{"id":587507,"date":"2026-04-16T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/587507\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T10:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:00:09","slug":"how-macklin-celebrini-first-showed-greatness-with-chicago-steel-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/587507\/","title":{"rendered":"How Macklin Celebrini first showed greatness with Chicago Steel \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 Chicago is where the entire hockey world learned about Macklin Celebrini<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then-Chicago Steel general manager and head coach Mike Garman<\/a>, who recruited Celebrini to the team, remembered the year that the 16-year-old dominated the USHL fondly.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He\u2019s] incredibly tough,\u201d Garman said.<\/p>\n

This campaign made him an early front-runner to be the No. 1 pick of the 2024 draft. And that\u2019s where the Sharks selected him in June 2024.<\/p>\n

San Jose Hockey Now caught up with Garman, now Notre Dame associate head coach, and he shared some fantastic Celebrini tales.<\/p>\n

Celebrini also looked back, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many great memories,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cI loved my time here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCould Have Gone Anywhere He Wanted\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Fantilli helped get Celebrini to the Steel.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t play for the Vancouver Giants, who had made him the top pick of the WHL Draft. So he had his choice of USHL clubs.<\/p>\n

Celebrini spent three days in Chicago before deciding to play for the Steel, some of it with the 2023 No. 3 pick.<\/p>\n

What did the now-Columbus Blue Jackets star say of the Steel?<\/p>\n

\u201cJust how great [it was],\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cDevelopment-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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they structure things every day is amazing,\u201d Fantilli told Corey Masisak<\/a> in 2024. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrini also credited the man that he affectionately called \u201cGarms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s just so awesome,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cHe was a big reason [I came].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, Macklin could have gone anywhere he wanted. Let’s be honest,\u201d Garman said with a laugh. \u201cHe had a lot of options. We were just like really grateful to get to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMoment That Just Sums Him Up\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Through eight games, Celebrini had \u201cjust\u201d six goals and 10 points.<\/p>\n

But on Oct. 29, Celebrini showed Garman his true colors.<\/p>\n

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\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

That\u2019s 2024 No. 2 pick Artyom Levshunov (9), whom Celebrini denies.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, this is always the moment that just sums him up,\u201d Garman said. \u201cIt’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 \u2014 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNever Had Anyone Like Mack\u201d<\/p>\n

Being the hotshot phenom can sometimes elicit jealousy in a more veteran locker room.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s really genuine,\u201d Garman recalled. \u201cThe guys loved him\u2026He’d play guys hard in practice, but he did it in such a way that it also led to a lot of respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steel didn\u2019t just respect Celebrini, though; they followed him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Garman recalled. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one is surprised, least of all Garman, that Celebrini, as a 19-year-old, was named Sharks alternate captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the next weekend, there were 10 guys up there, and the next weekend there were 15 guys,\u201d Garman said. \u201cHis work ethic really is exceptional, even among the best in the world and the hardest workers in the world. We\u2019ve got a lot of insanely committed kids, we’ve never had anyone like Mack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrini, as he always does, deflected the credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he’s the best player and he’s working that hard, you kind of have no excuse,\u201d Garman countered.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Super-Rare Combination\u201d<\/p>\n

This might be the highest praise that Garman had for Celebrini.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if he never scored a point for us, he was an unbelievable teammate and player,\u201d Garman said. \u201cHe was so much fun to work with, he was always driven to get better. He really was just a joy to coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

That grinder\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Garman said. \u201cHis drive and work ethic really is exceptional, and he is genuinely a humble kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garman credits Celebrini\u2019s parents, Rick and Robyn, with a lot of this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re just unbelievable people,\u201d 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garman says he never talked hockey once with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really refreshing for such a high-caliber player,\u201d Garman said. \u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

A testament to the Celebrini family was a 2023 visit from Rick\u2019s co-worker, NBA superstar Draymond Green<\/a>. Rick Celebrini, of course, is the director of sports medicine and performance for the Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went up, Steve Kerr was there, I said ‘Hi’ to him quickly,\u201d Garman said. \u201cMy 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\u2019s Mack, the superstar hockey player, that they got to come watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b”How often do you get an opportunity to see Sidney Crosby at [16]?” Green told ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’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 \u2014 all of that is just really an amazing combination,\u201d Garman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was one of my favorite players ever just because of the type of kid he is \u2014 it’s a bonus that he’s incredibly successful in the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Download and follow the San Jose Hockey Now podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Chicago is where the entire hockey world learned about Macklin Celebrini. Then-Chicago Steel general manager and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4272,385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-587507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-macklin-celebrini","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}