SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks signaled the start of a new era in the franchise’s 33-year Saturday, announcing the signing of center Macklin Celebrini — the first overall selection at last week’s NHL Draft — to a three-year, entry-level contract.
Celebrini said he remained open to turning pro or returning to Boston University for his sophomore season throughout the last week. But the more people he talked with inside the Sharks organization and the more he understood what to expect this upcoming season, the more excited he got about jumping to the NHL.
Celebrini, 18, said he finalized his decision Friday night after he completed post-development camp interviews with members of the Sharks’ front office.
“I tried to keep everything open until the end of the week,” Celebrini said Saturday. “Once I got back to the hotel, I kind of knew. That was when it really sunk in with me, that I knew what I had to do.
“Every time I thought about coming to the Sharks, I was just really excited.”
Sharks general manager Mike Grier said the contract was finalized Saturday morning, as he adds a player who figures to be a central part of the team’s rebuild and potential turnaround.
“His play kind of speaks for itself,” Grier said of Celebrini. “At his age, the maturity he plays with, playing a full 200-foot game, getting to the middle of the rink, making plays, handling contact. When some of these older (college) teams went after him, he never backed down. From a play standpoint, we thought that he’s ready and will be able to handle it.’
Grier said he knew he wanted to sign Celebrini after getting to know him better at a dinner last month at the NHL scouting combine in Buffalo, New York.
“He just showed a maturity beyond his years — in his drive and his passion and his want to be a great player in this league. He has that alpha mentality that made us believe he’s ready to handle the ups and downs and the rigors of an NHL season.”
Celebrini’s contract is the maximum available to a player signed to an entry-level deal.
According to PuckPedia and CapFriendly, Celebrini’s contract includes a $877,500 base salary and a $97,500 signing bonus for each of the three years for a cap hit of $975,000. Performance bonuses can add another $3.5 million annually to the deal, bringing the average annual value to $4.475 million.
Since the Sharks won the NHL draft lottery on May 7, Celebrini has indicated that he would consider all his options before deciding on the next career step. But this past season’s Hobey Baker Award winner as college hockey’s top player had little left to prove at the NCAA level.
As the youngest player in NCAA Division I, Celebrini, in 38 games for Boston University, scored 64 points with a plus-25 rating. The freshman, as a 17-year-old, was second among all NCAA Division I players in points-per-game (1.68, trailing only current teammate Will Smith at 1.73), ranked second with 32 goals, and was third in points.
Beyond the numbers, Celebrini’s work and maturity on and off the ice left a positive impression on everyone he met inside the Sharks organization.
“The first thing that I noticed is that he wants to be first in everything,” Todd Marchant, the Sharks’ director of player development, said Thursday. “He’s leading his group right away. He’s first in line. Then you see him on the ice, and he’s first in the drills.
“Those things you don’t teach. I can’t go to a player and say, ‘Hey, you should be first in line.’ They just instinctively have that, right?”
For over a month, Celebrini and his father, Warriors director of sports medicine and performance Rick Celebrini, wanted to see how the organization would shore up its lineup to give the teenage centerman, a former Jr. Shark, the best chance at success early in his NHL career.
The Sharks took steps to try and do just that.
The Sharks signed Smith, the team’s other top prospect, to an entry-level contract in late May and acquired forwards Barclay Goodrow, Carl Grundstrom, and Ty Dellandrea last month. On Monday, the first day of NHL free agency, the Sharks signed winger Tyler Toffoli and center Alexander Wennberg to multi-year contracts.
After Toffoli signed his four-year, $24 million contract, he mentioned Celebrini as one of the reasons he wanted to come to San Jose.
“You just see how skilled he is and how hard he works. I’ve heard nothing but great things about him,” Toffoli said. “It’s an exciting time, and I think that was another major reason for me wanting to come here — to be able to play with him.”
Playing with a better lineup on paper this upcoming season than the one that finished 19-54-9 factored into Celebrini’s decision.
“They did an amazing job. Obviously brought in some veteran guys, guys that have played in the league a long time,” Celebrini said. “They already have some guys, some key pieces that are really important to the culture.”
With that in mind, it would not be a stretch to see Celebrini play alongside Toffoli once training camp begins in September. Other forwards who could play inside the Sharks’ top-six forward group include Wennberg, Smith, Mikael Granlund, Logan Couture, Fabian Zetterlund, and William Eklund.
As a player coming from the NCAA, Celebrini can begin the season in the AHL with the Barracuda. But that appears to be unlikely.
Regardless of where Celebrini starts his NHL career, the Sharks, with him and Smith signed, now have two cornerstone players they hope to build around for at least the next decade. Both Celebrini and Smith are set to become restricted free agents after the 2026-27 season.
