SAN JOSE – Macklin Celebrini isn’t really used to wearing makeup.
But between a recent photo shoot for The Hollywood Reporter with actor Belmont Cameli and another with two other young stars for a glossy NHL.com feature, Celebrini, the Sharks’ budding superstar, has been getting some practice.
“Yeah, that’s happened a couple times now,” Celebrini said recently of sitting in the makeup chair. “It’s a little weird.”
Celebrini is about to begin his third year with the Sharks, and his public profile — locally and across North America — has never been higher. Having just turned 20 in June, he has not only already established himself as far and away the Sharks’ best player, but also one of the NHL’s most visible and popular athletes.
Just two years after the Sharks made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NHL draft, Celebrini is already the team’s youngest-ever captain, soon to be its highest-paid player, and likely the lynchpin in San Jose’s hopes of snapping a seven-year playoff drought.
In June, he became the youngest athlete to appear on the cover of EA Sports’ popular NHL video game. He has close to 800,000 followers on Instagram, is often recognized around the Bay Area and is a budding sports legend in Canada.
In July, Celebrini signed a five-year, $94 million contract extension that begins next season and will make him one of the NHL’s highest-earning players.
If any of this has affected Celebrini, it doesn’t show.
Asked in August whether the contract might put more pressure on him to perform, Celebrini said, “I don’t think anything really external will affect the way I play or who I am.”
Longtime NHL player and current ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro suggested Celebrini’s comfort in the spotlight is “the way of the newer player.”
“They’ve all grown up with a phone in their hand. They’ve grown up with social media,” Ferraro said on a recent conference call. “They’re not intimidated by it. They welcome it.”
Much of Celebrini’s newfound celebrity status comes from his play during his remarkable second NHL season.
San Jose Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini (71) signs autographs for fans during a pregame ceremony before the San Jose Sharks’ home opener against the Vegas Golden Knights at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
He broke a Sharks franchise record by finishing the 2025-26 season with 115 points, one point ahead of Joe Thornton’s 2006-07 mark. Had the Sharks made the playoffs – they finished four points out of the Western Conference’s last postseason spot – he likely would have won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL player most valuable to his team.
Celebrini also gained attention for his accomplishments on the international stage. He was Canada’s youngest player at the Milan Olympics in February and finished as the tournament’s second-leading scorer, ahead of former MVPs Nathan MacKinnon (his Canada teammate), Auston Matthews (Team USA) and Leon Draisaitl (Germany). Without a playoff moment on his resume yet, this announcement marked Celebrini’s arrival on the global stage.
Team USA’s overtime win over Canada in the gold medal game drew massive television ratings, and in his first availability with reporters in San Jose after the tournament, Celebrini stood in front of his biggest media scrum in two-plus years as a Shark and shared his disappointment with the result. He also said it was an “honor to play with” childhood idols such as Sidney Crosby and tournament scoring leader Connor McDavid; now he’s in their league at the top of the hockey world.
“He’s become the face of a franchise and someone that’s put in a lot of these different moments to try to sell the game to a wider audience,” said NHL Network analyst EJ Hradek, “but he’s just a really great player.”
Celebrini’s on-ice training throughout the summer months near his hometown of North Vancouver, British Columbia, was documented on social media nearly daily. He took a break from hockey after captaining Canada’s team at the IIHF World Championship in Switzerland in May, but added that whenever he’s at the rink, which is often, “it’s kind of hard to hide.”
At times, when the Sharks were on the road last season, the scene around the rink for a morning skate — not to mention the team’s hotel and bus — could get “pretty hectic,” goalie Alex Nedeljkovic said, with fans clamoring for a picture or an autograph from Celebrini.
With Celebrini’s rising profile and increased attention on the improved team, the Sharks have put more resources into proactive safety and security measures, both in San Jose and while the team is on the road.
“It’s crazy,” Nedeljkovic said of the increased attention Celebrini received last season, “and it’s only going to grow the more success he has.”
In this photo taken with a smartphone, San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini, center, is presented with the captain’s jersey by general manager Mike Grier, left, and coach Ryan Warsofsky during an NHL hockey news conference in San Jose, Calif., Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Josh Dubow)
Asked at the start of training camp whether it’s a weird feeling to have so many eyes on him, particularly in the hockey world, Celebrini said, “I don’t think it really changes anything I do or what I do, so I don’t know if it affects me too much.”
But his growing public profile has brought him opportunities he might not have otherwise.
Celebrini and Cameli, star of “Off Campus,” Prime Video’s popular hockey romance show, joined The Hollywood Reporter’s “Game Recognize Game” series.
That video and one by EA Sports featuring Celebrini and Thornton, called “Guess the NHL Pro,” have racked up nearly 3 million combined views on YouTube.
Celebrini said the sit-down with Cameli “was awesome. Just getting to talk to him, kind of figure out what goes into his life every day of being an actor and going to the set, that was stuff I’ve always really been curious about.”
Ultimately, Celebrini’s focus is getting the Sharks back to the playoffs for the first time since 2019. After years of rebuilding, the team looks ready to contend with the NHL’s best after a busy offseason, starting with Thursday’s opener at SAP Center against the Florida Panthers, picked by many to win their third Stanley Cup in four years.
“People are coming up to us on the street, just saying how excited they are about the season,” Celebrini said. “We didn’t really get that the last couple of years, so it’s cool to see the excitement from the fans.”
“I hope Mack continues (to show his personality),” said Ferraro, also a Vancouver area native who has known Celebrini’s family for years. “There is room and need for it, and for some guys it’s just easy, and for some guys it’s more difficult. For Mack, that stuff is easy. It just bubbles out of him.
“I can’t speak more highly of him as a kid. The way that he was raised, his work ethic, and talent. Man, what a win for San Jose.”
San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini, top left, celebrates with center Will Smith (2) after scoring the winning goal during overtime of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)