SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 San Jose Sharks superstar Macklin Celebrini signed a five-year, $94 million extension Wednesday that will make him the highest-paid player in the NHL.<\/p>\n
Celebrini had one year remaining on his three-year, $2.925 million entry-level contract before signing the deal that keeps him locked up with the Sharks through the 2031-32 season.<\/p>\n
The $18.8 million average annual value of the deal that Celebrini reached with general manager Mike Grier and owner Hasso Plattner is the richest in NHL history, topping the $18 million a year Leo Carlsson got when Anaheim matched a five-year offer sheet from Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier to sign an extension today,\u201d Celebrini said in a statement. \u201cThe faith and support\u202fthat Mr. 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
Celebrini, who turned 20 in June, has established himself as one of the game\u2019s top young stars since being picked first overall by San Jose in 2024.<\/p>\n
Celebrini had 45 goals and 70 assists last season, with his 115 points breaking Joe Thornton\u2019s franchise record of 114 set in 2006-07 and trailing Wayne Gretzky (137 in 1979-80) and Sidney Crosby (120 in 2006-07) for the most in a season for a player before turning 20.<\/p>\n
He also was the leading goal scorer in the Olympics, with five goals to help Canada win the silver medal.<\/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. \u201cWe are extremely excited to have him secured and committed as the centerpiece of a core of talented players in San Jose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Celebrini\u2019s exploits, the Sharks still missed the playoffs for the seventh straight season. They improved by 34 points for the 10th best single-season jump in the last 30 years but landed four points out of the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 San Jose Sharks superstar Macklin Celebrini signed a five-year, $94 million extension Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-417523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417523","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=417523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}