, have more than 47 points next season.
Maybe Celebrini is the key to achieving these goals. With his high tally of goals and assists last season, 32 each, it would be surprising if he regressed to way below that. He also had a plus-24 rating last season, which was one of BU's highest, which is also miles ahead of what the average San Jose player had last season. He also had 12 power-play goals with BU, showing that he is also effective on a power play. The question is whether his ability to score will translate to the San Jose team.
Likely, Celebrini cannot turn the team around on his own, so it is great that he is not the only new addition. Will Smith, who was the fourth-overall pick in the 2023 Draft, also signed an entry-level contract at the end of last season. The Boston College forward was the nation’s leader in points and assists, 71 and 46 respectively. Smith is a high scorer, which was showcased during the 2024 Hockey East Championship when he scored four goals and one assist against Celebrini and the rest of the BU team. Clearly, the two played hard against each other, but perhaps they can become an unstoppable force together.
Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini, courtesy of @sanjosesharks / Instagram
However, Smith isn’t the only newcomer to the Sharks. San Jose is bringing forwards Tyler Toffoli and Barclay Goodrow to the team, who are both previous Stanley Cup Winners. These two, along with newcomer Alexander Wennberg, will provide the team with veteran presence that San Jose has seemed to lack over the past few years. Between these forwards, Smith, and Celebrini having higher points than the average Sharks player last season, there is a chance that with them San Jose will start shooting and therefore scoring more, which was a problem they faced last season, as they had the fewest shots per game and total shots in the league.
As Celebrini prepares for his debut season in the NHL, fans and analysts alike are buzzing with excitement. How will Boston University fare without the star center? Will San Jose come in last place again? Is Celebrini the key to the Sharks getting back on track to win the Stanley Cup in the near future? Will Celebrini win the Calder Memorial Trophy, just as he won the Hobey Baker? Stay tuned to see if the young college star continues to shine once he enters the professional arena.
Edited by Breanna Ebisch
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