{"id":338886,"date":"2026-05-30T08:59:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T08:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/338886\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T08:59:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T08:59:19","slug":"sharks-rumors-macklin-celebrini-guaranteed-to-get-the-c-before-2026-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/338886\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks rumors: Macklin Celebrini ‘guaranteed’ to get the C before 2026-27"},"content":{"rendered":"

Macklin Celebrini<\/a> went from ultra-talented rookie to bonafide franchise cornerstone in the span of one season, earning legitimate Hart Trophy buzz<\/a> throughout the 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n

Although his San Jose Sharks missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs<\/a> for a seventh consecutive year, Celebrini established himself as one of the NHL’s brightest young superstars, exploding for 45 goals and 115 points across a full 82-game schedule.<\/p>\n

He also impressed on the international stage, playing a major role for Team Canada at the Winter Olympics in Milan and helping his country capture a silver medal.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old is currently captaining Canada at the IIHF World Championship and scored the game-winning goal in the quarterfinal against defending champion United States.<\/p>\n

Now, another major honor appears to be on the horizon.<\/p>\n

According to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan, Celebrini is \u201call but guaranteed\u201d<\/a> to become San Jose’s next captain ahead of the 2026-27 season, which would make him the franchise’s first captain since Logan Couture.<\/p>\n

Celebrini is also eligible to sign a long-term contract extension on July 1, and Kaplan reported that the Sharks are expected to move quickly on a mammoth deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cMacklin Celebrini is eligible to sign an extension July 1, and the expectation is the Sharks won’t drag this out if both sides are aligned. This is a franchise-defining negotiation,\u201d Kaplan wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause this is the last offseason before the new CBA changes max extension length, Celebrini can sign an eight-year deal if it’s registered before Sept. 15. NHL contracts are capped at 20% of the salary cap, meaning the Sharks can offer Celebrini eight years by $20.8 million for $166.4 million total, which would surpass Kaprizov’s $136 million ($17 million AAV) deal from last offseason.\u201d<\/p>\n

It sounds outrageous, but Celebrini has already shown signs of becoming a generational talent capable of returning San Jose to consistent Stanley Cup contention.<\/p>\n

He’s already the face of the Sharks franchise, and soon enough, he’ll officially have the \u2018C’ on his chest to prove it.<\/p>\n

Macklin Celebrini went from ultra-talented rookie to bonafide franchise cornerstone in the span of one season, earning legitimate Hart Trophy buzz throughout the 2025-26 campaign. Although his San Jose Sharks missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a seventh consecutive year, Celebrini established himself as one of the NHL’s brightest young superstars, exploding for 45 goals and 115 points across a full 82-game schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Macklin Celebrini went from ultra-talented rookie to bonafide franchise cornerstone in the span of one season, earning legitimate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1035,404,9894,88,90,89,98],"class_list":["post-338886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-rumors","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338886","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=338886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}