CHICAGO — Chicago is where the entire hockey world learned about Macklin Celebrini.
Then-Chicago Steel general manager and head coach Mike Garman, who recruited Celebrini to the team, remembered the year that the 16-year-old dominated the USHL fondly.
Celebrini scored 46 goals and 86 points in just 50 games in 2022-23, the most ever by a 16-year-old in the league. He won both the USHL Player and Rookie of the Year awards. And he did all this with an early-season bum shoulder, which he got surgery on after the season.
“[He’s] incredibly tough,” Garman said.
This campaign made him an early front-runner to be the No. 1 pick of the 2024 draft. And that’s where the Sharks selected him in June 2024.
San Jose Hockey Now caught up with Garman, now Notre Dame associate head coach, and he shared some fantastic Celebrini tales.
Celebrini also looked back, too.
“So many great memories,” Celebrini said. “I loved my time here.”
“Could Have Gone Anywhere He Wanted”
Adam Fantilli helped get Celebrini to the Steel.
Celebrini had already decided that he was going to play in the NCAA the next season, his draft-eligible year. For him to do that, the North Vancouver native couldn’t play for the Vancouver Giants, who had made him the top pick of the WHL Draft. So he had his choice of USHL clubs.
Celebrini spent three days in Chicago before deciding to play for the Steel, some of it with the 2023 No. 3 pick.
What did the now-Columbus Blue Jackets star say of the Steel?
“Just how great [it was],” Celebrini said. “Development-wise, people. The whole set-up was around getting players to the next level and trying to help guys achieve their dreams of playing in the NHL.”
“The way they structure things every day is amazing,” Fantilli told Corey Masisak in 2024. “I loved it. Every single day you’re getting better at every aspect. You’re in the gym, you’re doing your skills work, you’re doing your video and you’re getting your practice battles in. They did a phenomenal job developing every guy that I was there with.”
Celebrini also credited the man that he affectionately called “Garms.”
“He’s just so awesome,” Celebrini said. “He was a big reason [I came].”
“At the end of the day, Macklin could have gone anywhere he wanted. Let’s be honest,” Garman said with a laugh. “He had a lot of options. We were just like really grateful to get to work with him.”
“Moment That Just Sums Him Up”
By Macklin Celebrini’s standards, he got off to a little bit of a slow start in 2022-23. Keep in mind, he was a 16-year-old adjusting to playing against older players, up to 20 years old.
Through eight games, Celebrini had “just” six goals and 10 points.
But on Oct. 29, Celebrini showed Garman his true colors.
Chicago, up 7-1 on the Green Bay Gamblers, had a power play to end the game. With seconds to go, the Gamblers had a player streaking out of the penalty box on a breakaway. The game was over and Celebrini (17), at the top of the power play, had already scored a hat trick, but…
That’s 2024 No. 2 pick Artyom Levshunov (9), whom Celebrini denies.
“To me, this is always the moment that just sums him up,” Garman said. “It’s before he was dominating our league, but even with like 10 seconds left, the game’s over, it’s just this incredible competitiveness and work ethic — he doesn’t take a penalty, he just does it the right way. That is honestly the moment to me that encapsulates him more than anything.”
“Never Had Anyone Like Mack”
Being the hotshot phenom can sometimes elicit jealousy in a more veteran locker room.
But like Celebrini, as an 18-year-old, was able to win over the Sharks room from Day 1, he did so as a 16-year-old in Chicago.
“He’s really genuine,” Garman recalled. “The guys loved him…He’d play guys hard in practice, but he did it in such a way that it also led to a lot of respect.”
The Steel didn’t just respect Celebrini, though; they followed him.
“I just finished my eighth year here, so that means Mack would have been my sixth year, seventh year, and the gym is right above our coach’s office,” Garman recalled. “I remember one Saturday night, we could hear all the weights banging, and our strength coach came down, and after a two [game] weekend set, he said Mack went to work out and one or two guys followed him. I’ve never seen that before in all my years.”
No one is surprised, least of all Garman, that Celebrini, as a 19-year-old, was named Sharks alternate captain.
“Then the next weekend, there were 10 guys up there, and the next weekend there were 15 guys,” Garman said. “His work ethic really is exceptional, even among the best in the world and the hardest workers in the world. We’ve got a lot of insanely committed kids, we’ve never had anyone like Mack.”
Celebrini, as he always does, deflected the credit.
“That was kind of the thing there,” Celebrini said. “Everyone was just trying to get better, and it’s kind of the culture that they have.”
“When he’s the best player and he’s working that hard, you kind of have no excuse,” Garman countered.
“A Super-Rare Combination”
This might be the highest praise that Garman had for Celebrini.
“Even if he never scored a point for us, he was an unbelievable teammate and player,” Garman said. “He was so much fun to work with, he was always driven to get better. He really was just a joy to coach.”
That grinder’s mentality, coupled with superstar talent, is how Celebrini has broken records and dominated preps, USHL, NCAA, the NHL, and the Olympics, at a preposterously young age.
“I think it’s how committed he is and how competitive, and when I say competitive, I really mean just with himself to be better than he was the day before,” Garman said. “His drive and work ethic really is exceptional, and he is genuinely a humble kid.”
Garman credits Celebrini’s parents, Rick and Robyn, with a lot of this.
“They’re just unbelievable people,” Garman said. “They’re so supportive of all their kids, Macklin included. They’re very hands-off in a positive way in my books, where they let him kind of pave his own path and go through his own experience.”
Garman says he never talked hockey once with them.
“It’s really refreshing for such a high-caliber player,” Garman said. “They didn’t ask for us to promise him any ice time, any playing situations. They just wanted to make sure that he was around good people and in a good environment.”
A testament to the Celebrini family was a 2023 visit from Rick’s co-worker, NBA superstar Draymond Green. Rick Celebrini, of course, is the director of sports medicine and performance for the Golden State Warriors.
“We went up, Steve Kerr was there, I said ‘Hi’ to him quickly,” Garman said. “My memory is they were thrilled to get to see Mack play, and it just so happened they must have been playing the Bulls. We’re an hour from downtown, they came all the way out for our rink, they watched the game, they got to see Mack … I think it speaks a lot about the family, that they just have that tighter relationship with people, where you go watch a friend’s kid play Saturday afternoon at the local [rink], and it just so happens it’s Mack, the superstar hockey player, that they got to come watch.”
”How often do you get an opportunity to see Sidney Crosby at [16]?” Green told ESPN.
“It’s a super-rare combination in my experience to be that good and that coachable and that good of a teammate and that open to ideas and that focused on getting better and that determined to work — all of that is just really an amazing combination,” Garman said.
“He was one of my favorite players ever just because of the type of kid he is — it’s a bonus that he’s incredibly successful in the sport.”