Macklin Celebrini’s lower-body injury isn’t considered serious, but the San Jose Sharks may still have to play the St. Louis Blues on Thursday without their No. 1 centerman and top scorer.

Celebrini, who leads the Sharks with five points, all assists, in two games this season, did not practice with the team on Wednesday at Enterprise Center in St. Louis, marking the second straight day he’s stayed off the ice.

Celebrini is still considered day-to-day as he receives treatment for an unspecified lower body ailment. He’ll be re-evaluated Thursday as the team prepares to close out a two-game road trip.

It remained unclear as to when Celebrini sustained the lower-body injury. He participated in all scheduled practices during training camp and two preseason games last month before he led all Sharks forwards in ice time in San Jose’s first two regular-season games.

Celebrini’s injury bothered him enough during pregame warmups on Monday, though, that he was scratched from the lineup shortly before the game against the Dallas Stars began.

The Sharks, appearing rattled without their best player, went on to a 5-0 loss to the Stars at American Airlines Center. Celebrini also did not practice with the Sharks on Tuesday in Dallas before the team flew to St. Louis.

If the Sharks have to play without Celebrini for the second straight game, it appears Will Smith will take over as the top-line center, with Igor Chernsyhov and Mason Marchment on the wings.

The three players have combined to score five of the Sharks’ nine goals this season, with Celebrini assisting on both of Smith’s goals and one of Chernyshov’s two goals. Marchment’s lone goal, which was the Sharks’ first of the season and part of their opening win over the Florida Panthers on Oct. 1, was unassisted.

The Sharks also switched other lines for Tuesday’s practice, notably moving Kiefer Sherwood up from the fourth line to the second line with center Alexander Wennberg and rookie Ivar Stenberg.

One way or another, if Celebrini is unavailable, the Sharks will have to find one or more players to absorb his ice time. After Thursday, the Sharks host Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.

Celebrini averaged 22:20 in ice time in the Sharks’ first two games, and his 21:19 average over 82 games last season was the highest among all San Jose skaters. He went on to finish fourth in the NHL in scoring with 115 points, breaking the Sharks’ single-season record of 114 set in 2006-07 by Joe Thornton.

Smith, who played center throughout his amateur career, might have to take on a bigger role. Playing mainly as a winger on San Jose’s top line alongside Celebrini, Smith was the Sharks’ second-leading scorer in his first two NHL seasons with 104 points in 143 games. Smith also has three points in three games this season, averaging 19:06 in ice time. 

Taken fourth overall as a centerman by the Sharks in the 2023 NHL draft, Smith led NCAA Division I in scoring in 2023-24 with 71 points in 41 games.

Asked at the start of camp last month if he misses playing center, Smith said, “Well, I did it my whole life, so, yeah.”

Smith also said at the start of training camp last month that he was up to around 190 pounds. Thinking he’d remain on the wing, he put on about 10 pounds of muscle since the end of last season.

That extra muscle might have helped Smith win a celebrity softball home run derby this summer hosted by New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye — and he hit a dinger at Oracle Park as part of a photo op with Celebrini before a Giants game last month. From a hockey perspective, the main benefit for Smith is that it should help him hold his own in puck battles against bigger defensemen.

It should also help him play against other top-line centers if that’s the role he has to play against the Blues. He’s won three of four faceoffs this season, up from just 15 of 48 last season.

“It’s a huge year for me,” Smith said on Sept. 17. “I think I can make a huge step, help this group. There’s a lot of opportunity, and people are expecting us to make the playoffs.”

During a battle drill in camp last month, the 6-foot Smith actually knocked his good friend, Sharks defenseman Michael Kesselring, off the puck. Kesselring is 6-foot-5 and outweighs Smith by roughly 25 pounds.

“To see his growth every year, he’s put in a lot of work to get bigger and faster,” Kesselring recently told Bay Area News Group. “He’s always had elite hockey sense. Sees everything on the ice.”