F Macklin Celebrini (2024, 1st, SJS)

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Cute.

They could also be the next Eichel and Reinhart.

I’m sure people were stoked about having them for the next 15 years in Buffalo
Yes Sharks fans are excited right now. We have a very exciting U23 core with a strong chance to draft another high impact player this year. Don't know why you're choosing to look at it in a half glass empty kinda way.
 
Love when people say shit like this. As if high picks never get traded after a few years.
Or leave by their own volition.

But, I will say San Jose as a whole has done a great job at player retention once they stopped being viewed as expansion doormats and a ton of players have loved it there. As a market, San Jose is sort of a sleeping giant relative to the established big market teams (Toronto, NYR, MTL, Chicago, Philly, Kings, Boston), the dominant teams (aka not what is the 2nd team in the region like Raiders or A's) in the other big 4 sports are among the most valuable in their respective leagues (Warriors, 49ers and Giants, and before people say they are in SF, the Niners are closer to downtown SJ than SF). With the right luck and management (which in this case includes non-Hockey ops, in growing the brand within the region), they could grow like the Caps have over the past 20 years who weren't a highly valuable team but are in a major market.
 
His SOG numbers are very promising. Shooting a very normal percentage with .5GPG. Lack of assists probably about bad teammates. Faceoff percentage of 44% is pretty good for his age. Look where players like Bedard and Carlsson are. Was the most dangerous player for San Jose the one game I saw.

If he stays healthy I think he’ll keep himself in the Calder race, but the early injury put him a little behind.
 
His SOG numbers are very promising. Shooting a very normal percentage with .5GPG. Lack of assists probably about bad teammates. Faceoff percentage of 44% is pretty good for his age. Look where players like Bedard and Carlsson are. Was the most dangerous player for San Jose the one game I saw.

If he stays healthy I think he’ll keep himself in the Calder race, but the early injury put him a little behind.
His backchecking and constant hustle is what impresses me the most. He looks like a 27 year old vet who spent years under a defense first coach
 
Apparently he is 1st amongst forwards in controlled entries (9.1). MacKinnon 2nd, McDavid 3rd. 1st among forwards in puck battle wins, 5th amongst forwards in open-ice dekes (beating defenders 1v1). Top 4 are McDavid, Terry, Eichel, Kaprizov. Taken from this twitter thread that also shows clips of Celebrini displaying these traits in the NHL
 
His backchecking and constant hustle is what impresses me the most. He looks like a 27 year old vet who spent years under a defense first coach

He's a better player than Bedard and it really isn't all that close.

There are two ends of the rink and Celebrini actually projects as an elite two-way C long term while Bedard is a tiny winger being played as a C.
 
I think they are very different players. Bedard is a little like Jack Hughes. When he has the strength to get to the inside of the ice in the NHL he’ll score a lot. Everyone was saying early in Hughes career that he wasn’t living up to expectations, and I’d argue Bedard’s early NHL experience has already been better.

I think he has higher scoring potential than Celebrini. You could compare it to Toews vs. Kane. It’s like chocolate vs. vanilla. I like both. They are just different. At different times one will be a better fit than the other.
 
his defensive numbers have been really bad which isnt shocking first year ensively. “Right now Celebrini ranks as one of the worst Sharks forwards in his on-ice chance and shot rates and that stems entirely from his work in his own zone. Relative to teammates, the Sharks are allowing 7.5 more shot attempts and 0.69 more expected goals against with Celebrini on the ice so far.” from athletic today
 
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his defensive numbers have been really bad which isnt shocking first year ensively. “Right now Celebrini ranks as one of the worst Sharks forwards in his on-ice chance and shot rates and that stems entirely from his work in his own zone. Relative to teammates, the Sharks are allowing 7.5 more shot attempts and 0.69 more expected goals against with Celebrini on the ice so far.” from athletic today
Purely a result of his teammates and being 18. Watch him play and you'll come away scoffing at anything that claims Celebrini is bad defensively.

Here's an article that actually uses stuff beyond on-ice stats, which are heavily influenced by the other guys on the ice, including the horrible Sharks' defense.

 
his defensive numbers have been really bad which isnt shocking first year ensively. “Right now Celebrini ranks as one of the worst Sharks forwards in his on-ice chance and shot rates and that stems entirely from his work in his own zone. Relative to teammates, the Sharks are allowing 7.5 more shot attempts and 0.69 more expected goals against with Celebrini on the ice so far.” from athletic today

How's his +/-
 
The numbers might not completely show it yet, but Celebrini has been playing a very mature 200ft game for an 18 year old playing top-6 competition. Unlike a lot of high-pick forwards who come into the league, from the eye-test he seems almost equally energetic about back-checking and defense plays as he does scoring. The positioning and instincts still need a fair bit of work, which is kind of to be expected given how difficult NHL defense is to learn for teenagers, but the framework for a Barkov/Bergeron/Kopitar type forward is absolutely there if he keeps developing this way (and IMO he has higher offensive upside than all of those players, although of course there's no guarantees he gets there in reality).
 
He's definitely an 18yo high event player. A lot of the on-ice negatives likely stem from turnovers by him and Smith and other linemates especially high in the OZ - leading to odd man rushes and sustained DZ time. But Celebrini himself is already top of lineup at winning battles, and is often involved in turnovers in the DZ to regain possession. And he's top 4 in the league at controlled zone entries and neutral zone possession. So the on-ice numbers are not telling the full story, even though he could definitely get better at D.
 
Part of what's affecting his defensive numbers is that he's still figuring out what he can get away with. He's still trying passes that would work in college and it's feeding some rushes against but the fundamentals are all there. He scans the ice well without the puck, gets under the play, and winning board battles. Not to mention the stick work.
 
Missed last night's game, but here are highlights from the rest of his season so far:

The length of the video (11-and-a-half minutes) speaks volumes about his all-around play. Really impressive for a rookie—let alone an 18-year-old center. Seems like he and Smith are starting to build some nice chemistry too.
 
Missed last night's game, but here are highlights from the rest of his season so far:

The length of the video (11-and-a-half minutes) speaks volumes about his all-around play. Really impressive for a rookie—let alone an 18-year-old center. Seems like he and Smith are starting to build some nice chemistry too.

Which is funny considering how little they have been on the ice together
 
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