{"id":139374,"date":"2026-01-18T21:38:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T21:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/139374\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T21:38:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T21:38:44","slug":"macklin-celebrini-has-capitals-coach-spencer-carberys-vote-for-hart-trophy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/139374\/","title":{"rendered":"Macklin Celebrini has Capitals coach Spencer Carbery’s vote for Hart Trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Washington Capitals coach Spencer Carbery had a vote for the Hart Memorial Trophy,<\/a> he\u2019d give it, right now, to San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini.<\/p>\n

Carbery has noticed how much Celebrini has grown<\/a> in his brief NHL career, as the 19-year-old enters Saturday as the league\u2019s third leading scorer with 72 points in 47 games.<\/a> Celebrini had 63 points in 70 games as a rookie last season.<\/p>\n

Before Saturday\u2019s games, Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid and Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon each had 82 points to lead the NHL. Celebrini recently said he believed McDavid and MacKinnon to be the two best players in the world.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Hart Memorial Trophy,<\/a> presented annually \u201cto the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team,\u201d is voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe improvement that he\u2019s made from year one to year two has been incredible,\u201d Carbery said of Celebrini<\/a> on Thursday before the teenager had an assist in the Sharks\u2019 3-2 win over the Capitals.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s impressive to Carbery is Celebrini\u2019s production at even strength, especially in relation to the rest of the Sharks\u2019 roster.<\/p>\n

Celebrini has 20 even-strength goals, with winger Collin Graf next on the list with 13. Celebrini also has 31 even-strength assists, 12 more than center Alexander Wennberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were a voter, or if I had a vote \u2014 I\u2019d have to do some more research, because I don\u2019t watch San Jose all the time. I don\u2019t watch Edmonton all the time, I don\u2019t watch Colorado all the time \u2014 but from afar \u2026 he\u2019d be my Hart Trophy pick for two reasons,\u201d Carbery said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne, I feel like the San Jose Sharks are overachieving with expectations and are in a playoff spot (four) games above .500. If you look at the reasons why: organized, structured, play a good team game. But offensively, what he\u2019s doing for that team is remarkable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe easiest thing to point to is \u2026 even strength points. Look at what he has, then the next-closest person. That just shows how much he\u2019s driving goals, offense, (and how) impactful he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

With some offseason additions and more experience, it was widely believed that the Sharks (24-20-3) would be an improved team this season after they finished 2024-25 with the NHL\u2019s worst record (20-50-12). But Celebrini\u2019s play is a big reason the Sharks entered Saturday in the Western Conference\u2019s second and final wild-card spot, which is a surprise to most.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got someone that\u2019s got (51) even strength points and the next closest player on this team (is Graf\u2019s 25), and that\u2019s not a slight against the rest of the group,\u201d Carbery said, \u201cthat\u2019s just a compliment of how incredible a season he is having and how impactful he is for the San Jose Sharks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Capitals held Celebrini scoreless on Dec. 3, when they beat the Sharks 7-1 at SAP Center. It was one of only 10 games so far this season in which Celebrini has been held without a goal or assist, and the Sharks have lost all 10.<\/p>\n

The Sharks had a decent start to that game, but the Capitals scored three times in a span of 5:10 to help take a 4-0 lead after the first period. Celebrini had two shots on net and was listed as having two giveaways in just under 16 minutes of ice time.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Celebrini assisted on Will Smith\u2019s first-period goal and had seven shots on net \u2014 and 12 shot attempts \u2014 in the Sharks\u2019 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.<\/p>\n

Going into Saturday, Celebrini led the NHL with 34 primary assists. McDavid had 30, and MacKinnon had 28.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Celebrini) made a great play coming into the zone and got the shot,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI saw it pop up in the air, and I just rushed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up for Celebrini and the Sharks are the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Monday. Celebrini scored what was his 10th goal of the season on Nov. 8 when the Sharks beat the Panthers 3-1 at SAP Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Washington Capitals coach Spencer Carbery had a vote for the Hart Memorial Trophy, he\u2019d give it, right…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[46926,1035,88,90,89,98,64045,8319],"class_list":{"0":"post-139374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-hart-trophy","9":"tag-macklin-celebrini","10":"tag-san-jose","11":"tag-san-jose-headlines","12":"tag-san-jose-news","13":"tag-san-jose-sharks","14":"tag-spencer-carbery","15":"tag-washington-capitals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}