{"id":476147,"date":"2026-09-26T05:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/476147\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T05:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:34:14","slug":"san-jose-sharks-begin-new-era-with-macklin-celebrini-as-captain-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/476147\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks begin new era with Macklin Celebrini as captain"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 General manager Mike Grier knew he would one day make leading scorer Macklin Celebrini captain of the San Jose Sharks<\/a>. But with his top-line center being so young, only two years removed from being drafted<\/a>, it was just a matter of finding the right time.<\/p>\n

So as Grier saw that the 20-year-old Celebrini, already one of the NHL\u2019s best players<\/a>, had called and congratulated the team\u2019s newest draft picks in June, was organizing his teammates to return to San Jose well before the start of camp, worked all summer to get better, and had the respect of veteran players \u2014 even ones he didn\u2019t know well \u2014 he recognized that he didn\u2019t have to wait any longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we got into training camp and saw how things were going,\u201d Grier said, \u201cit kind of finalized that decision from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grier and the Sharks on Friday named Celebrini the franchise\u2019s 11th full-time captain,<\/a> signaling the start of a new era for the organization as he becomes the youngest player in team history to hold the distinction.<\/p>\n

At 20 years and 104 days old, Celebrini is also the sixth-youngest full-time captain<\/a> in NHL history, and will wear the \u2018C\u2019 for the first time on Saturday when the Sharks travel to Las Vegas to play the Golden Knights in the final preseason game for both teams. The Sharks open the regular season at home next Thursday against the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge honor,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cIt\u2019s just something that I can\u2019t really take lightly. Obviously, there\u2019s a responsibility that comes with that. But at the same time, I\u2019m not really going to change who I am or what I do.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a huge honor first and foremost, and with that comes some responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s earned it through the way he works and competes and the way he\u2019s played on the ice and the way he\u2019s handled himself off the ice,\u201d Grier said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if anyone drafts someone at 18 and thinks by the time they\u2019re 20 they\u2019re going to be leading your team and be your captain. But there are those rare special players who do it, and Macklin is one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday morning, the Sharks posted a video of Grier holding the door open to the team\u2019s theater room at Sharks Ice for Joe Thornton, the Hockey Hall of Fame centerman who served as San Jose\u2019s captain from 2010-2014.<\/p>\n

In front of the team, Thornton, whose No. 19 the organization retired in 2024, held a teal jersey with Celebrini\u2019s name and No. 71 on the back and a capital \u2018C\u2019 on the front.<\/p>\n

Thornton was a fitting choice for the official presentation, since two years ago he announced, at The Sphere in Las Vegas, that Celebrini was going to the Sharks as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NHL draft. Celebrini also lived at Thornton\u2019s South Bay property the last two years.<\/p>\n

In April, Celebrini established a new team record for scoring in a single season with 115 points in 82 games in 2025-26, breaking Thornton\u2019s nearly 20-year-old record by one point.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting the jersey from Jumbo, him and his family have such a special place in my life just with how they accepted me into their family two years ago, and everything that they\u2019ve done for me,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cI can\u2019t really put into words how much his family means to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrini, a native of North Vancouver, B.C., has been the Sharks\u2019 leading scorer in each of his first two NHL seasons. After the regular season ended in April, Celebrini, as an indication of how much respect he\u2019s garnered from his peers, was named a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the NHL\u2019s most outstanding player as voted by members of the NHL Players Association.<\/p>\n

In July, the Sharks made Celebrini the highest-paid player in team history, signing him to a five-year, $94 million contract extension that keeps him with the team until the end of the 2031-32 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely starts with his work ethic,\u201d said Sharks winger Tyler Toffoli, a Stanley Cup winner in 2014 with the Los Angeles Kings. \u201cIt\u2019s not always the things he says. Obviously, he\u2019s very vocal in the sense that he\u2019s still a young kid, and he enjoys coming to the rink and cracking jokes and having fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the same time, when it comes to work and in the middle of a period in a game, he\u2019s serious. It\u2019s one of those things when whenever he talks, you listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrini also captained Canada at the IIHF World Championship in May, a team that featured several respected NHL veterans. Celebrini\u2019s idol, Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby, had been Canada\u2019s captain at the 2010, 2014 and 2026 Winter Olympics, but wanted Celebrini to wear the \u2018C\u2019 at the World Championships.<\/p>\n

Crosby became the Penguins captain in May 2007 when he was just 19. Celebrini didn\u2019t ask Crosby about captaining an NHL team at such a young age, but about how he handled expectations coming into the NHL.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust how he felt the guys supported him and were there, and how much that meant to him,\u201d Celebrini said, \u201cand how he just kept doing his thing and just kept being himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Logan Couture served as the Sharks\u2019 captain from the start of the 2019-20 season until the end of 2024-25, when he announced that his playing career was ending due to a chronic injury to his groin and pelvic area. Couture began his Sharks career in 2009 and is fourth on the team\u2019s all-time scoring list with 701 points.<\/p>\n

Before last season began, the Sharks chose not to replace Couture, announcing instead that Celebrini, Toffoli, Barclay Goodrow, Mario Ferraro and Alexander Wennberg would serve as alternate captains.<\/p>\n

Now with Celebrini leading the way, the Sharks hope to turn the page \u2014 after years of rebuilding \u2014 and make the playoffs for the first time since 2019, when the now-retired Joe Pavelski was the team\u2019s captain.<\/p>\n

Since Celebrini was drafted, Grier and the Sharks have almost completely overhauled the roster and now have a mix of veterans with extensive playoff experience and several recent early-round picks that represent the team\u2019s future nucleus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have so many amazing leaders and veterans in our group; they rub off on all of us, and they\u2019ve set the example from day one,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cSo, just an amazing honor, and I just feel privileged to be able to wear this jersey and be the captain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 General manager Mike Grier knew he would one day make leading scorer Macklin Celebrini captain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[402,181,1035,404,88,90,89,98,403,94685,127],"class_list":["post-476147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sharks-alert","tag-social-alert","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476147","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=476147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}