Why Celebrini’s new deal with the Sharks makes perfect sense
The San Jose Sharks sent major shockwaves through the hockey world on Wednesday, as they signed superstar center Macklin Celebrini to a five-year contract extension with a salary cap hit of $18.8 million just 28 days after the 2024 No. 1 overall pick became eligible to ink an extension.
When the contract kicks in at the start of the 2027-28 campaign, Celebrini will usurp Leo Carlsson as the highest-paid player in the NHL, and after a sophomore campaign that saw him challenge for the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP while posting 115 points, the Vancouver native looks to be worth every penny.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk discussed why general manager Mike Grier and Celebrini’s camp both did well to get this contract out of the way early.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Some breaking news here on a Wednesday is the San Jose Sharks and Macklin Celebrini have agreed to terms on a five-year extension. It is an $18.8 million AAV, the highest AAV ever given to a player in the history of the NHL. And listen, how can you say Macklin Celebrini doesn’t deserve it? Put up 115 points last year in his second season in the league. He was far and away the San Jose Sharks’ best player. If this guy continues on a straight development line, if this guy gets a little bit more support around him, then he’s going to be worth every penny of this $18.8 million dollar contract. Keep in mind he had 115 points last year. Second place on the San Jose Sharks, Will Smith had 59 points. They actually only had two other players, and one of them they traded away William Eklund, but two other players, Wennberg and Eklund, who ended up cracking the 50-point mark, and Macklin Celebrini found a way to put up 115 points last season. It was an unbelievable year. I totally understand why San Jose wanted to kind of get out ahead of this thing and sign it before the season begins because you know there’s still some other big names that need to be signed in the next little bit here. None of them are super comparable to Macklin Celebrini. Obviously the Conor Bedard five-year, $15 million dollar extension, that one kicks in this year. So I do think that’s an important distinction to make between the two, is that you know Celebrini, if he were to go and have another, let’s say he had 125-point season next year in San Jose, does his extension price go up? Do a couple of guys in the Kucherov, Hughes and Makar continue to push that sort of number with the extensions they’re going to sign, presumably in the next couple of months with their respective clubs? Like if San Jose didn’t get this done and Celebrini goes nuclear again, then yeah you could have been looking at more money on this contract.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…
