{"id":485516,"date":"2026-10-05T07:01:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T07:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485516\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T07:01:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T07:01:05","slug":"san-jose-sharks-macklin-celebrini-adjusts-to-a-life-in-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485516\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini adjusts to a life in the spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 Macklin Celebrini<\/a> isn\u2019t really used to wearing makeup.<\/p>\n

But between a recent photo shoot for The Hollywood Reporter with actor Belmont Cameli and another with two other young stars for a glossy NHL.com feature, Celebrini, the Sharks\u2019 budding superstar, has been getting\u00a0some practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that\u2019s happened a couple times now,\u201d Celebrini said recently of sitting in the makeup chair. \u201cIt\u2019s a little weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrini is about to begin his third year with the Sharks, and his public profile \u2014 locally and across North America \u2014 has never been higher. Having just turned 20 in June, he has not only already established himself as far and away the Sharks\u2019 best player, but also one of the NHL\u2019s most visible and popular athletes.<\/p>\n

Just two years after the Sharks made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NHL draft, Celebrini is already the team\u2019s youngest-ever captain<\/a>, soon to be its highest-paid player, and likely the lynchpin in San Jose\u2019s hopes of snapping a seven-year playoff drought.<\/p>\n

In June, he became the youngest athlete to appear on the cover of EA Sports\u2019 popular NHL video game. He has close to 800,000 followers on Instagram, is often recognized around the Bay Area and is a budding sports legend in Canada.<\/p>\n

In July, Celebrini signed a five-year, $94 million contract extension<\/a> that begins next season and will make him one of the NHL\u2019s highest-earning players.<\/p>\n

If any of this has affected Celebrini, it doesn\u2019t show.<\/p>\n

Asked in August whether the contract might put more pressure on him to perform, Celebrini said, \u201cI don\u2019t think anything really external will affect the way I play or who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Longtime NHL player and current ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro suggested Celebrini\u2019s comfort in the spotlight is \u201cthe way of the newer player.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve all grown up with a phone in their hand. They\u2019ve grown up with social media,\u201d Ferraro said on a recent conference call. \u201cThey\u2019re not intimidated by it. They welcome it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of Celebrini\u2019s newfound celebrity status comes from his play during his remarkable second NHL season.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Jose Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini (71) signs autographs for fans during a pregame ceremony before the San Jose Sharks\u2019 home opener against the Vegas Golden Knights at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

He broke a Sharks franchise record by finishing the 2025-26 season with 115 points, one point ahead of Joe Thornton\u2019s 2006-07 mark. Had the Sharks made the playoffs \u2013 they finished four points out of the Western Conference\u2019s last postseason spot \u2013 he likely would have won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL player most valuable to his team.<\/p>\n

Celebrini also gained attention for his accomplishments on the international stage. He was Canada\u2019s youngest player at the Milan Olympics in February and finished as the tournament\u2019s second-leading scorer, ahead of former MVPs Nathan MacKinnon (his Canada teammate), Auston Matthews (Team USA) and Leon Draisaitl (Germany). Without a playoff moment on his resume yet, this announcement marked Celebrini\u2019s arrival on the global stage.<\/p>\n

Team USA\u2019s overtime win over Canada in the gold medal game drew massive television ratings, and in his first availability with reporters in San Jose after the tournament, Celebrini stood in front of his biggest media scrum in two-plus years as a Shark and shared his disappointment with the result. He also said it was an \u201chonor to play with\u201d childhood idols such as Sidney Crosby and tournament scoring leader Connor McDavid; now he\u2019s in their league at the top of the hockey world.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s become the face of a franchise and someone that\u2019s put in a lot of these different moments to try to sell the game to a wider audience,\u201d said NHL Network analyst EJ Hradek, \u201cbut he\u2019s just a really great player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrini\u2019s on-ice training throughout the summer months near his hometown of North Vancouver, British Columbia, was documented on social media nearly daily. He took a break from hockey after captaining Canada\u2019s team at the IIHF World Championship in Switzerland in May, but added that whenever he\u2019s at the rink, which is often, \u201cit\u2019s kind of hard to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n

At times, when the Sharks were on the road last season, the scene around the rink for a morning skate \u2014 not to mention the team\u2019s hotel and bus \u2014 could get \u201cpretty hectic,\u201d goalie Alex Nedeljkovic said, with fans clamoring for a picture or an autograph from Celebrini.<\/p>\n

With Celebrini\u2019s rising profile and increased attention on the improved team, the Sharks have put more resources into proactive safety and security measures, both in San Jose and while the team is on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy,\u201d Nedeljkovic said of the increased attention Celebrini received last season, \u201cand it\u2019s only going to grow the more success he has.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"InIn this photo taken with a smartphone, San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini, center, is presented with the captain’s jersey by general manager Mike Grier, left, and coach Ryan Warsofsky during an NHL hockey news conference in San Jose, Calif., Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Josh Dubow)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked at the start of training camp whether it\u2019s a weird feeling to have so many eyes on him, particularly in the hockey world, Celebrini said, \u201cI don\u2019t think it really changes anything I do or what I do, so I don\u2019t know if it affects me too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his growing public profile has brought\u00a0him opportunities he might not have otherwise.<\/p>\n

Celebrini and Cameli, star of \u201cOff Campus,\u201d Prime Video\u2019s popular hockey romance show, joined The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s \u201cGame Recognize Game\u201d series.<\/p>\n

That video and one by EA Sports featuring Celebrini and Thornton, called \u201cGuess the NHL Pro,\u201d have racked up nearly 3 million combined views on YouTube.<\/p>\n

Celebrini said the sit-down with Cameli \u201cwas awesome. Just getting to talk to him, kind of figure out what goes into his life every day of being an actor and going to the set, that was stuff I\u2019ve always really been curious about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Celebrini\u2019s focus is getting the Sharks back to the playoffs for the first time since 2019. After years of rebuilding, the team looks\u00a0ready to contend with the NHL\u2019s best after a busy offseason, starting with Thursday\u2019s opener at SAP Center against the Florida Panthers, picked by many to win their third Stanley Cup in four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are coming up to us on the street, just saying how excited they are about the season,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really get that the last couple of years, so it\u2019s cool to see the excitement from the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope Mack continues (to show his personality),\u201d said Ferraro, also a Vancouver area native who has known Celebrini\u2019s family for years. \u201cThere is room and need for it, and for some guys it\u2019s just easy, and for some guys it\u2019s more difficult. For Mack, that stuff is easy. It\u00a0just bubbles out of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak more highly of him as a kid. The way that he was raised, his work ethic, and talent. Man, what a win for San Jose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini, top left, celebrates with center Will Smith (2) after scoring the winning goal during overtime of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo\/Ellen Schmidt)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Macklin Celebrini isn\u2019t really used to wearing makeup. But between a recent photo shoot for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,2333,402,1533,181,1035,404,182,88,90,89,98,198,200,127],"class_list":["post-485516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-editors-picks","tag-inside-sports","tag-keywee","tag-latest-headlines","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-nhl","tag-pm-report","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485516","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=485516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}