Sharks Locker Room Was Expecting Celebrini To Be Named Captain

To a man, the San Jose Sharks are thrilled that Macklin Celebrini is their new captain.

The Sharks officially named the 20-year-old their captain on Friday morning.

It’s been a long, um, short time coming. All summer, expectation was that the San Jose Sharks would name the 2024 No. 1 pick captain before the 2026-27 season.

“We all knew he was going to be the captain,” Tyler Toffoli, alternate captain last season, said.

“We were all expecting it,” Will Smith, who said the team learned a couple days ago, said. “He’s gonna have that letter for a while.”

Celebrini, who signed a five-year, $94 million extension that will keep him with the Sharks until 2032, has just two seasons in the NHL under his belt.

But from the beginning, he was demonstrating captain-like traits.

“From even the first camp he was here, you see right away how hard he competes everyday. There’s no off-days,” Alex Wennberg, alternate captain last season, said of Celebrini’s 2024-25 rookie campaign. “He works hard and you see him going out first and last guy to leave, working hard in the gym, that pulls guys along.”

Toffoli said that Celebrini, who was also named alternate captain last year, became an even better leader in his sophomore campaign.

“You definitely saw it. Not only from how well he was playing, but just the day-to-day little things that definitely go unnoticed,” Toffoli said, “Last year, you definitely saw him take that stride.”

“On the ice, you guys all see how special he is as a player,” Collin Graf said. “And then off the ice too, just leading by example, pushing everyone else to be better.”

Even the newcomers to the San Jose Sharks have been impressed.

Defenseman Darnell Nurse, acquired via trade in July, was on the Edmonton Oilers when 19-year-old Connor McDavid was named captain in Oct. 2016.

“Just be himself,” Nurse said, of his advice to Celebrini. “He was named the captain for a reason. It’s not because [of] something that he needs to be. It’s the person that he is and the player that he is.”

GM Mike Grier added that the San Jose Sharks would announce 2026-27 alternate captains next week, before opening night on Oct. 1.

So for the first time since Jan. 31, 2024, now-retired Logan Couture’s last NHL game, the San Jose Sharks will have an active captain in Celebrini on the ice.

“What’s the perfect hockey player [to lead]?” Wennberg asked, rhetorically. “He’s meant to be this.”