{"id":416699,"date":"2026-07-29T16:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/416699\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T16:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:12:12","slug":"macklin-celebrini-extension-sharks-make-him-nhls-top-paid-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/416699\/","title":{"rendered":"Macklin Celebrini extension: Sharks make him NHL’s top-paid player"},"content":{"rendered":"

Macklin Celebrini<\/a> has signed an extension that will make him the highest-paid player in the NHL on an annual basis, the Sharks announced<\/a> Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The five-year deal will pay Celebrini $18.8 million annually<\/a> for a total of $94 million through the 2031-32 season.<\/p>\n

The Sharks\u2019 No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft made a massive leap in his second season, setting a franchise record with 115 points in 2025-26 and leading San Jose to the brink of the playoffs after being in the league\u2019s cellar for a half-decade. That point total was fourth in the NHL and included 45 goals, also fourth in the league, as Celebrini reached his first All-Star Game.<\/p>\n

The 34-point leap up the standings was the Sharks\u2019 greatest in the franchise\u2019s history, and now they are seeking to crack the playoffs as general manager Mike Grier\u2019s rebuild moves into contention mode.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe faith and support\u202fthat (owner Hasso) Plattner, Mike Grier and the entire staff have shown me\u202fthroughout\u202fthe past two seasons is proof that we are building something special here,\u201d Celebrini said in a statement. \u201cMy teammates and I are ready to take another step toward the ultimate goal of bringing a Stanley Cup to this city and its incredible fans.\u202fI can\u2019t wait to get going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expectations for any No. 1 overall pick are high, but Celebrini, 20, has surpassed what optimistic Sharks fans could have hoped for coming out of Boston University as he was a finalist this season for the Ted Lindsay Award<\/a>, the MVP award as voted by the NHL Players Association.<\/p>\n

In addition to his contributions for the Sharks, Celebrini made a mark on the international stage at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February, leading the tournament with five goals as Team Canada\u2019s youngest player, finishing second in points to Canadian teammate and three-time Hart Memorial Trophy winner Connor McDavid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn just two seasons as a teenager in the National Hockey League and on the International stage, Macklin has established himself as one of the premier players in the world,\u201d Grier said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Grier also thanked Celebrini and his agent, Pat Brisson of CAA, for the extension allowing the Sharks future flexibility as they continue to transform their roster.<\/p>\n

The extension is just the latest indication of Celebrini\u2019s stardom: Just last month, he was named the cover athlete on EA Sports\u2019 NHL 27<\/a> and voted the IIHF\u2019s male player of the year.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Macklin Celebrini has signed an extension that will make him the highest-paid player in the NHL on an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7,404,88,90,89,98,127],"class_list":["post-416699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-california","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416699","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=416699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}