a five-year extension<\/a> (beginning in 2027-28) that will pay out $18.8 million in average annual value, which tops Leo Carlsson\u2019s then-record $18 million, Celebrini laid out his priority in negotiations between his agent (Pat Brisson of CAA Sports) and Sharks general manager Mike Grier.<\/p>\nIt wasn\u2019t to be the first NHL player to clear the $20 million AAV threshold in his contract. Which, in this new fertile financial terrain, was very possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, not at all,\u201d Brisson told The Athletic when asked if Celebrini had interest in wearing that banner. \u201cNot for him. For him, it was zero. He wanted to make sure that we structure a deal that will help the team. It is kind of team friendly in a sense: He\u2019s leaving 3 to 3 1\/2 percent on the table every day. I\u2019m OK with it. It was important for Macklin to create a team-friendly deal and environment. \u2026 It\u2019s well-crafted and it makes a lot of sense. It achieves his goals of helping Mike and the team try to structure a winning brand there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sharks were willing to pay top dollar to a 20-year-old whom Grier on Wednesday fondly called \u201ca different cat, a different animal.\u201d Celebrini would have been eligible to make the maximum 20 percent of the 2026-27 salary cap of $104 million, which would be $20.8 million. It\u2019s easy to conclude why he might be worth that when Carlsson\u2019s deal with the Anaheim Ducks will occupy 17.1 percent of the cap for 2026-27, but Celebrini was the one in the Hart Trophy conversation after a stupendous sophomore NHL season.<\/p>\n
Even if the number settled in at $20 million AAV, Grier said, Sharks owner Hasso Plattner would have gladly paid that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think Hasso would have hesitated to give him that if that\u2019s what he asked for,\u201d Grier said. \u201cVery appreciative and happy that Mack just decided to \u2026\u00a0take a little bit less and give us some flexibility and have some extra cap dollars down the road as we go on.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a team statement, Celebrini said, \u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier to sign an extension today. The faith and support\u202fthat\u202fMr. Plattner, Mike Grier and the entire staff have shown me\u202fthroughout\u202fthe past two seasons is proof that we are building something special here.\u202fMy 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
Brisson said he and Grier began talking in May to sketch out the framework of a contract. Those talks came after conversations among Celebrini, his family and Brisson\u2019s group, which centered on how he felt about San Jose and the direction of the Sharks. The fact they took a leap \u2014 with the young superstar powering them \u2014 from 52 points in 2024-25 to 86 last season didn\u2019t hurt the process. \u201cIt\u2019s a young team and going in the right direction,\u201d Brisson said.<\/p>\n
Talks with the Sharks were scaled back until the middle of June, when Brisson met with Grier in San Jose, Calif. Celebrini was back home in North Vancouver but kept in the loop. And he expressed his one demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis directive to us was \u2018I do not want to take 20 percent or 19 percent,\u2019\u201d Brisson said. \u201cWe almost had to convince him to be in the 17 percent (strata). But when his deal kicks in next year, he\u2019s at 16.5 percent of the cap. The optics right now, the look, it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s a big number. Of course, he\u2019s the highest AAV-wise.\u2019 But he did leave money on the table and it\u2019s all percentage-based.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was important to Macklin to help Mike. Because we could have gone on a three-year deal perhaps, even four years, but it was important to Macklin to give Mike a five-year extension as he wanted to give him a five- to six-year runway to do what he needs to do. Again, it was imperative for Macklin not to take what he was capable of taking, and the team and Mr. Plattner and everyone appreciates the fact that \u2014 I know the optics are not that when you see 18.8, but he took less than what a player like this could command.\u201d<\/p>\n
Celebrini\u2019s contract is another sign of the reeducation around rapidly increasing NHL salaries as the salary cap continues to shoot up. Grier said on multiple occasions Wednesday that he wouldn\u2019t have been bothered if Celebrini wished to make the maximum any player is eligible to earn.<\/p>\n
But the fact Celebrini didn\u2019t focus on creating a new industry standard and put the Sharks in a cap-management bind going forward wasn\u2019t lost on Grier. \u201cYeah, I was very happy to hear it and very grateful, to be honest with you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he would have had every right to ask for the full max, but for him to come out right away and kind of tell us that he wanted to make sure we had some flexibility down the road and he wasn\u2019t looking to take the max amount of money he could meant a lot to me,\u201d Grier continued. \u201cShowed his faith and his commitment to the organization and him wanting to be here and be successful here. It was pretty important and pretty cool for me to hear that from such a young player, kind of having that maturity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five years gives Celebrini and the Sharks objectives to reach by the time he is ready for what could be an even bigger contract to negotiate when this extension concludes in 2032. The franchise face could become an unrestricted free agent at age 26. One can only imagine what he\u2019ll be worth if he has multiple 100-point seasons on his hockey card and starts filling a trophy case with major awards.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Sharks will work on becoming a playoff team and a potential Stanley Cup contender in this six-year window. Grier wanted to lock him down for eight years, which remains the maximum until the new collective bargaining agreement comes into effect Sept. 16. But five is long enough for now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it works for both sides,\u201d Grier said. \u201cIt shows Mack\u2019s commitment to the organization and to his teammates and to the fans here. To give it five more years after this year to just kind of see where we\u2019re at, and see if we\u2019re evolving and growing and winning games and competing for championships, is what we all want and what Mack especially wants. It allows me that little bit of time to keep building this thing up and seeing where it can go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brisson said there was a common goal of getting an extension done for Celebrini this summer and not having any uncertainty over his next deal linger into the season. He said it helps that the NHL and the players\u2019 union were able to project cap figures for multiple seasons and have already figured that revenues and the cap will continue to grow. (Grier said his group is also calculating growth internally).<\/p>\n
While Grier said the Carlsson offer sheet \u201cmaybe changed things a little bit\u201d in terms of the NHL\u2019s financial ecosystem, Brisson said that had no bearing on the Celebrini negotiations; he called what his client has done in two seasons \u201cunicorn-ish\u201d while comparing what he\u2019s accomplished to what Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid did at that age.<\/p>\n
\u201cMacklin Celebrini falls into a no-comps line,\u201d Brisson said. \u201cIt\u2019s Crosby, McDavid at 19 years old what he\u2019s accomplished. \u2026 But he made sure to tell me, \u2018I don\u2019t want the last penny.\u2019 And that\u2019s why we came up to this number.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this five-year contract, Celebrini will have 94.7 percent paid out in annual signing bonuses with a full no-movement clause in Year 5. The bonus structure will change in the new CBA as contracts will have a cap of 60 percent paid out that way. But as he lauded Plattner for his monetary backing, Grier feels he accomplished the duality of putting Celebrini out front in the league\u2019s ever-changing salary race and retaining the flexibility he\u2019ll need to build a championship team around him.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a former player, I never begrudge a player for wanting to get as much money as they can and earn a living in their short earning window here as players,\u201d Grier said. \u201cI think we wanted to make sure Mack felt valued here, that he was compensated fairly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, in our eyes \u2014 and no disrespect to anyone \u2014 in our eyes, he\u2019s the best young player in the league. We felt like we wanted to pay him an amount that was commensurate with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a given that Macklin Celebrini would eventually land the richest contract in the history of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[404,88,90,89,98],"class_list":["post-417498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-nhl","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\/417498","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=417498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}