Macklin Celebrini is a must-have on Canada’s Olympic roster

Macklin Celebrini continues to establish himself as a superstar in the NHL. In Tuesday night’s win for the San Jose Sharks, the 2024 No. 1 overall pick put up a four-point effort for the second time this season.

With seven points in his past two games, Celebrini has shot up the NHL leaders to the point where he is now four points clear of Leon Draisaitl for third in the league in points with 51. He trails only Nathan MacKinnon with 58 and Connor McDavid at 56.

Those two are the consensus best players in the world, and they’re set to be the faces of Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February. Celebrini entered the year with an outside shot at putting his name in the mix for roster consideration, but with the extent to which he’s broken out, it’s getting harder and harder to picture a Canadian team that doesn’t feature the young star.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed why Celebrini has done more than enough to deserve a spot on Canada’s roster.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I want to start with Macklin Celebrini who had a four-point performance last night. Another unbelievable evening from the sophomore in San Jose. His second four-plus point night of the season… The fill-in-the-blank, Macklin Celebrini has a “blank” percent chance of making team Canada. Hutts, I feel like after last night, it’s got to be 100, right?

Carter Hutton: I think as you look at this player and what he brings, how dynamic he is, how complete of a player he is… I think it’s at the point where it’s the 90-100 range. He’s got to be on this team. It’d be very hard for me to see anything change moving forward here. He is just so talented, Ty, so for me I think he is a shoe-in to be on Team Canada at this point.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…