San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini had two assists against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, giving him 110 points this season.
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Sharks left wing William Eklund controls the puck during the first period of Saturday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks at SAP Center in San Jose.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
San Jose Sharks defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin falls as he fights for the puck with Vancouver Canucks forwards Max Sasson, left, and Aatu Raty during the first period at SAP Center on Saturday.
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San Jose Sharks defender Sam Dickinson (6) Vancouver Canucks left wing Drew O’Connor (18) fights for the puck during the second period of their NHL ice hockey game in San Jose, Calif., Saturday, April 11, 2026.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
San Jose Sharks goaltender Yaroslav Askarov (30) track a shot attempt by Vancouver Canucks center Marco Rossi (93) during the second period of their NHL ice hockey game in San Jose, Calif., Saturday, April 11, 2026.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
San Jose Sharks center Michael Misa controls the puck as Vancouver Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek closes in during the first period Saturday at SAP Center.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
Vancouver Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen blocks a shot during the first period of Saturday’s game against the Sharks at SAP Center in San Jose.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
An hour before the puck dropped for the San Jose Sharks’ last home game Saturday night, the SAP Center scoreboard zoomed in on a fan’s poster. On it was Macklin Celebrini’s face, digitally distorted to give him hyper-masculine features: a razor sharp jaw, raised eyebrows, high cheekbones and a puckered pout.
Cameras quickly cut to the real Celebrini, gliding through his warmups before the Sharks took on his hometown Vancouver Canucks. A cheer broke out from a sold-out crowd: Part of Celebrini’s magic is that he isn’t that masculine caricature on the poster.
He’s 19 years old and doesn’t look or sound a day older. He possesses the explosiveness to match, but sees the ice like an old sage. Most importantly, in his second season, Celebrini is the spearhead that took the Sharks from the NHL cellar to the playoffs’ doorstep before the league was ready for them to knock.
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Sound familiar? There’s a new baby faced assassin ready to take the torch.
Celebrini has the goods to lead the Sharks to heights never before reached in the franchise’s 34 years. Just like Stephen Curry, the original baby faced assassin, did with the Golden State Warriors nearly 15 years ago.
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For someone like Draymond Green — a Celebrini fan and Curry’s longest-term teammate — it’s clear to him both lead similarly. Green grew up a Detroit Red Wings fan who idolized Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman. But Green’s new life in the Bay Area drew his hockey fandom to Celebrini, not only because he plays for the local team but because he’s the son of Warriors director of player performance Rick Celebrini. The elder Celebrini joined Golden State in 2018, so Green had a seat to watch Macklin grow up.
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“The way Mack goes about his business is a lot like Steph,” Green said Thursday. “Quiet, head down, to the business. No extra stuff, nothing. Straight to the point. … When you start talking about the face of the organization, he’s a lot like Steph. Quiet, low maintenance. Great.”
That tale is yet to be written and the comparison yet to be fleshed out. The Sharks are falling apart toward the end, losers of three straight with defensive mistakes and waning execution to blame. They had trouble against the league’s worst team in the Canucks, dropping the game 4-3 (2-1 in the shootout) to nearly eliminate San Jose from the playoff picture with just three games to go.
The Sharks weren’t supposed to get this close. This team is young and in the middle of a rebuilding phase, but the accumulation of skill has come together for 37 wins in 2025-26. That’s two fewer than the Sharks earned the previous two seasons combined.
“We know what we’re capable of,” Celebrini said. “I think we showed it this year. No one expected us to be in the position we’re in, except for all of us. We all believed it from the start and we played a lot of really good hockey. I think we just have to play more consistently and limit some of those slides.”
Celebrini is the centerpiece of a group under age 24 that are the building blocks to a rebuild that’s already bearing fruit. The Sharks sensation is also happening around centers Will Smith and Michael Misa, wings Igor Chernyshov, William Eklund and Collin Graf. Yaroslav Askarov, 23, is considered their goaltender of the future. An awkward play in which he got stuck on the goal and brought it down led to a Canucks game-tying goal.
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Which points to where things went awry this year. Their inexperience may be the reason the Sharks miss the playoffs, which San Jose hasn’t made since 2019.
This Sharks team reminds Green of the 2012-13 Warriors. That team made the playoffs as Curry solidified himself a star — sometime around the time he scored 54 points at Madison Square Garden.
Decades of irrelevance, punctuated by the “We Believe” run, culminated with a playoff berth and six-game series win against the Denver Nuggets and a loss to the then-dynastic San Antonio Spurs in the 2013 Western Conference semifinals, but the run was a statement that this was a young team the front office could start investing in. Curry was 24 years old, Green and Klay Thompson were 22.
The Sharks have made that statement, too, despite the likely playoff disappointment.
“You’re talking about a young Bay Area team ahead of the curve,” Green said. “Nobody is expecting them to be near the playoffs this year and you just start pushing the envelope. Ultimately what it does is show the front office and ownership that you’re ready to be invested in. Then you bring in an Andre Iguodala. So you can definitely see the similarity.
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“And they have their Steph Curry.”
Just over 16 minutes into the first period on Saturday, the Sharks scored their first goal. Celebrini won the faceoff and earned the assist on Igor Chernyshov’s goal soon after. The Tank’s full house erupted. The pair connected again for a go-ahead goal in the third period.
“I’ve said this 100 times,” Chernyshov said. “It’s amazing for me to play with these guys. They’re really good players.”
The plays marked Celebrini’s 67th and 68th assists of the season to give him 110 points (including 42 goals) in 79 games. That ranks Celebrini fourth in the NHL behind the greats on great teams. Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, the consensus best in the league, leads with 133 points in 80 games.
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All those points point to how involved Celebrini is while on the ice. In the same way Curry was, and is, Celebrini is known for his anticipation and reads. Curry (with coach Steve Kerr’s mapping) eventually used that spacial awareness to transform the NBA’s style of play into a 3-point shooting spectacle in which he was relocating and spinning defenses backwards.
Celebrini isn’t transforming hockey the way Curry revolutionized basketball, but he may just transform the Sharks into a juggernaut the way Curry did Golden State.