Prospect Info: ROTM 11/24: Mack!!

[LadyStanley]

Congrats

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[CaptainShark]

Congrats, can’t believe how much fun, excitement and positive vibes the Mack has brought to us in this very short period of time.

 

[Alaskanice]

Congratulations Mack! You’ve earned this one. We fans are lucky to watch it.

 

[Barrie22]

But still not having as big of an impact as michkov lol.

 

[coooldude]

But still not having as big of an impact as michkov lol.

I'm convinced that a significant number of the Michkov Mafia are Russian trolls.

 

[fasterthanlight]

Congrats!

He's a really special talent. (Maybe someday he'll play a game or two at the level of hhofer Matvei Michkov)

 

[OverTheLine]

I'm convinced that a significant number of the Michkov Mafia are Russian trolls.

After engaging too much for my mental health with the Calder thread and the Michkov vs Bedard vs Celebrini poll, I honestly think the two most vociferous Michkov boosters/Brini haters are just being bored and argumentative. Sasso is being way more generous to Celebrini in other threads when he's not being directly compared to Michkov, which makes me think the arguments in the Calder thread are not really in good faith and honestly are just a waste of time lol.

Would rather our fanbase not get sucked into the trap of trying to call Michkov a powerplay merchant or whatever to pump Celebrini's tires. Celebrini is Jesus Christ reincarnated and rather than basking in the rapture we're distracted and sullying his holiness by getting into mudslinging fights with Buddha-stans (is this analogy working?).

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

Just from aJust from a 'I play some hockey as defenseman standpoint', Celebrini plays at such a faster speed than everyone else. Much faster than Michkov (who is kind of a cherry-picker, that's not true speed, Michkov seems to need space or he won't produce). But Celebrini just makes defensemen like me feel like we're helpless, stuck in mud, absolute pylons haha! He gets shots off so quick, in such tight spaces, with so much deception sometimes. There is absolutely nothing you can do to stop speed except moving your feet faster than them, which is so hard. Speed kills and playing at speed will always lead to production, just look at Hughes or Mcdavid. I feel like Michkov can be shut down while Celebrini cannot be.

 

[coooldude]

Just from aJust from a 'I play some hockey as defenseman standpoint', Celebrini plays at such a faster speed than everyone else. Much faster than Michkov (who is kind of a cherry-picker, that's not true speed, Michkov seems to need space or he won't produce). But Celebrini just makes defensemen like me feel like we're helpless, stuck in mud, absolute pylons haha! He gets shots off so quick, in such tight spaces, with so much deception sometimes. There is absolutely nothing you can do to stop speed except moving your feet faster than them, which is so hard. Speed kills and playing at speed will always lead to production, just look at Hughes or Mcdavid. I feel like Michkov can be shut down while Celebrini cannot be.

Michkov is going to score a lot of points in the NHL, but it's harder to build a team around him just like it was harder to build a team around Ovie. And I do not think Michkov is on Ovie's level because Ovie is one of the top 2 goal scorers of all time. I agree for now that a lot of his points are PP or cheating for offense - 3v3 is excellent for his skillset. In our game he scored a cherry pick breakaway and a very nice pass on the PP (and a shootout goal).

Celebrini isn't the fastest, but he's always in the right place such that the puck follows him around and he seems to have incredible short-distance burst and quickness, with feet and hands. Eklund and Zetterlund as wings probably hit top speed a lot more and are playing a hustle game, where Celebrini hits the gas in transition and it's the burst that causes the problems for the D.

 

[hohosaregood]

After engaging too much for my mental health with the Calder thread and the Michkov vs Bedard vs Celebrini poll, I honestly think the two most vociferous Michkov boosters/Brini haters are just being bored and argumentative. Sasso is being way more generous to Celebrini in other threads when he's not being directly compared to Michkov, which makes me think the arguments in the Calder thread are not really in good faith and honestly are just a waste of time lol.

Would rather our fanbase not get sucked into the trap of trying to call Michkov a powerplay merchant or whatever to pump Celebrini's tires. Celebrini is Jesus Christ reincarnated and rather than basking in the rapture we're distracted and sullying his holiness by getting into mudslinging fights with Buddha-stans (is this analogy working?).

i won't lie, i stirred the pot a little. just didn't expect the reaction to be so...vicious?

 

[SjMilhouse]

I'm convinced that a significant number of the Michkov Mafia are Russian trolls.

That thread is a battlefield holy cow.

It will be fun to follow both careers along with Bedard. My thought is you may be able to shut down Celebrini in terms of scoring but he will still bring a ton to the table with his 2 way play. You shut a guy like Michkov down, what else is he going to do to help your team?

 

[TheBigDrunkPanda]

Behind all that talent the most immeasurable talent Mack has is his drive to win, he hates losing and that’s not a metric that shows up in the stat line. He will win the Calder

 

[Jargon]

Behind all that talent the most immeasurable talent Mack has is his drive to win, he hates losing and that’s not a metric that shows up in the stat line. He will win the Calder

I love Mack but I guess my question is.. like… do other prospects like losing? Michkov certainly has insane drive or he wouldn’t be Michkov.

 

[timorous me]

In some ways the Celebrini hip injury was a bonus for us as fans because the delayed gratification of Celebrini's pronounced success (beyond that wild first night) has been even more satisfying after watching the team without him.

And while I'm someone who always tries to keep a level head about young players on any of my favorite teams (I'm looking at you, Bukayo Saka and now Ethan Nwaneri of Arsenal FC), Celebrini has just been blowing my mind--especially since he came back from injury and we've been able to fully appreciate him.

So I happened to be in grad school in Pittsburgh when the Pens got Crosby (and miraculously, despite being po', I found a cable coming through the wall and when I put it into the back of my TV, it was magic--free cable!), and I just fell in love with watching him play as an 18-year-old. I know all the complaints about Crosby, but watching him from that young age, getting the full Pittsburgh homer broadcast treatment, it was impossible not to be incredibly impressed by him.

Now, I don't want to be THAT GUY and say that Macklin is the next Crosby, but...you know, there really are a lot of similarities. I was trying to explain this to my wife last night in a way that wouldn't bore her to death within five seconds, and it's just this idea that Celebrini has IT. He's a full-on game-changer who's not just incredibly skilled, but most importantly to me, has the brain. We've seen enough now to see that he has this über rare combination of skill, smarts, physicality, and drive.

No, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves, and I'm not going to say that Celebrini is going to reach the heights of Crosby in terms of offensive production (which is, I think, a bit underrated due to the environment he came up in, the linemates he often played with, and the concussions) or Stanley Cups, but to me he's projecting in that direction. And even if he's just, like, 90% Sidney Crosby, holy cow do we have something on our hands. And watching Celebrini closely in every game since he came back from injury, I honestly have given in and am just fully on that wagon now.

If nothing else, he makes every game must-watch viewing for Sharks fans and ridiculously fun because every shift is an extremely exciting experience.