BUFFALO, NY — Mike Grier is doing precious little posturing in advance of the 2024 NHL Draft and it’s wonderfully refreshing. Even in years when the whole world knows how the first-overall pick will be spent, teams have a tendency to play it coy to the point of ridiculousness. Grier, however, isn’t hiding the fact his San Jose Sharks will select Boston University stud Macklin Celebrini on Friday, even dropping the kid’s name — albeit accidentally — when asked a draft-related question at the mid-June press conference to introduce new head coach Ryan Warsofsky.
Some decisions are straightforward enough that we should be able to do away with all shenanigans, and selecting a franchise-changing prospect with local ties is one of them.
As it happens, Grier had another pretty easy call to make a little before 8 a.m. on June 8, the main day of fitness testing at the NHL Draft Scouting Combine in Buffalo. The Sharks GM popped into the Tim Horton’s coffee shop that’s part of the complex where the combine takes place and ordered up — what else — a box of Timbits, presumably to share with Sharks staff. I mean, the fitness testing is a long day and if it’s not you doing the actual pull-ups and bench presses, why not enjoy a little treat?
San Jose still has plenty to contemplate ahead of this draft, as they’ll make plenty of selections after Celebrini at the Sphere in Vegas — including a crucial one at 14th overall. The Sharks’ first move, though, has been telegraphed a mile away. So, with a nod to Grier’s Timbits, here’s a collection of tidbits about the guy who will soon be pulling on teal.
Macklin Celebrini is not six feet tall.
The first thing that happens at the fitness testing is players’ wingspans and heights are measured. The first thing that happened to Celebrini while meeting with the media after his testing was being asked, by a winking reporter, how disappointed he was to come in a quarter-inch under six feet.
“Oh, so close,” Celebrini said with a laugh. “I thought I was going to be six-foot. It’s kind of disappointing.”
This past year at BU was a special one for Celebrini, all the more so because his older brother, Aiden, was also a freshman on the Terriers.
“I live every day with him, fight with him, joke with him; throughout this year, but also throughout my childhood,” Celebrini said of the guy he calls his best friend. “He’s always been there for me.”
One person who refers to Celebrini as his best friend is Cole Eiserman. The American sniper is expected to be a first-round pick himself and roomed with Celebrini while the pair were playing prep-school hockey at Minnesota-based Shattuck-St. Mary’s.
“I’ve probably never played with a guy who can get the puck to me and find me [like that],” Eiserman said at the combine. “[He’s] super dynamic, I can’t say enough good things about him. Good guy on the bench. He’s in my room [in Buffalo]every single day and we’re wrestling, watching movies together and enjoying each other’s company.”
Like the guy who went first overall in 2023, Connor Bedard, Celebrini is originally from Vancouver and played hockey at the North Shore Winter Club.
“I talked to him a little bit,” Celebrini said when asked about leaning on Bedard for his experience going through the draft process. “He’s a friend, we kind of grew up a little together. At the start of this year, he reached out and said if there was anything I needed help with, let him know.”
In the eyes of most observers, Celebrini doesn’t rise to the level of skaters like Bedard or Connor McDavid, who both got that “generational prospect” tag leading up to their selections. Even if his sheer talent isn’t kissed-by-God level, however, there’s a maturity and completeness to his game that wows people. Nobody called Aleksander Barkov or Jonathan Toews generational players, but they’re both centres who completely transformed their teams’ long-term outlook.
“The stuff away from the puck, the defensive part of my game, that just all helps with the success I have on the offensive side,” Celebrini said. “If you do the little things, work on the little details away from the puck, the more turnovers, the more opportunities you’ll get offensively.”
Celebrini may not actually be the best person to evaluate his own play. Asked what rating he would give himself in the video game NHL 24, Celebrini waffled.
“Probably — I don’t even know — 75, 74? Is that too high? Too low?”
(The laugher of reporters was an unmistakable indication the answer is “too low.”)
No really, this kid is hard on himself in a way that seems to go beyond the rote “I’m always looking to improve” phrase hockey players toss out.
“It’s probably cliché, but I feel like I have to work on everything,” Celebrini said the Friday afternoon before combine fitness testing. “I’m not very satisfied with where my game is at, I feel like there were a lot of holes in my game this year. I was even talking to some of my coaching staff from last year about some things they think I need to improve. There’s, for sure, stuff I need to work on [and]I’m going to be working on this summer.”
Then, with the sweat was barely dry after testing on Saturday morning, Celebrini was asked what he learned from putting himself through the paces.
“Got a lot of stuff to improve on, that’s what I kind of realized,” he said. “I did my best.”
In contrast to that self-critique, Celebrini might be higher on his basketball chops than some believe is warranted. Though both of Celebrini’s parents were college-level soccer players, basketball is also a big part of the family story. Macklin’s dad, Rick Celebrini, holds the position of vice-president, player health and performance, with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. It’s the job with the Warriors that took Rick, Robyn and their four kids to Northern California, where a 13-year-old Macklin played for the Jr. Sharks. Note, that’s Jr. Sharks, not Jr. Warriors.
“I think it’s pretty good,” Celebrini said of his basketball game. “But whenever I play and [Rick] watches, he says I’m a hockey player playing basketball.”
Like Celebrini, his future boss in San Jose was once a Boston University Terrier.
“He’s awesome,” Celebrini said of Grier. “We went out to dinner [in Buffalo]. He’s got a great personality and we had a lot of jokes.”
Sharks fans are surely dreaming about what the next 15 years could look like with Celebrini and 2023 fourth-overall pick Will Smith as the club’s top two pivots. Though they could be teammates as early as September, Smith and Celebrini were NCAA combatants this past season, with the former suiting up for Boston College.
“It wasn’t very fun playing against him,” Celebrini said. “He’s a special player. I’ve played against him for the last three or four years, so I’ve seen a lot of him. He’s a great player; super shifty, super smooth.”
While the smart money is certainly on Celebrini suiting up with the Sharks next fall, the prospect of him returning to college — especially given San Jose is likely to remain a bottom-feeder — gets raised here and there, and he seems genuinely open to at least having the discussion.
“I feel like it would just give me a little more time to develop,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with taking your time and improving a little more, getting stronger, bigger, faster. I feel like, in those ways, another year would [help]me get more physically ready and just make sure I’m very fit and strong when I try to make that jump.”
Whatever is next for Celebrini, one constant will remain.
“I wouldn’t be here without them,” he said of his family. “My parents, my siblings, every single one of them has contributed to the person and player I am today. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am, and I couldn’t be more grateful for them.”
