DALLAS — The San Jose Sharks might miss Macklin Celebrini as much on defense as they do on offense.

Celebrini, a late scratch for Monday night’s tilt at American Airlines Center, led the Sharks with 115 points last year, and already had five assists in just two games this season.

Celebrini didn’t practice on Wednesday and is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

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His offensive gravity was clear on this Tyler Toffoli goal from Saturday.

Walking down the middle on the power play, Celebrini (71) lures penalty killers Trevor Moore (12) and Scott Laughton (21) toward him. He dishes to Ivar Stenberg (41), who sells shot to Brandt Clarke (92), and Toffoli (73) has a tap-in. Stenberg and Toffoli have a 2-on-1 basically because of the Celebrini threat.

Simply put, Celebrini makes everybody better around him.

And this applicable on defense, too.

At Dallas, especially in a listless first period where the San Jose Sharks were outshot 11-2, they seemed to miss Celebrini’s ability to kill plays, more than anything.

“We just did not win any 50-50 puck battles,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky complained. “We didn’t have numbers on pucks. We just didn’t win enough pucks.”

No. 71, at times, can be the only number you need.

Last year, per Stathletes, Celebrini led all NHL forwards with 175 Turnovers Forced and 134 Puck Battles Won at 5-on-5. Celebrini is, arguably, the best forward in the NHL at turning defense into offense.

“He’s really good at it,” Warsofsky said. “We saw the goal the other night against Byfield one-on-one.”

Without Celebrini leading the way, Sharks forwards struggled to force turnovers against the Stars. That’s one reason why San Jose’s team offense was shut out 5-0 and mustered only 13 shots: The team defense was stagnant too.

Tyler Toffoli, Mason Marchment, Michael Misa, and Ty Dellandrea led Sharks forwards with two 5-on-5 Turnovers Forced apiece. Just in contrast, Celebrini paced San Jose with five Turnovers Forced in each of the first two games of the season.

So who’s going to step up defensively, if Celebrini misses any time?

Alex Wennberg is front, and umm, center. Wennberg forced 150 5-on-5 turnovers last season, eighth among all NHL forwards.

Marchment was also above-average in this category, 45th among all forwards with 123 Turnovers Forced.

And who was third in Turnovers Forced behind Celebrini and Wennberg, among Sharks forwards?

The answer might surprise you: It’s Will Smith, who replaced Celebrini as first-line center at practice on Tuesday, who forced 108 turnovers.

While Smith doesn’t have Celebrini’s physicality and battle component, both have quick hands and great hockey minds.

As for puck battles, trailing Celebrini among Sharks forwards last season, Kiefer Sherwood was seventh in the NHL with 111 Puck Battles Won and Wennberg was an above-average 34th with 90.

If the San Jose Sharks miss Celebrini for any stretch of time, they’ll need to score — and defend — by committee.

“We need guys to step up. It’s sports. It happens in every sport,” Warsofsky said. “The top players go down, people step up.”